I. CHANGES OF TENSES IN REPORTED SPEECH
The changes of tenses is happened mainly on the basis of reporting verb ( the verb in the reporting statement).
If the reporting verb is in simple past, the tense form of direct speech will be changed, while being transformed into indirect speech or reported speech.
Eg: Mathew said,” I have seen so many plays.” (direct speech)
Mathew said that he had seen so many plays. ( Indirect speech or reported speech)
Here, the reporting verb ‘said’ is in ‘simple past’ form. So, the ‘present perfect’ ( have + seen) form of the reported verb is changed into ‘past perfect’ form (had + seen) in the reported speech or indirect speech.
So, if the ‘reporting verb’ is in ‘ simple past’ form the ‘tense forms’ of the direct speech will be changed as shown below, that is if the
‘Direct Speech’ is in ‘ Reported speech’ will be in
Simple present tense ——> Simple past tense
S+ do/does + V+ O S+ did + V+ O
Eg: He works hard He worked hard
Simple past tense Past perfect tense
S + did + V + O S + had + V3 + O
Eg: He worked hard He had worked hard
Past perfect tense past perfect tense
He had worked hard He had worked hard
Present continuous tense Past continuous tense
S + is/am/are + V+ing + O S+ was/were + V+ing +O
Eg: Martin is playing Baseball Martin was playing Baseball
Past continuous tense Past perfect continuous tense
S + was/were + V+ing + O S + had + been + V+ing + O
Eg: Martin was playing Baseball Martin had been playing Baseball
Past perfect continuous tense Past perfect continuous tense
Eg: Martin had been playing Baseball Martin had been playing Baseball
Present perfect tense Past perfect tense
S + has/have + V3 + O S + had + V3 + O
Eg: They have given me a chance They had given me a chance
Present perfect continuous tense Past perfect continuous tense
S + has/have + been + V+ing + O S + had + been + V+ing + O
Eg: Mary has been writing the letter Mary had been writing the letter
II. The changes of modal auxiliaries are shown as below, if the reporting verb is in simple past.
Direct Speech Reported/indirect speech
Will would
Shall should
Can could
May might
Must had to
Eg: Thomas said, ” The function will be grand”
Thomas said that the function would be grand
Here the modal auxiliary ‘will’ becomes ‘would’ in reported speech, as the reporting verb ‘said’ is in ‘simple past’ form
III Changes in Be-forms are shown below:
Direct speech ————-> Indirect or Reported speech
is,am,are was, were
was, were had been
had been had been
has been / have been had been
eg: Jacob pointed to Martin and said, ” He is my best friend”
Jacob pointed to Martin and said that he was his best friend.
Mathew said, ” I have been ill for a week”
Mathew said that he had been ill for a week
Tom said, ” Being a teacher was one of my childhood dreams”
Tom said that being a teacher had been one of his childhood dreams
Yet, there are some exceptional rules in reported speech related to tenses and modal auxiliaries.continue reading