Reported Speech

Direct speech or discourse is used to report exactly of what someone said in another context. It is usually marked by quotes: John shouted: Open the door
Indirect discurse consists of reporting such statements indirectly, without using quotes, in English it is necessary the backshift of tenses, pronouns, adverbs, etc.
Backshift of tenses from .......................to
Simple Present to Simple Past
Simple Past,Present and Past Perfect to Past Perfect
will (Future Simple) to would (Conditional)
Present Continuous to Past Continuous
Present Perfect Continuous to Past Perfect Continuous
Shifting of expressions of time
this (evening) that (evening)
today/this day = that day
these (days) = those (days)
now = then
(a week) ago = (a week) before
last weekend = the weekend before / the previous weekend
here = there
next (week) = the following (week)
tomorrow = the next/following day
For example: Paul: "I didn’t visited you yesterday” → Paul said (that) he hadn’t visited me the day before/ the previous day.
Jane: "I will help you now, Eve” → Jane told Eve(that) she would help her then.
Statements: Differences between SAY and TELL
o Peter: “Sarah hates Anne” → Peter said (that) Sarah hated Anne/He said to me...
o Peter: "Phillip loves Kate” → Peter told me(that)Phillip loved Kate.
Commands,orders and request: Affirmative/ Negative forms ("that" is not used here)
o Teacher: “Open the book, children”→ The teacher ordered the children to open the window.
o Elisabeth “Please, go on” → Elisabeth asked me to go on.
o Molly: “Don’t give me the garbage!” → Molly ordered not to give her the garbage.
o Norah: “Don’t look at me!”→ Norah said not to look at her.
Also, the grammar rules forbid the use of that in questions, such as WH-questions:
o Pat: “Why are you smiling?”→ Pat asked (me) why I was smiling.
o Nancy: “Where does George live?” → Nancy wanted to know where George lived.
YES/NO-questions:
o Charles: “Do you like soccer?”→ Charles wanted to know IF/WHETHER I liked soccer.
o Pamela: “Is he a good father?" → Pamela wondered IF/WHETHER he was a
good father.
Free indirect speech refers to an author, usually in a third-person perspective, writing what characters think, feel, plan, reflect, dream, etc. It was used frequently in the twentieth century novels especially by the Irish writer James Joyce (Ulysses, Dubliners...) and Virginia Woolf (Mrs Dalloway,etc):
Ah yes, she did of course; what a nuisance; and felt very sisterly and oddly
conscious at the same time of her hat. Not the right hat for the early morning, was that it? For Hugh always made her feel, as he bustled on,raising his hat rather extravagantly and assuring her that she might be a girl of eighteen...