indirect speech description
1. Is the reporting verb in the past form (said, told,...) you have to change the tense.
(Steht das reporting verb in der Mitvergangenheit (said, told,...) дndert sich die Zeitform.)
Direct speech | Indirect speech | Direct Speech | Indirect speech |
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Present simple | Past simple | go | went |
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Present progressive | Past progressive | am/is/are going | was/were going |
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Past simple | Past perfect | went | had gone |
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Past progressive | Past perfect progressive | was/were going | had been going |
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Present perfect simple | Past perfect | has/have gone | had gone |
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Present perfect progressive | Past perfect progressive | has/have been going | had been going |
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Future | Conditional I | will go | would go |
Example: Peter said: "Carol is a nice girl." | |||
Peter said (that) Carol was a nice girl. |
2. When you form the reported speech you have to pay attention that the pronouns refer to the correct person.
(Bei der Bildung der reported speech ist darauf zu achten, dass sich die Fьrwцrter auf die richtige Person beziehen.)
Examples: | Susan said: "My parents are clever scientists." |
Susan said (that) her parents were clever scientists. | |
Tom said: "I like PE best." | |
Tom said (that) he liked PE best. | |
They said: "We went swimming with our friends." | |
They said (that) they had gone swimming with their friend. | |
Betty said: "Sam told me the truth." | |
Betty said (that) Sam had told her the truth. |
Direct speech | Indirect speech | |
She said | I - my - me | she - her - her |
He said | I - my - me | he - his - him |
They said | they - their - them | we - our - us |
You and your: |
They told her / him / me / them / us: "George loves you." |
They told her / him / me / them / us (that) George loved her / him / me / them / us. |
They told her / him / me / them / us: "George loves your sister." |
They told her / him / me / them / us (that) George loved her / his / my / their / our sister. |
They told her / him / me / them / us: "You are clever." |
They told her / him / me / them / us (that) she / he / I / they / we was / were clever. |
3. Expressions of time and place must also be changed.
(Zeit- und Ortsangaben дndern sich ebenfalls.)
Direct speech | Indirect speech | |
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Time | now | then |
today | that day | |
yesterday | the day before | |
tomorrow | the next / following day | |
last week, month,... | the previous week, month,... | |
next week, month,... | the following week, month,... | |
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Place | here | there |
this | that | |
these | those | |
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Examle: She said: "I have already seen Carol today."
She said (that) she had already seen Carol that day.