reportedspeech

Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of conveying another person's words without quoting them verbatim. It contrasts with direct speech, where the exact words are placed in quotation marks.

In reported speech, the speaker's utterance is integrated into the surrounding sentence and typically introduced by a reporting verb such as say, tell, ask, or explain. The conjunction that is often used (as in 'he said that he was tired') is usually optional after many verbs.

Tense backshifting occurs when the reporting verb is in the past: present changes to past, "I am tired" becomes "he was tired"; "will" changes to "would"; "can" to "could"; "may" to "might". There are exceptions when the information remains true or when the report refers to a past but still current fact, in which case backshifting may be avoided.

Pronouns and time expressions typically shift: I → he/she, my → his/her, today → that day, tomorrow → the next day, here → there.

In usage, reported speech is common in journalism, academic writing, and storytelling, as well as everyday conversation. It can report questions (replacing with whether or if, or with an indirect question word) or commands (as 'to sit down' or 'to leave'). Punctuation is different from direct speech: quotes are normally not used in the indirect form, and a 'that' clause is often included but not required after verbs like say or tell.