What is Reported Speech?

Reported speech is used to report another person's words. We use it to show that the words we say are not ours --- they are someone else's. Look at the example below. In 1, Mr Grey tells Miss Scarlett. In 2, Miss Scarlett tells Mr Green what Mr Grey said. In number 2, Miss Scarlett would use reported speech.

1.	2.
Mr Grey tells Miss Scarlett	Mr Grey said...

Why do we need Reported Speech?

The First Problem: Punctuation is invisible when you speak! When you write in English, you show a person's words with quote marks. So with a dialogue you can know who is saying what. Look at the example.

"Where have you been?" he asked.
"I went to London," she replied.
"I see. What did you do there?"
"I visited the Queen."

The quote marks (or speech marks ".....") mark the start and finish of the words of each person. So the writer is reporting the words of the people, but quote marks say, "these words are not my words." There is no confusion about who did or said what.

But in conversation you cannot see quote marks. We cannot use punctuation. We have to show in a different way that that the words we are saying are not ours.

The Second Problem: Many words are relative to the speaker. If the speaker changes, the thing or person that the word points to changes. Think about this: who is "I"?

I, Grey

I, Scarlett

Because some words change depending on the speaker, when you report speech you need to be careful about who. When the speaker changes, these words must also be changed to keep things clear.

1.	2.
Mr Grey talks about himself to Miss Scarlett	Miss Scarlett tells Mr Green about Mr Grey

Other words that you must be careful of are below. These words change with the speaker.

A New Situation

Always think about how the situation has changed when you report speech. The words you report may have been spoken in another place, at another time, by another person.