Question

important things to be remembered when doing a reported speech

Answer 1

The 4 changes are necessary in reported speech.
They are as below:

Verbs and time tenses :
#simple present ⇒ simple past
He said, “It is so cold!” ⇒ He said (that) it was so cold!
#simple past ⇒ past perfect
He said, “I ate some pizza.” ⇒ He said (that) he had eaten some pizza.
#simple future [be going to] ⇒ was/were going to
He said, “I am going to go later.” ⇒ He said (that) he was going to go later.
#present continuous ⇒ past continuous
He said, “I am talking to Mike.” ⇒ He said (that) he was talking to Mike.
#past continuous ⇒ past perfect continuous
He said, “I was running a lot.” ⇒ He said (that) he had been running a lot.
#present perfect⇒ past perfect
He said, “I’ve never seen the movie.” ⇒ He said (that) he had never seen the movie.


Modals :
#can ⇒ could
She said, “I can do it.” ⇒ She said (that) she could do it.
#may ⇒ might
She said, “It may rain later” ⇒ She said (that) it might rain later.
#must ⇒ had to
She said, “John must do his homework.” ⇒ She said (that) John had to do his homework.
#will ⇒ would
She said, “I will find the note.” ⇒ She said (that) she would find the note.

Pronouns :
Pronouns can be confusing to change because it depends on who said what, and who is telling the information to whom…
You can review some of the changes in the examples above. For example, She said, “I….” The first person pronoun changes to ‘she’ when someone else is telling another person what the original speaker said. This is also shown in the time tense changes with ‘he’. In those examples, if the two speakers had used “me”, they would have changes to “her” and “him” (EX: “Give them to me” ⇒ She/He said to give them to her/him.)
Other words that may need to change “we⇒ they” and “us ⇒ them” (We said, “Tell us” ⇒ They said to tell them)
*note the change for imperatives to the infinitive*

Time word :
#now ⇒ then
She said, “I can call John now” ⇒ She said (that) she could call John then.
#today ⇒ that day
She said, “I am going today.” ⇒ She said (that) she was going that day.
tomorrow ⇒ the next day
She said, “Oliver will be home tomorrow” ⇒ She said (that) Oliver would be home the next day.
#yesterday ⇒ the day before
She said, “We went yesterday.” ⇒ She said (that) we/they had gone the day before.
this (week/month) ⇒ that (week/month)
#She said, “I may watch it this week/month” ⇒ She said (that) she might watch it that week/month.
#last (week/month) ⇒ the (week/month) before
She said, “I saw Isabella last week/month.” ⇒ She said (that) she had seen Isabella the week/month before
#next (week/month) ⇒ the following (week/month)
She said, “I will go on vacation next week/month.” ⇒ She said (that) she would go on vacation the following week/month.