Reported Speech Exercises: 30 Sentences With Answers

Reported speech (indirect speech) has one core rule: when you report what someone said, the tense moves one step back into the past — present becomes past simple, will becomes would, present perfect becomes past perfect — and the words that anchor the moment (tomorrow, yesterday, here, this) shift to match the new viewpoint (the next day, the day before, there, that). Questions lose their question word order, commands become to-infinitives, and say becomes tell when you mention the listener.

The 30 sentences below move from warm-up backshifts to the tricky cases — reported questions, requests, and the modals that refuse to change. Every click is checked instantly with a one-line explanation of the rule, so a wrong answer turns into a rule you keep.

When the reporting verb is past (said, told, asked), the tense moves one step back: present → past simple, will → would, present perfect → past perfect. Time and place words shift too (tomorrow → the next day, here → there), and questions change to statement word order.

Reported Speech Quiz: 30 Questions

Warm-up · the basic tense backshift

Q1.She said, “I am tired.” → She said she ___ tired.

Q2.He said, “I work in a bank.” → He said he ___ in a bank.

Q3.“We are watching a film,” they said. → They said they ___ a film.

Q4.“I have finished my homework,” Tom said. → Tom said he ___ his homework.

Q5.“I will call you later,” she said. → She said she ___ call me later.

Q6.“I saw her yesterday,” he said. → He said he ___ her the day before.

Q7.“I can swim,” she said. → She said she ___ swim.

Q8.“We lived in Rome before moving to Naples,” he said. → He said they ___ in Rome before moving to Naples.

Q9.“I must leave now,” he said. → He said he ___ leave then.

Q10.“Close the door,” the teacher said to us. → The teacher told us ___ the door.

Core · questions, requests and say vs tell

Q1.“I’ll see you here tomorrow,” she said. → She said she would see me ___ the next day.

Q2.“Where do you live?” he asked me. → He asked me where I ___.

Q3.“Are you coming to the party?” she asked. → She asked ___ coming to the party.

Q4.“Don’t touch the wire,” the electrician warned me. → The electrician warned me ___ the wire.

Q5.She ___ me that she was ill.

Q6.“Please help me with my luggage,” the old man said. → The old man ___ me to help him with his luggage.

Q7.“I may be late,” he said. → He said he ___ be late.

Q8.“We went to the market this morning,” she said. → She said they had gone to the market ___ morning.

Q9.“I have been waiting for an hour,” he complained. → He complained that he ___ for an hour.

Q10.“What are you doing?” she asked her brother. → She asked her brother what ___.

Challenge · the cases that trick everyone

Q1.“If I were you, I’d take the job,” she said. → She said that if she ___ me, she would take the job.

Q2.“You should see a doctor,” he said. → He said I ___ see a doctor.

Q3.“I used to smoke,” he admitted. → He admitted that he ___ to smoke.

Q4.“I’ll be leaving at six tomorrow,” he said. → He said he ___ at six the following day.

Q5.“Could you open the window?” she asked me. → She asked me ___ the window.

Q6.“I like your shoes,” she said to me. → She said ___ liked ___ shoes.

Q7.“Have you seen this film?” he asked. → He asked whether ___ seen that film.

Q8.“Let’s go for a walk,” she said. → She ___ going for a walk.

Q9.“Don’t be late again,” the manager said to him. → The manager ___ not to be late again.

Q10.“The Earth goes around the Sun,” the teacher said. → The teacher said that the Earth ___ around the Sun.

The Backshift Rules in One Table

Reported speech runs on a single engine: if the reporting verb is in the past (said, told, asked, warned), every tense and most modals in the original sentence move one step further into the past. Learn the pairs below and the 30 questions above become pattern matching instead of guesswork.

present simple → past simple: “I work” → she said she worked.

present continuous → past continuous: “I am leaving” → he said he was leaving.

present perfect → past perfect: “I have finished” → she said she had finished.

past simple → past perfect: “I saw it” → he said he had seen it.

will → would, can → could, may → might: “I will help” → she said she would help.

must (obligation) → had to; but should, would, could, might, and used to never change.

If the reporting verb is in the present (she says…, he has just told me…), nothing backshifts: She says she is tired. The backshift is triggered by the past reporting verb, not by the past meaning.

Time and Place Words That Shift With the Viewpoint

The tense is only half the job. Words that point at the original moment of speaking must move too, because the reporter is standing at a new point in time and (often) in a new place. This is the half learners forget most, and it is exactly what examiners test.

now → then / at that moment.

today → that day; tonight → that night.

tomorrow → the next day / the following day.

yesterday → the day before / the previous day.

next week → the following week; last week → the week before.

here → there; this → that; these → those; come → go (when the reporter is elsewhere).

Say vs. Tell — and Choosing the Right Reporting Verb

The most frequent reported-speech error in learner writing is say with a personal object. The split is mechanical: tell takes the listener directly (tell me, tell him, tell us), while say needs to before a person (say to me) or takes no person at all. Once that is fixed, upgrade your verbs: warn, ask, admit, suggest, and explain each report a different speech act, and each brings its own pattern.

tell + object + (that) / to-infinitive: He told me (that) he was ill. She told us to wait.

say + (that): He said (that) he was ill — never said me.

ask + object + to-infinitive (requests): She asked me to open the window.

warn / advise / remind + object + to-infinitive: He reminded me not to be late.

suggest + gerund: She suggested going for a walk — never suggested me to go.

Reporting Questions and Commands: Kill the Question Order

Reported questions are the biggest structural trap, because the grammar of the sentence must change shape, not just the tense. Direct questions use question word order with do/does/did; reported questions use statement order and drop the auxiliary entirely. Commands skip the clause stage altogether and compress into to-infinitives.

“Where do you live?” → He asked me where I lived. (no do, no inversion)

“Are you ready?” → She asked if I was ready. (yes/no → if/whether)

“Stand up,” the coach said → The coach told us to stand up.

“Don’t panic,” she said → She told us not to panic.

Test every reported question with this question: could I put a full stop where the question mark was? If the order still sounds like a question (asked me where did I live), it is wrong.

Why Everyone Gets Reported Speech Wrong

Reported speech is a two-step translation done in real time: first decode the original sentence, then rebuild it from a shifted viewpoint. Under time pressure your brain takes shortcuts — it keeps the original tense (he said he is coming), keeps the original pronouns (she said I like your shoes), or keeps question order (he asked where do I live). Each shortcut copies the surface words instead of the underlying viewpoint, which is why the errors feel natural even to advanced learners.

Your first language adds its own twist. If your language reports speech with the same tense as the original — as Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, and Russian largely do — the English backshift feels arbitrary, and you drop it exactly when you stop monitoring. If your language handles questions with a particle or intonation alone (Chinese, Japanese), statement word order after whether/what has to be built from scratch. The fix in both cases is drilled decisions with instant feedback, which is what the exercises above force.

When you write he said…, run a three-point check: tense back one step, pronouns from the reporter’s side, time and place words updated. Most reported-speech errors hide in one of those three spots.

How to Practice Reported Speech So It Sticks

Reported speech is a transformation skill, and transformations only become automatic through fast, repeated decisions with feedback. That is why every answer above is checked on the spot — the correction lands while the original sentence is still in your head. One 30-question set a day for a week beats 100 questions in one sitting.

Then transfer the drill to real output: take one email you received this week, report two of its sentences to a colleague, and paste your versions into PromGee’s free grammar checker. It flags backshift, pronoun, and time-word slips in your own writing and explains the rule it applied.

Keep practicing

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the rule for reported speech in English?

When do you not change the tense in reported speech?

Keep the original tense when the statement is still true (she said the Earth goes around the Sun), when the reporting verb is present (she says she is tired), and with modals that have no past form: should, would, could, might, and used to.

What is the difference between 'say' and 'tell'?

Tell takes the listener directly with no preposition: he told me (that) he was ill. Say takes no personal object, or needs to: he said (that) he was ill, or he said to me that… Never write said me or told that without a person after told.

Fix Reported Speech Mistakes in Your Own Writing

Backshift errors hide in real emails, not in textbooks. Paste any text into PromGee’s free grammar checker and see every reported-speech slip explained in plain language — in your language.

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