Reported Speech é quando dizemos que outra pessoa disse. Para fazer isso, usamos o direct speech, ou seja, o discurso direto ou indireto. O discurso direto é quando uma pessoa apenas fala na frase, porém o discurso indireto é quando há duas pessoas envolvidas. No discurso direto usamos o verbo SAY e no indireto o verbo TELL. Leia os exemplos abaixo.

Com uma pessoa – SAY – SAID

Direct Speech: Joe: “I am from Canada.”

Reported Speech: Joe said he was from Canada.

Agora com duas pessoas – TELL – TOLD

Direct Speech: Joe to Peter: “I am from Canada.”

Reported Speech: Joe told Peter he was from Canada.

Quando mudamos do discurso direto para o indireto, algumas mudanças se fazem necessárias.

• Present simple changes to past simple: “I travel a lot in my job,” said Karen. – Karen said she traveled a lot.
• Present continuous changes to past continuous: “The baby is sleeping!” he told me. – He told me that the baby was sleeping.
• Present perfect changes to past perfect: “I’ve hurt my leg,” she said. – She said she had hurt her leg.
• Simple Future to Conditional: “I will travel to Japan”, said Michael. – Michael said he would travel to Japan.
• To be in the present – to be in the past: “My mother is from Brazil”, said Jane. – Jane said her mother is from Brazil.

Pronouns also usually change in indirect speech. For example:

• “I enjoy working in my garden,” said Bob. – Bob said he enjoyed working in his garden.
• “We played tennis for our school,” said Anne. – Anne said they had played tennis in their school.

Outra mudanças:

yesterday para the day before

Mike went to Australia yesterday, John said. – John said Mike had gone to Australia the day before.

tomorrow para the next day

My father will travel tomorrow, Karen said. – Karen said her father would travel the next day.

This para that

This is my brother, said Jason. – Jason said that is his brother.

here para there

John said: “I live here” – John said he lived there.

Michael: “I live in Tokyo”

Michael said he lived in Tokyo.