Reported Questions

When we report a question, we move one tense back.  The word order in reported questions is like a sentence, with the subject before the verb. It isn’t necessary to use do or did or invert to be and the subject. We use ask to report questions.

When reporting yes/no questions, we add if before the reported information.

Reported Speech: Will, can, past simple, present perfect

When we report will, can, the past simple and

 the present perfect, we follow the rule of

one tense back.

Introduction...

Reporting what someone has said 

can be a difficult task in a foreign language.

Utterances can be made the

 subject of the other utterances. 

They can be criticized, questioned, 

commented on, or simply be reported. 

Language can be uses to refer to language. 

We can talk about talk. This is true 

for all natural languages and is, indeed, 

a fundamental feature whose absence 

disqualifies any sign system as a human 

language. However, there are different 

ways of reporting the speech of another.

Direct speech is the exact words that people say. Reported speech (or indirect speech) is how we report the words. 

We make changes when we report what people say, such as to the tense and pronouns. When we report speech, we usually move the verb form one tense back, so present verbs in direct speech become past verbs in reported speech.