REPORTED SPEECH

Questions in Reported Speech

For pronouns, tenses and place / time expressions see statements in reported speech.

Besides, note that instead of ‚that‘ you use the interrogative. If there is no interrogative, use ‚whether‘ / ‚if‘.

	Direct Speech	Reported Speech
statement	He said: “She lives in London.“	He said that she lived in London
question with interrogative	He asked:“Where does she live?“	He asked where she lived.
question without interrogative	He asked: “Does she live in London?“	He asked whether she lived in London. He asked if she lived in London.

It is also important that you use an indirect question in reported speech, i.e. after the interrogative or ‚whether‘ / ‚if‘ you continue the sentence as if it were a statement (subject-verb etc.). The auxiliary verb ‚do‘ is not used in indirect questions.

Example:

He asked: “Where does she live?“ – He asked where she lived.

Exercises on reported speech