Reported statements

When we report what someone has said, we change the pronouns.

• Sarah said, 'Peter I love you'. - She said (that) she loved him.
• Anna said, 'You promised us you'd come'. - She said (that) we had promised them we'd come.

We can leave out that before the reported statement. When we report a statement that was made in the past, we have to change the tense in the reported statement:

• Present Simple - Past Simple
• He lives in New York. - He said he lived in New York.
• Present Continuous - Past Continuous
• Mother is sleeping. - She said mother was sleeping.
• Present Perfect - Past Perfect
• He has returned from London. - She said he had returned from London.
• Present Perfect - Past Perfect Continuous
• I have been working abroad. - She said she had been working abroad.
• Past Simple - Past Perfect
• He bought a car. - She said he had bought a car.
• Past Continuous - Past Perfect Continuous
• They were playing. - She said they had been playing.
• will - would
• They will go with you. - She said they would go with you.
• to be going to - was/were going to
• She is going to read this book. - She said she was going to read this book.
• First Conditional - Second Conditional
• I will help her if she wants me to. - He said he**'d help** her if she wanted him to.

The Past Perfect, the Second and Third Conditional do not change in reported speech. We also change some time and place expressions if the context has changed:

• now - then
• at the moment - at that moment
• today - on that day
• yesterday - the day before
• last week - the week before
• tomorrow - the next day
• next week - the following week
• here - there
• this - that
• these - those
• two days ago - two days before