Presente Simple

If we report what another person has said, we usually do not use the speaker’s exact words (direct speech), but reported (indirect) speech. Therefore, you need to learn how to transform directspeech into reported speech. The structure is a little different depending on whether you want to transform a statement, question or request.

|PRESENT SIMPLE|PAST SIMPLE |
|He's American she said. |She said he was American.|
|"He's American" she said. |She said he was American. ||I'm happy to see you, Mary said. |Mary said that she was happy to see me. |
|"I'm happy to see you", Mary said.|Mary said that she was happy to see me. |
|He asked, Are you busy tonight? |He asked me ifI was busy tonight. |
|He asked, "Are you busy tonight?" |He asked me if I was busy tonight.|
|PRESENT CONTINUOUS |PAST CONTINUOUS |
|Dan is living in SanFrancisco, she said. |She said Dan was living in San Francisco. |
|"Dan is living in San Francisco," she said.|She said Dan was living in San Francisco. |
|He said, I'm making dinner. |He told me that he was making dinner....