Reported Speech Exercises in English

Use the main grammar guide when you need the complete explanation of reported speech. Use this page when you already know the basics and want a practice ladder: controlled drills, weak/improved examples, role-play sentences, writing tasks, and exam-style adaptations.

1. Reporting workplace conversations — Your manager says, “I need the report by Friday.” Later you tell a colleague: “She said she needed the report by Friday.” Practise with real lines from your own week and watch the pronoun flip (I → she) travel together with the backshift (need → needed). If the deadline is still true, the backshift is optional — “She said she needs it by Friday” is also correct.

2. Summarizing customer comments — Support and sales notes run on reported speech: “The customer explained that the login page had stopped working after the update.” Use explained, mentioned, and complained instead of said when the tone matters. Write three one-sentence summaries of real or invented customer calls.

3. Retelling class instructions — Instructions become tell + person + to-infinitive: “Open your books” becomes “The teacher told us to open our books.” Negative instructions take not to: “Don’t be late” becomes “She told us not to be late.” This pattern needs no backshift at all, which makes it a good confidence drill for A2-B1 learners.

4. Writing meeting notes — Minutes compress speech: “Daniel said that the budget was already approved and promised to send the figures by Tuesday.” Practise chaining two reported clauses under one subject. Keep said for neutral facts and switch to promised, agreed, or suggested when the verb itself is the news.

5. Changing direct questions — Take five questions people asked you this week and report them: “Where is the invoice?” becomes “He asked where the invoice was.” “Did you call the client?” becomes “She asked if I had called the client.” Say them aloud — the urge to keep did or invert the verb is much stronger in speech than in writing.

6. Using reporting verbs accurately — Replace said in five sentences with a more precise verb and adjust the grammar it demands: promised to send, reminded me to book, warned us not to share, admitted that he had missed the deadline, suggested starting early. Each verb has its own pattern, so learn verb plus pattern together, never the verb alone.

These frames cover the reporting patterns you will use most. Practise each with a real sentence from your day, then swap the reporting verb and notice what else has to change.

Statements: She said (that) she was…; He told me (that) he had…; They mentioned (that) the office would… Questions: She asked where…; He asked if/whether…; The client wanted to know when… Commands and requests: She told me to…; He asked us not to…; The teacher reminded everyone to…

Meeting and message frames worth stealing whole: “Anna said the deadline had moved to Thursday.” “The client asked whether the price included support.” “My manager reminded me to copy finance on the invoice.” Keep two or three of these in your notes and refill them with new details after every meeting.

All four pairs below fail on one of the three moving parts — backshift, say/tell, or question order. Try to name the broken part before you read the explanation; that diagnosis skill is exactly what the exercises are training.

Example 1 — Weak: She said, 'I am tired.' → She said she is tired. Improved: She said she was tired, if the reporting time is later and backshift is needed. Why it works: the reporting verb said is past, so am steps back to was. Keep is only when the situation is clearly still true and you want to stress that — otherwise backshift is the safe default.

Example 2 — Weak: He told that he would call. Improved: He told me that he would call. Why it works: tell must name the listener — told me, told us, told the team. If you do not want to name anyone, change the verb instead: he said that he would call.

Example 3 — Weak: They asked me where did I live. Improved: They asked me where I lived. Why it works: reported questions use statement order, so the auxiliary did disappears and live backshifts to lived. The question now lives entirely inside the verb asked, not in the word order.

Example 4 — Weak: The manager said me to wait. Improved: The manager told me to wait. Why it works: instructions take tell + person + to-infinitive. Say never takes a person as its direct object, which is why said me is impossible in English.

By level — A2: report present-tense statements with says and said without chasing every shift: “She said she works here.” B1: make the core backshifts automatic (will → would, can → could) and lock in told me versus said. B2: control reported questions, the past perfect backshift, and time-word changes (yesterday → the day before). C1: choose reporting verbs for stance — claimed, admitted, insisted, implied — and know when breaking the backshift is a deliberate choice rather than an error.

By role — If you write meeting notes or summaries at work, drill said, told, agreed, and promised with real deadlines. If you study, drill “the lecturer explained that” and “the article argues that” for academic summaries. If you handle customers, drill complained, requested, and confirmed, because those verbs carry the ticket.

For exams — IELTS and CELPIP speaking tasks often ask you to retell a conversation or complaint: one clean backshifted sentence scores better than three broken ones. TOEFL integrated tasks are essentially reported speech — “The professor explained that the theory had two weaknesses.” Practise reporting a two-minute audio clip in four sentences.

Across English varieties — backshift works the same in British, American, and Canadian English. The real variation is register: casual speech often keeps the present tense for things still true (“She said she’s coming tonight”), while formal writing prefers the full backshift.

1. Backshift ladder: write five direct sentences about your day (“I am waiting for the bus”), then report each one an hour later: “I said I was waiting for the bus.” 2. Say/tell sort: take ten reported sentences and rewrite each twice, once with said and once with told, adding or removing the listener as each verb requires.

3. Question flip: collect five real questions from messages or meetings and report them in statement order: “She asked whether the invoice had gone out.” 4. Verb upgrade: rewrite one paragraph of meeting notes replacing every said with a more precise verb — promised, warned, suggested, admitted — and adjust the grammar each verb demands.

5. Live retell: after your next call or class, spend two minutes telling an imaginary colleague what was said, aloud, from memory. 6. Error log: record the retell, mark every missing backshift and every said me, and redo only the broken sentences the next day.

1. Keeping question order: “She asked where do I live” — delete the auxiliary and use statement order: where I lived. 2. Said me: say never takes a personal object, so the fix is either she told me or plain she said. 3. Backshifting everything or nothing: past reporting verbs pull tenses back one step, but universal truths and still-true facts may stay — “He said the office opens at nine” is fine if it still does.

4. Forgetting the small words: tomorrow → the next day, yesterday → the day before, here → there, this → that. A perfectly backshifted sentence still fails if “tomorrow” now points at the wrong day. 5. Reporting commands with said: “She said me to wait” — instructions need told or asked plus a person plus a to-infinitive.

6. Practising only recognition. Choosing the right option in a gap-fill does not build the reflex; retelling real conversations aloud does. End every session with one minute of live reporting, even if it is just what a colleague said at lunch.

Week one builds the mechanics. Day 1: backshift drill — ten present-tense sentences moved into past reporting. Day 2: modals — will, can, and must become would, could, and had to, ten more sentences. Day 3: say versus tell sort with your own sentences. Day 4: reported yes/no questions with if and whether. Day 5: reported wh-questions in statement order. Day 6: pronoun and time-word shifts only — keep the tense, change tomorrow, here, and my. Day 7: mixed review — report one real conversation in six sentences.

Week two moves into real use. Day 8: rewrite yesterday’s meeting or class notes using said, explained, and agreed. Day 9: report five customer or classmate questions from memory. Day 10: instructions day — told, asked, reminded, and warned with to-infinitives, eight sentences. Day 11: upgrade day — replace said with promise, admit, deny, and suggest, adjusting each pattern. Day 12: speak a two-minute retell of a podcast or call and record it. Day 13: correct only the reported-speech errors in the recording. Day 14: final test — retell the same conversation from Day 7 without notes and compare the two versions.

The goal of reported speech exercises is not to finish a worksheet. The goal is to make the pattern available when you need English for a message, story, report, interview, or exam answer. Practise slowly, explain your choices, and reuse the grammar in your own life.

Baseline drill: report the last thing anyone said to you today, aloud, then check the three parts — tense, pronouns, word order. Whichever part broke becomes tomorrow’s drill.

Contrast drill: write one direct quote and report it twice, once with backshift (“She said she was leaving”) and once without (“She said she is leaving”), then say aloud which situation each version fits. If you cannot explain the difference, reread the backshift rules before drilling further.

Chain drill: report a three-line dialogue as one flowing summary: “He asked if the report was ready, and I told him I needed one more day, so he suggested moving the review.” Chaining forces you to manage several backshifts and reporting verbs in a single breath.

Trap drill: say these fast without breaking word order — “She asked where I worked. He asked if we were ready. They asked why the meeting had moved.” Speed is where did sneaks back in, so this drill is only passed at conversation pace.

Variation 1: a customer comment — The customer says: “I ordered on Monday and nothing has arrived.” Report it three ways: to a colleague in speech (“She said she ordered Monday and nothing’s arrived”), in a ticket note with full backshift (“The customer said that she had ordered on Monday and that nothing had arrived”), and with a stance verb (“The customer complained that the order was five days late”). Same facts, three registers.

Variation 2: a manager instruction — The manager says: “Send the deck before lunch, and don’t include the draft pricing.” Report both halves in one sentence: “She told me to send the deck before lunch and not to include the draft pricing.” Then change the emphasis with a different verb: “She reminded me twice to send it before lunch.”

Variation 3: a class or meeting question — Someone asks: “When will the results be published?” Report it formally for minutes (“A participant asked when the results would be published”) and casually in chat (“Someone asked when the results are coming out”). Notice which version backshifts, and why the casual one is allowed to stay in the present.

Finish every variation with the delay test: report the same line again the next day from memory. If the backshift survives twenty-four hours, the pattern is genuinely yours and not just warm from practice.