Reported speech is when we tell someone what another person said. To do this, we can use direct speech or indirect speech. direct speech : 'I work in a bank,' said Hari. indirect speech : Hari said that he worked in a bank . In indirect speech, we often use a tense which is 'further back' in the past (e.g. worked) than the tense originally used (e.g. work). This is called ' backshift '. We also may need to change other words that were used, for example pronouns. Present simple, present continuous and present perfect When we backshift, present simple changes to past simple, present continuous changes to past continuous and present perfect changes to past perfect. 'I travel a lot in my job.' Jamila said that she travelled a lot in her job. 'The baby's sleeping!' He told me the baby was sleeping. 'I've hurt my leg.' She said she'd hurt her leg. Past simple and past continuous When we backshift, past simple usually changes to
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