Reported Speech: Grammar Exercises

This page contains exercises about reported speech with answer keys.

Before doing it revise the rule for sequence of tenses: reported statements, questions, orders and requests. Note that tense expressions, pronouns and adverbs are changed when speaker is different and indirect speech is reported as a past event. 

Exercise 1 (Statements) 

Transform direct speech into reported speech according to the model. Use the past simple of 'tell'. Bear in mind that the action of the object clause is viewed from the past. Make all the changes necessary. 

Model: 'I’m tired.' → Tom told me that he was tired. 

1. 'I’m busy. '
2. 'I live here.' 
3. 'I have caught a cold.' 
4. 'I am leaving tomorrow.' 
5. 'I lived in a small town.' 
6. 'My papers have been stolen.' (Passive Voice) 
7. 'I’ll return home on Monday.'

  Answer:

1. Tom told me that he was busy.
2. Tom told me that he lived there.
3. Tom told me that he had caught a cold.
4. Tom told me that he was leaving on the next day.
5. Tom told me that he had lived in a small town.
6. Tom told me that his papers had been stolen.
7. He told me that he would return on (that) Monday.

Exercise 2 (Questions) 

Change the following direct questions into indirect ones according to the models 1 and 2. Make all the changes necessary. Pay attention to the word order. Remember that indirect questions have the normal word order 'subject + verb'.

Model 1(general questions): 

'Did you do it?' → Mary asked me if I had done that. 

'Can you swim?' → Mary asked me if I could swim. 

 Model 2 (special questions): 

'What have you done?' → Mary asked me what I had done. 

1. 'Are you happy?' 
2. 'Are you leaving tomorrow?' 
3. 'Do you do it with pleasure?' 
4. 'Did you take part in the contest?' 
5. 'Have you done it?' 
6. 'Will you go to the station?' 
7. 'Can you help me to solve this riddle?' 
8. 'What have you seen?' 
9. 'When did you come home?' 
10. 'What are you doing now?' 
11. 'When will you go there?' 
12. 'Who does it?' 
13. 'Who knows it?'
    

Answer: 

1. Mary asked me if I was happy. 
2. Mary asked me if I was leaving (on) the next day. 
3. Mary asked me if I did that with pleasure. 
4. Mary asked me if I took part in the contest. 
5. Mary asked me if I had done it. 
6. Mary asked me if I would go to the station. 
7. Mary asked me if I could help her to solve that riddle. 
8. Mary asked me what I had seen. 
9. Mary asked me when I had come home. 
10. Mary asked me what I was doing then. 
11. Mary asked me when I should go there. 
12. Mary asked me who did it. 
13. Mary asked me who knew it. 

Exercise 3 (orders and requests) 

 Change the direct imperative constructions into indirect speech. 

 

Model 1: 

'Come here at 5.' → Tom told me to come there at 5. 

Model 2 (negative sentences):

 'Don’t open the door in any case.' → Mary told me not to open the door in any case. 

1. 'Come in!' 
2. 'Don’t come in!' 
3. 'Go there at once!' 
4. 'Don’t tell me a lie. Tell me the truth.'
   

 Answer: 

1. Tom told me to come in. 
2. Mary told me not to come in. 
3. Tom told me to go there at once. 
4. Mary told me not to tell him a lie and tell him the truth. 

Exercise 4 

Make up sentences and transform them into reported speech according to the model.

Tom: I am sure you’ll enjoy her new novel. 

Mary: What did he say? I can’t hear. 

Mike: He said he was sure you’d enjoy her new novel. 

Worksheets