Phenomenal English

Change of Tenses in Direct and Indirect Narration with Exercise

Following rules are applied to change tenses in direct and indirect.

• If there is present or future tense in reporting speech then we do not change tense of reported speech.









In above mentioned examples reporting speeches are in present indefinite and future indefinite respectively so we cannot change tense of reported speeches in both sentences. Tense of reported speeches in both sentences remains present indefinite.

• If there is past tense in reporting speech then we shall change tense of reported speech.

1. If reported speech is in present it will change into past.










In above stated examples we change present indefinite of reported speech into past indefinite and present continuous into past continuous because there is past tense in reported speech. How actually this change takes place, in sentence no.1 present tense changes into past i.e indefinite will remain indefinite only present changes into past so it becomes past indefinite. In second sentence continuous will remain continuous only present changes into past and it becomes past continuous. Table given below will further clarify your concept.

Present Indefinite	changes into	Past Indefinite
Present Continuous	changes into	Past Continuous
Present Perfect	changes into	Past Perfect
Present Perfect Continuous	changes into	Past Perfect Continuous
Is,am,are	changes into	Was,were
Can	changes into	Could
May	changes into	Might
Shall	changes into	Should
Will	changes into	Would
Can have	changes into	Could have
May have	changes into	Might have
Shall have	changes into	Should have
Will have	changes into	Would have

Practice exercise for change of tenses (Present to past). Click here

2. If there is already past tense in reported speech it will shift into past perfect.










In above stated examples we change past indefinite of reported speech into past perfect and past continuous into past perfect continuous because there is past tense in reporting speech. So present tense canges into past and past changes into past perfect in every reported speech if there is past tense in reporting speech. Table given below will further clarify your concept.

Past Indefinite	changes into	Past Perfect
Past Continuous	changes into	Past Perfect Continuous
Was,were	changes into	Had been
Did not eat	changes into	Had not eaten
Should	changes into	Should
Would	changes into	Would
Could	changes into	Could
Might	changes into	Might
Must	changes into	Must
Ought	changes into	Ought

3. If there is past perfect tense in reported speech it will not change.










In above stated examples we do not change past Perfect of reported speech. So we can conclude, present tense canges into past, past changes into past perfect and past perfect does not change in any reported speech if there is past tense in reporting speech. Table given below will further clarify your concept.

Had eaten	changes into	Had eaten
Had been	changes into	Had been
Should have	changes into	Should have
Would have	changes into	Would have
Might have	changes into	Might have
Could have	changes into	Could have

• If there is universal, general, scientific, habitual truth, proverbs, fact or something still valid at the time of narraring in reported speech then we shall not change the tense of reported speech despite there is past tense in reporting speech.









In above stated examples we can not change tense of reported speech because reported speech is universal truth and universal truth always remains in present tense.

Practice exercise for change of tenses (Past to past perfect). Click here