Reported Speech Questions Medium
When reporting statements with future tenses in indirect speech, we generally make the following changes:
1. The future tense in the reported speech is changed to the corresponding past tense.
For example:
- Direct speech: She said, "I will visit my parents next week."
- Indirect speech: She said that she would visit her parents the following week.
2. Words indicating future time are also changed to past time.
For example:
- Direct speech: He said, "I am going to start a new job next month."
- Indirect speech: He said that he was going to start a new job the following month.
3. Modal verbs indicating future actions are also changed to their past forms.
For example:
- Direct speech: They said, "We can meet you tomorrow."
- Indirect speech: They said that they could meet us the next day.
It is important to note that when reporting future statements in indirect speech, the reported speech is usually shifted back in time.