she said i am busy change into indirect speech

Easy Insightful Literature Notes

Transformation of Sentence: Direct & Indirect Speech

A direct speech can be transformed into an indirect speech and vice versa using a suitable reporting verb and a linker depending on the sentence. Let’s have an example first.

Tina said to me, “Are you busy now?” [direct speech]
Tina asked me whether I was busy then. [indirect speech]

Direct Speech

Indirect Speech

Look, if the reporting verb in direct speech (said) is in past tense, the reporting verb in indirect speech (asked) would also be in past tense. ‘Whether’ is the linker added here as it is a ‘yes-no’ type question (Refer to list 1 below).
‘Are’ changes to ‘was’. As the reporting verb was in past tense, the verb in the reported speech will also be in past. (Refer to list 2 below)
‘Now’ has become ‘then’. Time and place expressions change if the reporting verb is in past tense. (Refer to list 3 below)
The question mark (?) has changed to a full stop(.).
Another important thing, the format of question (v + s + o) has changed to the format of a statement (s + v + o). In indirect speech the pattern always comes to subject + verb + object.

List of Reporting verbs and linkers (list 1)

Verbs of Reported speech (if the reporting verb is in past tense) (list 2) Direct speech → Indirect speech Am / is / are → was / were Was / were → had been Has / have → had Had → had had Shall / will → would Can → could May → might Must, should → must, should Verb1 → verb2 Verb2 → had + verb3

Change of time and place expressions in past tense (list 3) now → then ago → before today → that day yesterday → the previous day tomorrow → the next day last night → the previous night here → there this → that these → those

Narration change of Assertive sentence

Robin said, “I went to Delhi yesterday.” – Robin said that he had gone to Delhi the previous day .
She said to her husband, “I want to go with you.” – She told her husband that she wanted to go with him.

Narration change of Interrogative sentence

He said to me, “Do you know English?” – He asked me whether I knew English.
She said to me, “Did you go there?” – She wanted to know whether I had gone there.
I said to him, “What are you doing?” – I asked him what he was doing.
Rahul said to his mother, “How do you do all these things together?” – Rahul asked his mother how she did all those things together.

Narration change of Imperative sentence

He said to me, “Go there right now.” – He ordered me to go there right then.
My teacher said to me, “Obey your parents.” – My teacher asked me to obey my parents.
She said to me, “Please don’t go there.” – She requested me not to go there.
He said to her, “Let’s go home.” – He suggested her that they should go home.
His mother said, “Let him eat whatever he likes.” – His mother suggested that he might be allowed to eat whatever he liked.

Narration change of Optative sentence

He said to the boy, “May god bless you.” – He prayed that God might bless the boy.
The girl said, “Had I the wings of a dove.” – The girl wished that she had the wings of a dove.

Narration change of Exclamatory sentence

“How happy we are here!” said the children. – The children exclaimed in joy that they were very happy there.
The children said, “How happy we were there!” – The children exclaimed in sorrow that they had been very happy there.
He said to me, “Good bye!” – He bade me good bye.
She said to me, “Good evening!”—She wished me good evening.

Narration change of Vocatives

Teacher said, “ Robin , stand up.” – Teacher asked Robin to stand up.
The Bishop said to the convict, “Always remember, my son , that the poor body is the temple of the living God.” – The Bishop addressed the convict as his son and advised him to always remember that the poor body is the temple of the living God.

Narration change of question tag

He said to me, “You went to Kolkata, didn’t you?” – He asked me whether I had gone to Kolkata and assumed that I had.
I said to him, “Tina didn’t tell a lie, did she?” – I asked him if Tina had told a lie and assumed that she had not.

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she said i am busy change into indirect speech

Communicate with the World.

How to change direct speech into correct indirect reported speech.

Reporting what another person said is called "indirect speech" or “reported speech”. It is good to learn how to do reported speech because it is more proper, professional, and clearer than using direct speech. You can see a comparison of the two types of speech below:

I talked to my client today and she said “I am impressed with your service” (direct speech)

I talked to my client today and she said that she was impressed with my service (reported speech)

If you notice in the example above, reported speech involves changing the exact words that the person said into a statement that uses a different tense than the original statement. This is called backshifting, which means changing the tense to a close equivalent but one step back into the past, so "I am impressed" became "she was impressed".

Here are some common changes that happen when using reported speech:

Present Simple becomes Past Simple

Present Continuous becomes Past Continuous

Present Perfect Simple becomes Past Perfect Simple

Will becomes Would

Can becomes Could

How to Change Direct Speech Into Indirect (Reported) Speech

The table below shows you how to change each tense from direct speech into reported speech.

Changing Time

Words like "today"', "tomorrow", "yesterday", and "right now" need to change in reported speech because if someone said "We are having the meeting today" three days ago, it is not "today" anymore. Therefore, we have to change "today" into "that day": "He said that they were having the meeting that day "

In the examples below, you can see how someone's direct speech can be reported using this indirect speech method:

Direct Speech

"I have a bad headache today so I'm staying home and resting all day. I'm going to return to the office tomorrow. I finished the report yesterday and it is saved on my computer so I will send it to the client tomorrow."

Indirect/Reported Speech

He said that he had a bad headache that day so he was staying home and resting all day. He told me that he was going to return to the office the next day and that he had finished the report the day before and it was saved on his computer so he would send it to the client the next day."

For more lessons on tenses and grammar, check out my e-book "Grammar Essentials", which covers all the most important grammar rules that you need to know.

Change the following direct speech into reported speech using the correct tense in the reported speech part by backshifting:

“There is a problem” = She said that…

“The information needs to be updated” = She said that…

“Our strategy is working well” = She said that…

“The results have been good” = She said that…

“I found a job a few days ago” = She said that…

“The company was growing” = She said that…

“The customers will buy it” = She said that…

“I’m going to call you back later” = She said that…

“I can attend the meeting tomorrow” = She said that…

"I should try it" = She said that...

“There is a problem” = She said that there was a problem