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7 structures · CEFR B1–C1
Reported speech is how you say what somebody else said without quoting them. English shifts the tense one step back when you do — "I am busy" becomes "he said he was busy" — and it changes the pronouns and the time words along with it. Indian English very often keeps the original tense, which is understood but marks the sentence immediately.
Rebuild this lesson’s reference sentence. Other tasks can have other valid word orders.
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He said he was busy.
He said (that) + one tense back
Question 1 of 1
Choose an answer, then check why it fits.
This is a check of this example, not an English level assessment.
Example 1 of 4
उसने कहा कि वह व्यस्त था।
He said he was busy.
Telling somebody what was said. The tense usually steps back.
He said he was tired.
Telling somebody what was said. The tense usually steps back.
He said he was ready.
Telling somebody what was said. The tense usually steps back.
She told me she would call later.
Telling somebody what was said. The tense usually steps back.
Every one of these is a sentence Indian-English speakers genuinely produce — not a textbook example.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
He said he is busy. | He said he was busy. Reporting later pushes "is" back to "was". Reported speech → |
He said me that he was busy. | He told me that he was busy. With a person straight after it, the verb is "told". say or tell? → |
She said she will call me. | She said she would call me. After a past reporting verb, "will" becomes "would". When the tense steps back → |
Yesterday he said he would come tomorrow. | Yesterday he said he would come the next day. His "tomorrow" was today — reporting it as "tomorrow" moves the day by one. here → there, today → that day → |
He asked me where do I live. | He asked me where I lived. A reported question has no "do" and no swap. Reported questions → |
He told me that I should not to go. | He told me not to go. The negative goes before "to" and nothing else is needed. Reported orders and requests → |
He denied to take the money. | He denied taking the money. "Deny" takes -ing; "refuse" is the one that takes "to". admit, deny, suggest, promise → |
Grouped by CEFR band so you can start where you actually are, rather than at the top.
1 structure at this level.
5 structures at this level.
1 structure at this level.
Dimmed tiles are structures whose example bank is still being written. The explanation and the mistake are there; the sentences are not, yet.
CoCap turns reported speech into practice you can actually do: a Hindi sentence, your English answer, and one correction at a time.
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