Which did you step back?
Read your six reported sentences to a partner. They say stepped or not stepped for each, without seeing the page.
Then, for every unstepped one, decide together whether it was an error or one of the cases where English does not require it. Some of yours will be the second.
Six reports. Match each to whether the tense had to move back, and why.
The rule, and the three holes in it
Read these aloud. All eight are correct English.
Ordinary: She said she needed another week. · He said he would send it. · They said they had already spoken to the supplier.
Not stepped, because the reporting verb is present: She says she needs another week.
Not stepped, because it is still true: He said the office opens at eight. · She said the deadline is Friday.
Not stepped, because the report is immediate: She just said she is on her way.
Cannot step, because it is already as far back as it goes: She said she had told him on Monday.
Four questions about the three exceptions.
1. Why does the rule feel unreliable to a learner?
2. He said the office opens at eight. Could you also say opened?
3. She said she had told him on Monday. Why does this not step back further?
4. What is the safe default when you are not sure?
The whole system
What steps back, and what cannot
| Direct | Reported | Note |
|---|---|---|
| present simple / continuous | past simple / continuous | The ordinary case |
| past simple | past perfect | Two events, and the report has to keep them apart |
| present perfect | past perfect | Both land on the same form |
| past perfect | past perfect | Already as far back as English goes |
will · can · may · must | would · could · might · had to | Modals step too |
would · could · should · might | unchanged | Already past forms |
| A second conditional | unchanged | She said if she had time she would come. |
The three exceptions, and what they have in common.
1. The reporting verb is present: she says she is tired.
2. The fact is still true: he said the deadline is Friday.
3. The report is immediate: she just said she is on her way.
In all three, something reaches into now — either the reporting or the fact. Where nothing reaches into now, step back. That single question covers every case in this unit.
The words nobody expects to move
| Direct | Reported |
|---|---|
| I · my · we | he / she · his / her · they |
| this · these | that · those |
| here | there |
| now | then |
| today · tonight | that day · that night |
| tomorrow | the next day · the following day |
| yesterday | the day before · the previous day |
| last week · next month | the week before · the following month |
| two days ago | two days before |
One to four words per gap. Both the verbs and the time words have to move.
On Friday she said she the figures , and that she Nuno . She said she another week and that we have to move the review.
Eight sentences. Some need stepping back; two are correct as they stand.
1. She said she is not coming.
2. He said he will call me tomorrow.
3. She says she needs another week.
4. They said they have already sent it.
5. He said he had finished on the Tuesday.
6. She said she must speak to legal first.
7. He told me the meeting is here at three.
8. She said if she has time she will come.
One question, every clause
One to four words per gap. Some of these should step back and some should not. Ask what reaches into now.
She says the deadline Friday, so nothing has changed there. Last week she said the deadline the Friday and then moved it twice. He just said he on his way. In the meeting on Monday he said he on his way, which turned out not to be true. And she said the office at eight, which it still does.
Six reported sentences. Put them into the order the original conversation happened in.
- Nobody asked who had agreed it.
- She added that nothing about the launch had moved since then.
- She said she would circulate the June note by the following Tuesday.
- She said the client had confirmed the date the previous Friday.
- She replied that the window had been agreed in June.
- Two people said three weeks was not enough for a release that size.
Step it back at speed
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 3 minutes each
Your partner reads out a direct-speech sentence. You report it, within three seconds.
Twenty sentences in three minutes. Speed is the point; a slow correct answer counts as a miss.
- Partner: read from anything — a message on your phone, a line from the input, something you said this morning.
- You: She said… or He asked…, with the tense, the pronouns and the time words all moved.
- Every fifth one, your partner uses a present reporting verb instead, and you do not step back.
- Then swap. Count how many of twenty each of you got.
Watch the time words. Most misses are not tenses. They are tomorrow, here and this, which survive into the report and quietly make it false.
What survived
Four sentences from the drill. Fix each.
1. She said she will be here tomorrow.
2. He said he has already sent this.
3. They said they must leave now.
4. She said she saw him two days ago.
Does anything reach into now?
Three questions.
1. What is the one question that covers every case?
2. She said she had told him. Why not step it back further?
3. Which of these does not change in a report?
Before next lesson. Write down four questions somebody asked you this week, in their exact words.
Four exactly. Next lesson we report them, and the word order does something that catches almost everybody.