It's About Direct and Indirect Speech

Direct Speech

To tell exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)

Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

For example:

He said, "Today's job is on board."

or

Today's job is on board," he said.

Indirect Speech / Reported Speech

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.
When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.


Example :
Indirect Speech :
"I'm Playing Football on School Field", he said


Direct Speech :
He said he was playing football on school field





Tense change

As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right):

Direct speech		Indirect speech
Present simple  He said, "It's Hot outside."	›	Past simple  He said it was Hot outside.
Present continuous  She said, "I'm Learning English online."	›	Past continuous  She said she was Learning English online.
Present perfect simple  he said, "I've been Take this job since 1999."	›	Past perfect simple he said she had been take this job since 1999.
Present perfect continuous  She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years."	›	Past perfect continuous  She said she had been teaching English for seven years.
Past simple  She said, "I taught online yesterday."	›	Past perfect  She said she had taught online yesterday.
Past continuous  She said, "I was teaching earlier."	›	Past perfect continuous  She said she had been teaching earlier.
Past perfect  She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived."	›	Past perfect  NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
Past perfect continuous She said, "I'd already been cooking for five minutes."	›	Past perfect continuous  NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been cooking for five minutes.

Modal verb forms also sometimes change:

Direct speech		Indirect speech
will She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow."	›	would She said she would teach English online tomorrow.
can She said, "I can teach English online."	›	could She said she could teach English online.
must She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online."	›	had to  She said she had to have a computer to teach English online.
shall She said, "What shall we learn today?"	›	should She asked what we should learn today.
may She said, "May I open a new browser?"	›	might She asked if she might open a new browser.