In Year 3 of Italian high school, between October and November, the English syllabus moves from B1 to B2 and reported speech arrives together with conditionals, advanced passives and the future perfect. The class test usually falls five to eight weeks after the first explanation: enough time to get the rule sorted, far too little to discover at the last minute that he said me does not exist. In a language-focused high school (liceo linguistico) it carries a lot of weight, because you meet it both in transformation exercises and in reading passages.
The basic rule is short. What gets complicated is the exceptions and the choice of the verb that introduces the sentence. I’ll take it in order.
What changes when you report a sentence
In direct speech you report the exact words, in quotation marks. In reported speech (in Italian, discorso indiretto) you pass them on in your own words, from a later point of view. Three things change:
- the verb tense (backshift), if the introducing verb is in the past;
- the pronouns and possessive adjectives, because the speaker changes;
- the time and place expressions, because the moment at which you report changes.
A practical rule that spares you half the mistakes: always ask yourself who is reporting, to whom and when. The sentence “I’m tired”, said by Anna to Marco, becomes, if I tell it to you the next day, “Anna said she was tired”. The subject changes (I → she) and so does the tense (am → was).
Backshift of tenses
When the reporting verb is in the past (said, told, asked), the verb in the reported sentence takes a step back in time.
| Direct speech | Reported speech |
|---|---|
| present simple: I work | past simple: he said he worked |
| present continuous: I am working | past continuous: he said he was working |
| past simple: I worked | past perfect: he said he had worked |
| present perfect: I have worked | past perfect: he said he had worked |
| past continuous: I was working | past perfect continuous: he said he had been working |
| will: I will work | would: he said he would work |
| can: I can work | could: he said he could work |
| may: I may work | might: he said he might work |
| must: I must work | had to: he said he had to work |
Two notes that often come up in tests. First: in reported speech, past simple and present perfect both end up as the past perfect. So the distinction that mattered in direct speech is lost (if you are missing it, reread past simple or present perfect: Italian learners’ mistakes). Second: the past perfect and the modals would, could, might, should no longer change, because they are already “back”.
A remark on that: after said and told me you can write or omit that. “She said (that) she was tired” are both correct sentences. In formal writing it tends to be included, in speech almost never.
Pronouns and time and place expressions
Pronouns adapt to the situation; they are not changed mechanically. If Luca says “I like my new bike” and you report it, it becomes “Luca said he liked his new bike”. If instead he says it to you and you report it to him, it becomes “Luca told me he liked his new bike”, but “You are my best friend” becomes “Luca told me I was his best friend”.
Time and place expressions shift in the same way, provided the moment at which you report is different from the moment it was said:
| Direct | Reported |
|---|---|
| today | that day |
| tonight | that night |
| yesterday | the day before / the previous day |
| tomorrow | the next day / the following day |
| now | then / at that time |
| last week | the week before / the previous week |
| next month | the following month |
| two days ago | two days before |
| here | there |
| this / these | that / those |
“I’ll see you here tomorrow”, said on Monday and reported on Tuesday, becomes “He said he would see me there the next day”. If you report the same sentence on the same day it was said and in the same place, tomorrow and here can stay: the criterion is logic, not the table.
Say, tell, ask: the difference Italian doesn’t help you see
In Italian we say mi ha detto (“he told me”) and ha detto (“he said”). In English the verb changes depending on whether the person addressed appears.
- say does not take a direct object for the person addressed: he said that…, or he said to me that…;
- tell always needs the person addressed: he told me that…;
- ask introduces questions: he asked me if….
So he said me and he told that are both wrong. A sentence like “He told that he was late” lacks the person addressed, while “He said me that he was late” puts the person addressed on the wrong verb. The correct versions are “He said (that) he was late” and “He told me (that) he was late”.
Questions in reported speech
This is where Italian speakers go wrong most often, because in Italian the indirect question keeps an order almost identical to that of the direct question. In English the order goes back to affirmative: subject, then verb. No auxiliary do/does/did, no question mark.
- “Where do you live?” → She asked me where I lived. (not where did I live)
- “What is your name?” → He asked me what my name was.
For yes/no questions there is no question word, and you use if or whether:
- “Do you like pizza?” → He asked (me) if I liked pizza.
- “Are you coming?” → She asked whether I was coming.
If and whether are almost always interchangeable. Whether is preferable when there is an explicit alternative (“whether I wanted tea or coffee”) and after a preposition (“the question of whether…”).
Imperatives and requests
Orders, requests and advice do not use backshift but a structure with the infinitive: verb + person + to + infinitive. The negative form is not to.
- “Close the window, please.” → The teacher asked Marco to close the window.
- “Don’t be late.” → My mother told me not to be late.
- “Could you help me?” → She asked me to help her.
With tell the nuance is that of an order, with ask that of a request. For advice you use advise: “You should study more” → “He advised me to study more”.
When you don’t use backshift
This is the part that costs the most careful students points in tests, because they have learned the rule and apply it every time. Backshift is optional, or even wrong, in three cases.
The reporting verb is in the present. If you say “Anna says she is tired”, no change of tense: the step back is only needed when you introduce with a past. It happens in phone calls, in messages (“Mum says dinner is ready”) and in sentences like He always says that….
The fact is still true. “Anna said she lives in Rome” is still correct if Anna still lives in Rome. “Galileo said the Earth moves” is better than moved, because the Earth is still moving. In school tests, however, if the exercise asks for the standard transformation, apply backshift, which is always accepted as correct.
The verb is already in the past perfect or is a modal that does not change. “I had already eaten” stays “he said he had already eaten”. And would, could, should, might, ought to stay the same.
Reporting verbs: saying it more precisely
B2 level requires you not to use only said and told. Many verbs already sum up the purpose of the sentence and have a fixed structure, to be learned together with the verb.
| Structure | Verbs | Example |
|---|---|---|
| verb + to + infinitive | promise, offer, refuse, agree | She promised to call me. |
| verb + person + to + infinitive | invite, remind, warn, advise, encourage | He reminded me to lock the door. |
| verb + -ing | suggest, admit, deny, recommend | He admitted breaking the vase. |
| verb + that + clause | explain, claim, complain, announce | She explained that the bus was late. |
| verb + preposition + -ing | insist on, apologise for, accuse of | He apologised for being late. |
With suggest there is a double trap: it is never followed by to + infinitive (“he suggested to go” is wrong). There are two correct forms, “he suggested going” and “he suggested that we go”. With deny and admit the -ing can be in the perfect form (“he denied having taken it”), but the simple form “denied taking it” is enough and is accepted everywhere.
Typical mistakes of Italian speakers
- Forgetting backshift in the subordinate clause. “She said she is tired” is penalised in a test. Wrong when the exercise asks for the transformation, acceptable only if the fact is still current.
- Keeping the order of the question. “He asked me where did I live” is the most common mistake. The order becomes affirmative.
- Translating mi ha detto di (“he told me to”) as said me to. You need told me to or asked me to.
- Leaving the time adverbs. “She said she would come tomorrow”, reported the following day, is incoherent: the next day.
- Using that with the imperative. “He told me that to close the door” does not exist: he told me to close the door.
- Leaving possessives unchanged. “My brother is ill”, said by Anna and reported by you, becomes “Anna said her brother was ill”, not my brother.
Ten worked transformations
Try them in your notebook before reading the solution. In the reported sentence, assume the reporting verb is in the past and that you are reporting the following day.
1. “I am tired,” she said.
She said (that) she was tired.
2. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he told me.
He told me (that) he would call me the next day.
3. “We have finished the project,” they said.
They said (that) they had finished the project.
4. “Where do you live?” she asked me.
She asked me where I lived.
5. “Do you like pizza?” he asked.
He asked (me) if/whether I liked pizza.
6. “Close the window, please,” the teacher said to Marco.
The teacher asked Marco to close the window.
7. “Don’t be late,” my mother said.
My mother told me not to be late.
8. “I didn’t take your pen,” Luca said.
Luca said (that) he hadn’t taken my pen. (with a more precise reporting verb: Luca denied taking my pen.)
9. “I’ll help you with the homework,” she said.
She promised to help me with the homework.
10. “I live in Milan,” Anna said, and she still lives there.
Anna said (that) she lives in Milan. Backshift is optional here, because the fact is still true: she lived in Milan would also be correct.
If you get more than two wrong, it is usually a single mistake, repeated: the order of questions or the step to the past perfect.
How to get there for the test
For the test, the method that works is to practise by type, not by quantity. One evening devoted only to indirect questions, one to the verbs with a fixed structure (reporting verbs), one to the backshift table, which you can learn by heart in ten minutes. Then a mixed exercise, written in pen without looking at your notes. The other B1+ → B2 topics fit well with this one: for example conditionals, which reported speech uses all the time when you report a conditional sentence (if you want to get them sorted, the explanation is in the post on English conditionals). If instead you are already preparing for a certificate, the B2 First Use of English paper asks for transformations of this kind; the guide B2 First Use of English: how to pass explains how they are built. And phrasal verbs, which turn up frequently in reported speech (she pointed out that…, he turned down the offer), are the other big chapter of the Year 3 syllabus.
There is not yet a dedicated practice test on this subject. To train on the format of the exam papers, later on, there is the maturità practice tests category (mostly in Italian). The rest of the English course, from language-focused high school to university, is on the English lessons page.
If you would like us to look together at where you lose marks in transformations, write to me through the contact page: the free 30-minute introductory call starts from one of your own exercises, not from a generic test.
