Direct and Reported Speech

When we report exactly what someone else has said , we use the direct style. With this style what the person has said is placed in quotation marks ( "...") and should be word for word
.

Grammatical Rules

Indirect speech , unlike the direct style, do not use the quotes and need not be word for word. In general, when indirect speech is used, the tense changes

for example:

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
Present Simple	Past Simple
“He is American,” she said.	She said he was American.
“I am happy to see you,” Mary said.	Mary said that she was happy to see me.
He asked, “Are you busy tonight?”	He asked me if I was busy that night.
Present Continuous	Past Continuous
“Dan is living in San Francisco,” she said.	She said Dan was living in San Francisco.
He said, “I’m making dinner.”	He told me that he was making dinner.
“Why are you working so hard?” they asked.	They asked me why I was working so hard.