Reported speech, also called indirect speech, is a way of telling someone what another person said without using their exact words. Instead of quoting directly, we report the meaning of what was said. For example, if someone says 'I am going to the store now', we can report this as 'He said he was going to the store then'.
When converting direct speech to reported speech, we need to change the tense of the verbs. This is called backshifting. Present simple becomes past simple, present continuous becomes past continuous, and future with will becomes conditional with would. For example, 'I go to school' becomes 'He said he went to school'.
In reported speech, we must also change pronouns and time expressions. Pronouns change to reflect the new speaker's perspective: 'I' becomes 'he' or 'she', 'my' becomes 'his' or 'her'. Time expressions also shift: 'now' becomes 'then', 'today' becomes 'that day', 'tomorrow' becomes 'the next day', and 'here' becomes 'there'. For example, 'I will see you here tomorrow' becomes 'He said he would see me there the next day'.
Questions and commands need special treatment in reported speech. For questions, we use reporting verbs like 'asked' and change the word order to statement form. Wh-questions keep their question word, while yes-no questions use 'if' or 'whether'. For commands, we use verbs like 'told' or 'asked' followed by an infinitive with 'to'. For example, 'Go away!' becomes 'He told me to go away'.
Let's apply all the rules we've learned with a complete example. Starting with the direct speech 'I am working on my project here today, and I will finish it tomorrow', we transform it step by step. We change the tense from present continuous to past continuous, change pronouns from 'I' to 'he' and 'my' to 'his', update time and place expressions, change the future tense to conditional, and add a reporting verb. The final result is 'He said that he was working on his project there that day, and he would finish it the next day'.