We often need to tell others what someone else said. There are two ways to do this. One is to say the same words and use quotation marks. That is "direct speech." The other method is to summarize, or tell about what someone said. This is called "reported speech." Before we get into the rules for reporting speech, here are the terms we are using to explain it. Subject noun or pronoun Reporting verb Conjunction Reported speech clause She said that she wanted a cookie. Rules for reporting speech To get this kind of sentence right, there are four things you should keep in mind: The first rule is to choose a reporting verb and tense . When did the speech happen? With current, repeated or recent events, the reporting verb is in the present tense. "He says he is hungry, so let's go to lunch." A habitual or repeated statement is in the present tense: "Everyone says the water is safe to drink." For reporting l