The Difficulty of Reported Speech

Reported speech initially appears quite confusing to English learners. It is difficult to remember changing 'today' with 'that day', 'here' with 'there', and others. Only through extensive practice can you overcome the second difficulty in reported speech—changing the tenses. You must always remember the rule—one tense back. And finally comes the third problem in reported speech—correcting word order in questions—Where were you? — She asked me where I had been. Although it is a complicated category, reported speech is not something insurmountable, and if the rules are well understood and applied correctly, everything falls into place.