Quoted speech and Reported speech

Quoted Speech

Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

Example :
She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."
Or "Today's lesson is on presentations," she said.

 Reported Speech

Reported speech doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

Example :

                  Quoted Speech                                                     Reported Speech

Will                                                                       Would
She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow.”                                She said she would teach English online tomorrow.

Can                                                                      Could
She said, "I can teach English online."                                           She said she could teach English online.

Must                                                                    Had to
She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online."         She said she had to have a computer to teach English online.

Shall                                                                   Should
She said, "What shall we learn today?"                                         She asked what we should learn today.

May                                                                      Might
She said, "May I open a new browser?"                                         She asked if she might open a new browser.