Direct and Indirect Speech
We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech.
Direct Speech / Quoted Speech
Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)
Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.
For example:
She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations." or "Today's lesson is on presentations," she said.

Indirect Speech / Reported Speech
Indirect speech (sometimes called 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.
For example: Direct speech | Indirect speech | "I'm going to the cinema", he said. | He said he was going to the cinema. |

Tense change
As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right): Direct speech | | Indirect speech | Present simple
She said, "It's cold." | › | Past simple
She said it was cold. | Present continuous
She said, "I'm teaching English online." | › | Past continuous
She said she was teaching English online. | Present perfect simple
She said, "I've been on the web since 1999." | › | Past perfect simple
She said she had been on the web since 1999. | Present perfect continuous
She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years." | › | Past perfect continuous
She said she had been teaching English for seven years. | Past simple
She said, "I taught online yesterday." | › | Past perfect
She said she had taught online yesterday. | Past continuous
She said, "I was teaching earlier." | › | Past perfect continuous
She said she had been teaching earlier. | Past perfect
She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived." | › | Past perfect
NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived. | Past perfect continuous
She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes." | › | Past perfect continuous
NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five minutes. |

Modal verb forms also sometimes change: Direct speech | | Indirect speech | will
She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow." | › | would
She said she would teach English online tomorrow. | can
She said, "I can teach English online." | › | could
She said she could teach English online. | must
She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online." | › | had to
She said she had to have a computer to teach English online. | shall
She said, "What shall we learn today?" | › | should
She asked what we should learn today. | may
She said, "May I open a new browser?" | › | might
She asked if she might open a new browser. |