When we report someone’s words we can do it in two ways. We can use direct speech with quotation marks (“I work in a bank”), or we can use reported speech (He said he worked in a bank.)

当我们转述别人的话的时候，我们能有两种说法。我们可以用带引号的直接语气(“I work in a bank”)，或者用间接引语(He said he worked in a bank.)。

In reported speech the tenses, word-order and pronouns may be different from those in the original sentence.

用间接引语的句子，其时态、单词顺序和代词可能会跟原句的不同。

Present simple and present continuous tenses

一般现在时和现在进行时

• Direct speech: I travel a lot in my job.

直接语气: “I travel a lot in my job”

Reported speech:He said that he travelled a lot in his job.

间接引语: He said that he travelled a lot in his job.

The present simple tense (I travel) usually changes to the past simple (he travelled) in reported speech.

一般现在时态，在间接引语里一般变成一般过去时。

• Direct speech:Be quiet. The baby’s sleeping.

直接语气: “Be quiet. The baby’s sleeping.”

Reported speech:She told me to be quiet because the baby was sleeping.

间接引语: She told me to be quiet because the baby was sleeping.

The present continuous usually changes to the past continuous.

现在进行时一般变成过去进行时。

Note

注意:

• Reported speech:“I work in Italy”

间接引语: He told me that he works in Italy.

It isn’t always necessary to change the tense. If something is still true now – he still works in Italy – we can use the present simple in the reported sentence.

并不是任何情况下都要改变时态，如果某事现在还是真实的—例句中，他现在还在意大利工作的话，我们就能在用间接引语的时候也用一般现在时态即可。

Past simple and past continuous tenses

一般过去时和过去进行时态

• Direct speech:“We lived in China for 5 years.”

直接语气: “We lived in China for 5 years.”

Reported speech:She told me they had lived in China for 5 years.

间接引语: She told me they had lived in China for 5 years.

The past simple tense (we lived) usually changes to the past perfect (they had lived) in reported speech.

一般过去时态在间接引语中经常变成过去完成时。

• Direct speech:“I was walking down the road when I saw the accident."

直接语气: “I was walking down the road when I saw the accident.”

Reported speech:He told me he’d been walking down the road when he’d seen the accident.

间接引语: He told me he’d been walking down the road when he’d seen the accident.

The past continuous usually changes to the past perfect continuous.

过去进行时经常变成过去完成进行时。

Perfect tenses

完成时态

• Direct speech:They’ve always been very kind to me.

直接语气: “They’ve always been very kind to me”.

Reported speech:She said they’d always been very kind to her.

间接引语: She said they’d always been very kind to her.

The present perfect tense (have always been) usually changes to the past perfect tense (had always been).

现在完成时经常变成过去完成时。

• Direct speech: “They had already eaten when I arrived”

直接引语：“They had already eaten when I arrived”。

Reported speech: He said they’d already eaten when he’d arrived.

间接引语：He said they’d already eaten when he’d arrived.

The past perfect tense does not change in reported speech.

过去完成时态在变成间接引语的时候不用变。

You can find more information about reported speech in another section.

你在另一章节里可以找到更多关于间接引语的语法信息。