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
indirect speech reproducing the idea of another person’s words that doesn’t use question mark to enclose what the person said and it doesn’t have to be word for word. Indirect speech is sometimes called reported speech
For example:
Direct speech :"I'm going to the cinema", he said.
Indirect speech : He said he was going to the cinema.


TENSE CHANGE
• 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.
• Note : the reporting verbs that are usually used to report imperative sentence are :Tell , other command , ask , warn , remind

Present simple
Past tense

direct : Vita said “ I eat fried rice”

indirect :Vita said that she ate fried rice.


Past simple


Past perfect

direct : Mother said “ I went to market yesterday”

indirect : Mother said (that) she had gone to market the day before.


Future simple


Past future

direct : Dave said “ I will buy an i-pod next week’

indirect : Dave said (that) he would buy an i-pod the week after


Present continuous


Past continuous

direct : Gama said “ I’m playing football”

indirect : Gama said he was playing football


Past continuous


Past perfect continuous

direct : She said “ I was teaching earlier”

indirect : She said she had been teaching earlier


when we want to report what someone said , wedon’t usually repeat their exact words , we use our words , we can use reporting words
such as tell say as follow by “that clause”

example :
my mother said that she got up at 4 o’clock
In time expression and pronouns