BusinessEnglish.com Indirect Speech
BusinessEnglish.com Indirect Speech provides a grammar lesson and practice for intermediate learners on reporting what someone else said. The page explains tense changes, pronoun changes, changes to time and place words, the difference between say and tell, and reported orders and requests, with workplace examples such as being late for work and reporting to a manager, followed by three sets of exercises.
Limits of the Free Tier Plan: The explanation and the exercises on this page are free, and a free Getting Started account saves your results. The Pro account adds further indirect speech practice, such as additional grammar questions, scenario-based exercises and dictation.
How It Helps Your Business English
The lesson explains indirect speech with paired tables of direct and indirect sentences, covering the move of the tense into the past, the change of pronouns and the adverbs of time and place. It also sets out when the tense need not change, how orders and requests are reported with tell or ask, and the difference between say and tell.
Read a point, then do the exercise directly under it before moving on; the page is built so that each rule is tested while it is still fresh. Type your answers into the gaps and submit them to see which ones hold. The final multiple-choice set mixes everything together, so keep it for a second visit rather than the same sitting.
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