Reported Speech Past Simple Exercises

Reporting sentences that were originally in the past simple requires a further backshift to the past perfect (had + past participle). "I finished the report" becomes "She said she had finished the report." The verb was/were becomes had been: "I was tired" becomes "He said he had been tired." This double-past structure shows the action happened before the moment of reporting.

Irregular past participles must be learned for this transformation — "went" becomes "had gone," "saw" becomes "had seen," "took" becomes "had taken," and "bought" becomes "had bought." Negatives follow the same pattern: "I didn't see him" becomes "She said she hadn't seen him." The helper verb "did" disappears, just as it does when forming the past perfect normally. This tense shift is particularly important in Cambridge B2 First and C1 Advanced key word transformations, where candidates must demonstrate they can move verbs two steps back from the original tense.