Reported Speech

Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of conveying

what someone said without quoting their exact words
The Present Perfect Continuous and Past Continuous tenses are both used to talk
about past actions that were in progress, but with a different emphasis. The
Present Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an action that started in the past
and has continued until now, while the Past Continuous is used to talk about an
action that was in progress at a specific time in the past.

In reported speech, the tense usually changes to reflect the time of the reporting.
When reporting a Present Perfect Continuous statement, it usually changes to the
Past Perfect Continuous in reported speech. For example: "I have been playing
soccer." becomes "He said he had been playing soccer.

For a Past Continuous statement, the tense remains the same in reported speech.
For example: "I was playing soccer." becomes "She said she was playing soccer.“

It's important to keep in mind that some context and word changes might be
necessary to keep the meaning of the original sentence when converting to
reported speech.
When converting a direct speech statement to reported speech, the following
transformations usually occur in verb tense:

1.Present Simple to Past Simple: "I play soccer." becomes "He said he played
soccer."
2.Present Continuous to Past Continuous: "I am playing soccer." becomes "He said
he was playing soccer.“

3.Present Perfect Simple to Past Perfect Simple: "I have played soccer." becomes
"He said he had played soccer.“

4.Present Perfect Continuous to Past Perfect Continuous: "I have been playing
soccer." becomes "He said he had been playing soccer.“

5.Past Simple to Past Perfect Simple: "I played soccer." becomes "He said he had
played soccer.“

There may be other changes in the sentence, such as subject and pronoun changes,
when converting to reported speech.
When expressing future actions in direct speech, the following tenses are
commonly used:
1.Going to: "I am going to play soccer."
2.“Be going to": "I am going to play soccer."
3."Be about to": "I am about to play soccer.“

In reported speech, the future tense usually changes to a past tense to reflect the
change in time frame. Here are some common transformations for each future
tense:

1.”Going to” to Was/Were + going to: "He said he was going to play soccer."
2."Be going to" to "Was/Were + going to": "He said he was going to play soccer."
3."Be about to" to "Was/Were + about to": "He said he was about to play soccer.“
Direct speech refers to the exact words spoken by a person, usually quoted
within speech marks (""). For example: "I am going to the store.“

Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is when the words spoken
by someone are reported without using the exact words. It often changes the
tense, pronoun, and word order to reflect the time and context of the report.
For example: "He said he was going to the store.“

The main difference between direct and reported speech is that direct
speech uses the speaker's exact words, while reported speech reports on
what was said without quoting the exact words. Additionally, direct speech
often has a present tense, while reported speech often changes to a past
tense to reflect the change in time frame.
Bibliography:

https://stlcc.edu/student-support/academic-success-and-tutoring/writing-center/writi
ng-resources/reported-speech-and-direct-speech.aspx

https://www.teachoo.com/7004/2200/Direct-Indirect-Speech-for-Present-Perfect-Cont
inuous/category/Direct-Indirect-Speech
/

https://
learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/b1-b2-grammar/reported-speech-3-reporting
-verbs