his homework
was doing
he
that
said
This is how we report statements.
“I am doing my
homework now,” said Tom.
Speakers are always mentioned at the beginning of the sentence in the reported speech.
Tom
Reporting verbs like “say, tell, explain…” are used in the Past Simple and placed after the subject.
The use of “that” is optional in English.
References to people change because the point of view changes.
“I” refers to Tom, so we change it to “he”.
Tenses move back into the past.
In this case the Present Continuous becomes Past Continuous.
Again references to people change because the point of view changed.
“My” refers to Tom’s, so we change it to “his”.
then.
We need to change references to times.
Finally don’t forget to remove the speech marks (inverted commas) around the spoken words.
Now let’s take a look at some of
these changes in more detail.