In order to understand changes in indirect speech, we must bear in mind that words are always spoken in context: somebody says something to someone at a specific place and time. When we report something, changes are made to the original words if there are changes in the context (people, place or time).
No changes are made to words referring to place, time or person if we report something at the same place, around the same time, or involving the same people:
Dimitrios: I'll meet you here. Dimitrios said he would meet me here. (reported at the same place)
When we report conditionals and statements that refer to unreal situations, some tenses and modals may change if the reported words are no longer true or are out-of-date.
Some reporting verbs can be made impersonal with the personal pronoun it and the passive voice when the agent (the doer) of the action is unimportant, unknown or obvious.
If we want to avoid mentioning the generalised agents we, they, people, everybody, one etc. with reporting verbs, we can use the following passive patterns:
The present subjunctive is identical to the bare infinitive form of the verb in all persons, including the third person singular (no final -s). It is usually used in formal or literary styles:
