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If "yesterday" becomes "the previous day" in reported speech, what about "the day before yesterday"?
Direct Speech: "I came back the day before yesterday " he said. Indirect/reported speech: He said that he came back __________.
The relative time reference can be hard to render as reported speech, even for simple words like "yesterday". The best solution is to rephrase them as absolute time references:
(on Monday) John says "I came back the day before yesterday".
(reported) John said that he came back on Saturday.
Remember, when reporting speech, your are describing the meaning of what was said, and not always using the same words. Unless you had some reason to doubt him, you might just report the fact, and not the speech "John came back on Saturday."
If necessary you can also use "on the previous day" or "two days previously" instead of "yesterday" or "the day before yesterday".
John said that he'd come back two days previously.
Back shifting to past perfect (had come) is possible in either case (but not mandatory)
Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged reported-speech time-reference ..
Perfect english grammar.
Reported Statements
Here's how it works:
We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. ( Click here for more about using 'say' and 'tell' .) If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:
We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'. (As I'm sure you know, often, we can choose if we want to use 'that' or not in English. I've put it in brackets () to show that it's optional. It's exactly the same if you use 'that' or if you don't use 'that'.)
But , if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:
present simple | I like ice cream | She said (that) she liked ice cream. |
present continuous | I am living in London | She said (that) she was living in London. |
past simple | I bought a car | She said (that) she had bought a car OR She said (that) she bought a car. |
past continuous | I was walking along the street | She said (that) she had been walking along the street. |
present perfect | I haven't seen Julie | She said (that) she hadn't seen Julie. |
past perfect* | I had taken English lessons before | She said (that) she had taken English lessons before. |
will | I'll see you later | She said (that) she would see me later. |
would* | I would help, but... | She said (that) she would help but... |
can | I can speak perfect English | She said (that) she could speak perfect English. |
could* | I could swim when I was four | She said (that) she could swim when she was four. |
shall | I shall come later | She said (that) she would come later. |
should* | I should call my mother | She said (that) she should call her mother |
might* | I might be late | She said (that) she might be late |
must | I must study at the weekend | She said (that) she must study at the weekend OR She said she had to study at the weekend |
* doesn't change.
Click here for a mixed tense exercise about practise reported statements. Click here for a list of all the reported speech exercises.
Reported Questions
So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative sentences. But how about questions?
Where is the Post Office, please? | She asked me where the Post Office was. |
What are you doing? | She asked me what I was doing. |
Who was that fantastic man? | She asked me who that fantastic man had been. |
Do you love me? | He asked me if I loved him. |
Have you ever been to Mexico? | She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico. |
Are you living here? | She asked me if I was living here. |
Click here to practise reported 'wh' questions. Click here to practise reported 'yes / no' questions. Reported Requests
There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:
Please help me. | She asked me to help her. |
Please don't smoke. | She asked me not to smoke. |
Could you bring my book tonight? | She asked me to bring her book that night. |
Could you pass the milk, please? | She asked me to pass the milk. |
Would you mind coming early tomorrow? | She asked me to come early the next day. |
Reported Orders
Go to bed! | He told the child to go to bed. |
Don't worry! | He told her not to worry. |
Be on time! | He told me to be on time. |
Don't smoke! | He told us not to smoke. |
now | then / at that time |
today | yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June |
yesterday | the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December |
last night | the night before, Thursday night |
last week | the week before / the previous week |
tomorrow | today / the next day / the following day / Friday |
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Reported speech is a very common aspect of the English language. You use it nearly every day, both in conversations and in writing. This reference covers key sections about reported speech, including what it is, examples, rules, and verb tense changes. You’ll also learn about modal verbs, changes in time and place, and different reporting verbs.
Reported speech is simply when you tell somebody what someone else said. You can do this in your writing, or in speech. Reported speech is very different from direct speech , which is when you show what somebody said in the exact way that they said it . In reported speech though, you do not need to quote somebody directly.
Instead, you use a reporting verb, such as ‘say’ or ‘ask’. These reporting verbs are used to report the speech to someone else. There are many different reporting verbs that can be used.
In short, reported speech is the linguistic technique that you use to tell somebody what someone else’s direct speech was. In reported speech though, you may need to make certain changes to the grammar to make the sentence make sense. Some examples below highlight what needs to be changed.
When using reported speech, you are usually talking about the past. The verbs, therefore, usually have to be in the past too.
For example :
Another example :
Table of Changes :
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
I am | He said he was |
I have | She said she had |
I will | They said they would |
Verb tense changes in reported speech.
When the reporting verb is in the present tense, only small changes are needed.
When the reporting verb is in the past tense, you need to change the tense of both the reporting verb and the main verb.
The tenses generally move backward as follows:
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
Past Simple | |
Present Continuous | Past Continuous |
Past Perfect | |
Past Simple | Past Perfect |
Past Continuous | Past Perfect Continuous |
Past Perfect | Past Perfect (remains unchanged) |
For sentences about the future, you also need to change the future verbs.
Here are the changes for future tenses:
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
Will | Would |
Will be | Would be |
Will have | Would have |
Will have been | Would have been |
Modal verbs also change when used in reported speech.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
Can | Could |
Could | Could (unchanged) |
Have to | Had to |
Must | Must/Had to |
May | Might |
Might | Might (unchanged) |
Should | Should (unchanged) |
Some modal verbs do not need to change tense because they fit naturally.
Here are both correct and incorrect examples of reported speech for clarity:
To correct these:
Changes in time and place in reported speech.
References to time and place often need to change when you use indirect speech. Here is a useful guide to these changes:
Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
---|---|
Now | Then |
Today | That day |
Here | There |
This | That |
Tomorrow | The following day/ The next day |
Next week | The following week/ The week after |
Yesterday | The previous day/ The day before |
Last week | The previous week/ The week before |
Ago | Previously/ Before |
Tonight | That night |
In some cases, verb tenses do not change when you report speech indirectly. Here are the key instances:
Reporting verbs are crucial in indirect speech. Here is a list categorized by their usage:
When converting questions from direct to indirect speech, you follow rules similar to those for statements. Verbs used include inquire, wonder, want to know, ask.
Commands and requests in Indirect Speech are formed using the to-infinitive and not to-infinitive . Common reporting verbs include order, shout, demand, warn, beg, command, tell, insist, beseech , threaten, implore, ask, propose, forbid.
Pronoun and tense changes are needed when shifting from direct to indirect speech.
How to use reported speech.
If you have a sentence in Direct Speech, try to follow our 5 steps to put the sentence into Reported Speech..
Mind the type of sentences when you use Reported Speech. There is more detailed information on the following pages.
If you use Reported Speech there are mostly two main differences.
The introductory sentence in Reported Speech can be in the Present or in the Past .
If the introductory sentences is in the Simple Present, there is no backshift of tenses.
If there is a pronoun in Direct Speech, it has possibly to be changed in Reported Speech, depending on the siutation.
Here I is changed to she .
If there is backshift of tenses in Reported Speech, the tenses are shifted the following way.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
Simple forms | |
Simple Present | Simple Past |
Simple Past | Past Perfect |
Present Perfect | |
Past Perfect | |
will | would |
Progressive forms | |
am/are/is | was/were |
was/were | had been |
has been | |
had been |
If there is an expression of time/place in the sentence, it may be changed, depending on the situation.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
this evening | that evening |
today/this day | that day |
these days | those days |
now | then |
a week ago | a week before |
last weekend | the weekend before / the previous weekend |
next week | the following week |
tomorrow | the next/following day |
here | there |
In some cases backshift of tenses is not necessary, e.g. when statements are still true. Backshift of tenses is never wrong.
when you use general statements.
* The word that is optional, that is the reason why we put it in brackets.
Sometimes you need to tell people about your conversations and change direct speech into indirect speech. When you do this, you need to make sure that the tenses are correct. For example, Karen says to Peter: “My job is very interesting.” Peter then wants to report this conversation to Sarah a week later. He says: “Karen said that her job was interesting.”
When you report a conversation, the tense changes:
“My job is very interesting” becomes: She said that her job was very interesting.
“ I’m going swimming” – She said she was going swimming.
“I haven’t seen the film” – She said she hadn’t seen the film.
“I have been working all morning” – She said she had been working all morning.
“I was working all week” – She said she had been working all week.
“He went on holiday to Greece” – She said he had gone on holiday to Greece.
Sentences that are already in the “had done” form remain the same:
“I hadn’t seen him before” – She said she hadn’t seen him before.
Modal verbs also go back one tense.
Will becomes would .
For example: “I will see him later” – She said she would see him later.
Can becomes could .
For example: “I can swim” – She said she could swim.
May becomes might .
For example: “It may become colder over night” – He said it might become colder over night.
Direct speech using would, could, might and should all stay the same in reported speech.
“You should speak more” – He said I should speak more.
When you report questions, the word order changes to look like a normal statement.
For example: “Can you help me?” – She asked me if I could help her.
“What’s the time?” – He asked her what the time was.
Time expressions also change in reported speech.
today – that day
tomorrow – the day after / the next day
yesterday – the day before / the previous day
now – then
next week – the week after
last week – the week before / the previous week
Other expressions that change:
here – there
this – that
| Candace Osmond
Candace Osmond
Candace Osmond studied Advanced Writing & Editing Essentials at MHC. She’s been an International and USA TODAY Bestselling Author for over a decade. And she’s worked as an Editor for several mid-sized publications. Candace has a keen eye for content editing and a high degree of expertise in Fiction.
They say gossip is a natural part of human life. That’s why language has evolved to develop grammatical rules about the “he said” and “she said” statements. We call them reported speech.
Every time we use reported speech in English, we are talking about something said by someone else in the past. Thinking about it brings me back to high school, when reported speech was the main form of language!
Learn all about the definition, rules, and examples of reported speech as I go over everything. I also included a worksheet at the end of the article so you can test your knowledge of the topic.
Reported speech is a term we use when telling someone what another person said. You can do this while speaking or writing.
There are two kinds of reported speech you can use: direct speech and indirect speech. I’ll break each down for you.
A direct speech sentence mentions the exact words the other person said. For example:
Indirect speech changes the original speaker’s words. For example:
When we tell someone what another individual said, we use reporting verbs like told, asked, convinced, persuaded, and said. We also change the first-person figure in the quotation into the third-person speaker.
We usually talk about the past every time we use reported speech. That’s because the time of speaking is already done. For example:
Indirect speech: The employer asked me if I had experience with people in the corporate setting.
Indirect speech: I told James that I was working on my thesis.
A speech report has two parts: the reporting clause and the reported clause. Read the example below:
The reporting clause here is William said. Meanwhile, the reported clause is the 2nd clause, which is I need your help.
Aside from direct and indirect, reported speech can also be divided into four. The four types of reported speech are similar to the kinds of sentences: imperative, interrogative, exclamatory, and declarative.
The rules for reported speech can be complex. But with enough practice, you’ll be able to master them all.
The most common conjunction in reported speech is that. You can say, “My aunt says she’s outside,” or “My aunt says that she’s outside.”
Use if when you’re reporting a yes-no question. For example:
Indirect speech: She asked if she was coming with them.
Change the reporting verb into its past form if the statement is irrelevant now. Remember that some of these words are irregular verbs, meaning they don’t follow the typical -d or -ed pattern. For example:
Reported speech: She said she disliked fried chicken.
Note how the main verb in the reported statement is also in the past tense verb form.
Use the simple present tense in your indirect speech if the initial words remain relevant at the time of reporting. This verb tense also works if the report is something someone would repeat. For example:
This rule proves that the choice of verb tense is not a black-and-white question. The reporter needs to analyze the context of the action.
Move the tense backward when the reporting verb is in the past tense. That means:
Here are some examples:
He said that the singers had left the building. (past perfect)
If the original speaker is discussing the future, change the tense of the reporting verb into the past form. There’ll also be a change in the auxiliary verbs.
For example:
Indirect speech: She said that she would be there in a moment.
Do not change the verb tenses in indirect speech when the sentence has a time clause. This rule applies when the introductory verb is in the future, present, and present perfect. Here are other conditions where you must not change the tense:
Changing the place and time adverb when using indirect speech is essential. For example, now becomes then and today becomes that day. Here are more transformations in adverbs of time and places.
Here are some examples.
Indirect speech: He said he was baking cookies then.
Indirect speech: She said Myra went there the day before.
Indirect speech: She said she would go to the market the next day.
If the direct speech contains a modal verb, make sure to change them accordingly.
Indirect speech: He asked if he would come to the ball with me.
Indirect speech: He said Gina could inspect the room the next day because she’s free.
However, sometimes, the modal verb should does not change grammatically. For example:
Indirect speech: She said that he should go to the park.
To change an imperative sentence into a reported indirect sentence, use to for imperative and not to for negative sentences. Never use the word that in your indirect speech. Another rule is to remove the word please . Instead, say request or say. For example:
The host requested them not to interrupt the event.
When reporting a direct question, I would use verbs like inquire, wonder, ask, etc. Remember that we don’t use a question mark or exclamation mark for reports of questions. Below is an example I made of how to change question forms.
Correct: He asked me where I live.
Here’s another example. The first sentence uses direct speech in a present simple question form, while the second is the reported speech.
She asked me where I live.
My guide has shown you an explanation of reported statements in English. Do you have a better grasp on how to use it now?
Reported speech refers to something that someone else said. It contains a subject, reporting verb, and a reported cause.
Don’t forget my rules for using reported speech. Practice the correct verb tense, modal verbs, time expressions, and place references.
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Reported speech or indirect speech is the form of speech used to convey what was said by someone at some point of time. This article will help you with all that you need to know about reported speech, its meaning, definition, how and when to use them along with examples. Furthermore, try out the practice questions given to check how far you have understood the topic.
Definition of reported speech, rules to be followed when using reported speech, table 1 – change of pronouns, table 2 – change of adverbs of place and adverbs of time, table 3 – change of tense, table 4 – change of modal verbs, tips to practise reported speech, examples of reported speech, check your understanding of reported speech, frequently asked questions on reported speech in english, what is reported speech.
Reported speech is the form in which one can convey a message said by oneself or someone else, mostly in the past. It can also be said to be the third person view of what someone has said. In this form of speech, you need not use quotation marks as you are not quoting the exact words spoken by the speaker, but just conveying the message.
Now, take a look at the following dictionary definitions for a clearer idea of what it is.
Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”
Reported speech is a little different from direct speech . As it has been discussed already, reported speech is used to tell what someone said and does not use the exact words of the speaker. Take a look at the following rules so that you can make use of reported speech effectively.
Subject said that (report whatever the speaker said) |
As discussed earlier, when transforming a sentence from direct speech into reported speech, you will have to change the pronouns, tense and adverbs of time and place used by the speaker. Let us look at the following tables to see how they work.
I | He, she |
Me | Him, her |
We | They |
Us | Them |
You | He, she, they |
You | Him, her, them |
My | His, her |
Mine | His, hers |
Our | Their |
Ours | Theirs |
Your | His, her, their |
Yours | His, hers, theirs |
This | That |
These | Those |
Here | There |
Now | Then |
Today | That day |
Tomorrow | The next day / The following day |
Yesterday | The previous day |
Tonight | That night |
Last week | The week before |
Next week | The week after |
Last month | The previous month |
Next month | The following month |
Last year | The previous year |
Next year | The following year |
Ago | Before |
Thus | So |
Simple Present Example: Preethi said, “I cook pasta.” | Simple Past Example: Preethi said that she cooked pasta. |
Present Continuous Example: Preethi said, “I am cooking pasta.” | Past Continuous Example: Preethi said that she was cooking pasta. |
Present Perfect Example: Preethi said, “I have cooked pasta.” | Past Perfect Example: Preethi said that she had cooked pasta. |
Present Perfect Example: Preethi said, “I have been cooking pasta.” | Past Perfect Continuous Example: Preethi said that she had been cooking pasta. |
Simple Past Example: Preethi said, “I cooked pasta.” | Past Perfect Example: Preethi said that she had cooked pasta. |
Past Continuous Example: Preethi said, “I was cooking pasta.” | Past Perfect Continuous Example: Preethi said that she had been cooking pasta. |
Past Perfect Example: Preethi said, “I had cooked pasta.” | Past Perfect (No change) Example: Preethi said that she had cooked pasta. |
Past Perfect Continuous Example: Preethi said, “I had been cooking pasta.” | Past Perfect Continuous (No change) Example: Preethi said that she had been cooking pasta. |
Will | Would |
May | Might |
Can | Could |
Shall | Should |
Has/Have | Had |
Here are some tips you can follow to become a pro in using reported speech.
Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written. Check them out.
Transform the following sentences into reported speech by making the necessary changes.
1. Rachel said, “I have an interview tomorrow.”
2. Mahesh said, “What is he doing?”
3. Sherly said, “My daughter is playing the lead role in the skit.”
4. Dinesh said, “It is a wonderful movie!”
5. Suresh said, “My son is getting married next month.”
6. Preetha said, “Can you please help me with the invitations?”
7. Anna said, “I look forward to meeting you.”
8. The teacher said, “Make sure you complete the homework before tomorrow.”
9. Sylvester said, “I am not going to cry anymore.”
10. Jade said, “My sister is moving to Los Angeles.”
Now, find out if you have answered all of them correctly.
1. Rachel said that she had an interview the next day.
2. Mahesh asked what he was doing.
3. Sherly said that her daughter was playing the lead role in the skit.
4. Dinesh exclaimed that it was a wonderful movie.
5. Suresh said that his son was getting married the following month.
6. Preetha asked if I could help her with the invitations.
7. Anna said that she looked forward to meeting me.
8. The teacher told us to make sure we completed the homework before the next day.
9. Sylvester said that he was not going to cry anymore.
10. Jade said that his sister was moving to Los Angeles.
What is the definition of reported speech.
Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”
You can use the following formula to construct a sentence in the reported speech. Subject said that (report whatever the speaker said)
Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written.
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Direct speech:, indirect speech / reported speech:, convert direct speech to indirect speech.
Pronouns and possessive adjectives | We usually change from first or second to third person except when the speaker is reporting his own words. | that day |
the day before (the previous day) | |
Tomorrow / the next day | The following day |
The day before yesterday | Two days before / earlier |
Yesterday morning | The previous morning |
A year / month / week ago | A year before / earlier |
The day after tomorrow | In two days' time |
Next week / month / year | The following week / month / year |
now | then |
tonight | that night |
here | here / there |
this | that, it |
these | those |
can | could |
would | |
could | |
might | |
might | might |
have to / has to | had to |
must | must |
ought to / should | ought to / should |
Mixed types, common verbs used with reported speech.
Add boast | complain observe reply Announce deny | point out scream Answer grumble promise | shout Argue inform | Assure + Object murmur remark |
👉 Quiz 1 / Quiz 2
Advanced Grammar Course
“Reported speech” is when we talk about what somebody else said – for example:
There are a lot of tricky little details to remember, but don’t worry, I’ll explain them and we’ll see lots of examples. The lesson will have three parts – we’ll start by looking at statements in reported speech, and then we’ll learn about some exceptions to the rules, and finally we’ll cover reported questions, requests, and commands.
So much of English grammar – like this topic, reported speech – can be confusing, hard to understand, and even harder to use correctly. I can help you learn grammar easily and use it confidently inside my Advanced English Grammar Course.
In this course, I will make even the most difficult parts of English grammar clear to you – and there are lots of opportunities for you to practice!
When we use reported speech, we often change the verb tense backwards in time. This can be called “backshift.”
Here are some examples in different verb tenses:
Simple present “I to go home.” | Simple past She said she to go home. |
Present continuous “I a good book.” | Past continuous She said she a good book. |
Simple past “I pasta for dinner last night.” | Past perfect She said she pasta for dinner the night before. |
Present perfect “I just cleaning my room.” “My mother never to Japan.” | Past perfect She said she just cleaning her room. She said her mother never to Japan. |
Can/can’t “I meet with you next Monday.” “Sorry, I talk now; I’m at work.” | Could/couldn’t She said she meet with me next Monday. She said she talk at the moment because she was at work. |
Will/won’t “I pick him up from the airport.” “I tell anyone your secret.” | Would/wouldn’t She said she pick him up from the airport. She said she tell anyone my secret. |
Should “You apologize.” | Should She said I apologize. |
Now that you know some of the reported speech rules about backshift, let’s learn some exceptions.
There are two situations in which we do NOT need to change the verb tense.
For example, if someone says “I have three children” (direct speech) then we would say “He said he has three children” because the situation continues to be true.
If I tell you “I live in the United States” (direct speech) then you could tell someone else “She said she lives in the United States” (that’s reported speech) because it is still true.
When the situation is still true, then we don’t need to backshift the verb.
But when the situation is NOT still true, then we DO need to backshift the verb.
Imagine your friend says, “I have a headache.”
We also don’t need to backshift to the verb when somebody said something about the future, and the event is still in the future.
Here’s an example:
Let’s look at a different situation:
Quick review:
Those were the rules for reported statements, just regular sentences.
What about reported speech for questions, requests, and orders?
For reported requests, we use “asked (someone) to do something”:
For reported orders, we use “told (someone) to do something:”
The main verb stays in the infinitive with “to”:
For yes/no questions, we use “asked if” and “wanted to know if” in reported speech.
The main verb changes and back shifts according to the rules and exceptions we learned earlier.
Notice that we don’t use do/does/did in the reported question:
For other questions that are not yes/no questions, we use asked/wanted to know (without “if”):
Again, notice that we don’t use do/does/did in reported questions:
Also, in questions with the verb “to be,” the word order changes in the reported question:
Learn more about reported speech:
If you want to take your English grammar to the next level, then my Advanced English Grammar Course is for you! It will help you master the details of the English language, with clear explanations of essential grammar topics, and lots of practice. I hope to see you inside!
I’ve got one last little exercise for you, and that is to write sentences using reported speech. Think about a conversation you’ve had in the past, and write about it – let’s see you put this into practice right away.
Hi, I’m Shayna. I create courses helping English as a Second Language learners become more fluent in just a few minutes a day – so they can speak English naturally and confidently in work and daily life.
A week later, Mandy is speaking to a friend on the phone, “I saw James at the café last week. He said that .” |
When turning direct speech into indirect speech, we need to pay attention to the following points:
If the introductory clause is in the simple past (e.g. He said ), the tense has to be set back by one degree (see the table). The term for this in English is backshift .
direct speech | indirect speech |
---|---|
simple present | simple past |
present progressive | past progressive |
simple past | past perfect simple |
present perfect simple | |
past perfect simple | |
past progressive | past perfect progressive |
present perfect progressive | |
past perfect progressive | |
future (going to) | was / were going to |
future (will) | conditional (would) |
conditional (would) |
The verbs could, should, would, might, must, needn’t, ought to, used to normally do not change.
If the introductory clause is in the simple present , however (e.g. He says ), then the tense remains unchanged, because the introductory clause already indicates that the statement is being immediately repeated (and not at a later point in time).
In some cases, however, we have to change the verb form.
When turning questions into indirect speech, we have to pay attention to the following points:
We don’t just use indirect questions to report what another person has asked. We also use them to ask questions in a very polite manner.
When turning demands and requests into indirect speech, we only need to change the pronouns and the time and place information. We don’t have to pay attention to the tenses – we simply use an infinitive .
If it is a negative demand, then in indirect speech we use not + infinitive .
To express what someone should or can do in reported speech, we leave out the subject and the modal verb and instead we use the construction who/what/where/how + infinitive.
direct speech | indirect speech |
---|---|
today | that day |
now | then at that moment/time |
yesterday | the day before |
… days ago | … days before |
last week | the week before |
next year | the following year |
tomorrow | the next day the following day |
here | there |
this | that |
these | those |
The words say and tell are not interchangeable. say = say something tell = say something to someone
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Reported speech is used when we want to convey what someone else has said to us or to another person. It involves paraphrasing or summarising what has been said , often changing verb tenses , pronouns and other elements to suit the context of the report.
Tense | Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|---|
Present Simple | She sings in the choir. | He said (that) she sings in the choir. |
Present Continuous | They are playing football. | She mentioned (that) they were playing football. |
Past Simple | I visited Paris last summer. | She told me (that) she visited Paris last summer. |
Past Continuous | I was cooking dinner. | He said (that) he had been cooking dinner. |
Present Perfect | We have finished the project. | They said (that) they had finished the project. |
Past Perfect* | I had already eaten when you called. | She explained (that) she had already eaten when I called. |
Will | I will call you later. | She promised (that) she would call me later. |
Would* | I would help if I could. | He said (that) he would help if he could. |
Can | She can speak French fluently. | He mentioned (that) she could speak French fluently. |
Could* | I could run fast when I was young. | She recalled (that) she could run fast when she was young. |
Shall | Shall we meet tomorrow? | They asked (whether) we should meet the next day. |
Should* | You should visit the museum. | She suggested (that) I should visit the museum. |
Might* | It might rain later. | He mentioned (that) it might rain later. |
Must | I must finish my homework. | She reminded me (that) I must finish my homework. |
*doesn’t change
The formula for reported speech involves transforming direct speech into an indirect form while maintaining the meaning of the original statement. In general, the formula includes:
Here’s a simplified formula:
Reporting Verb + Indirect Object + Conjunction + Reported Clause
For example:
Reporting Verbs: We use verbs like ‘say’ or ‘tell’ to introduce reported speech. If the reporting verb is in the present tense, the tense of the reported speech generally remains the same.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
“I enjoy playing tennis.” | She said (that) she enjoys playing tennis. |
“We plan to visit Paris.” | They told us (that) they plan to visit Paris. |
“He loves listening to music.” | She said (that) he loves listening to music. |
“She bakes delicious cakes.” | He told me (that) she bakes delicious cakes. |
“They watch movies every weekend.” | She said (that) they watch movies every weekend. |
If the reporting verb is in the past tense , the tense of the reported speech often shifts back in time.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech (Reporting verb in past tense) |
---|---|
“I eat breakfast at 8 AM.” | She said (that) she ate breakfast at 8 AM. |
“We are going to the beach.” | They told me (that) they were going to the beach. |
“He speaks Spanish fluently.” | She said (that) he spoke Spanish fluently. |
“She cooks delicious meals.” | He mentioned (that) she cooked delicious meals. |
“They play soccer every weekend.” | She said (that) they played soccer every weekend. |
Tense Changes: Tense changes are common in reported speech. For example, present simple may change to past simple, present continuous to past continuous, etc. However, some verbs like ‘would’, ‘could’, ‘should’, ‘might’, ‘must’, and ‘ought to’ generally don’t change.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
“I like chocolate.” | She said (that) she liked chocolate. |
“We are watching TV.” | They told me (that) they were watching TV. |
“He is studying for the exam.” | She mentioned (that) he was studying for the exam. |
“She has finished her work.” | He said (that) she had finished her work. |
“They will arrive soon.” | She mentioned (that) they would arrive soon. |
“You can swim very well.” | He said (that) I could swim very well. |
“She might be late.” | He mentioned (that) she might be late. |
“I must finish this by tonight.” | She said (that) she must finish that by tonight. |
“You should call your parents.” | They told me (that) I should call my parents. |
“He would help if he could.” | She said (that) he would help if he could. |
Reported Questions: When reporting questions, we often change them into statements while preserving the meaning. Question words are retained, and the tense of the verbs may change.
Direct Question | Reported Statement (Preserving Meaning) |
---|---|
“Where do you live?” | She asked me where I lived. |
“What are you doing?” | They wanted to know what I was doing. |
“Who was that fantastic man?” | He asked me who that fantastic man had been. |
“Did you turn off the coffee pot?” | She asked if I had turned off the coffee pot. |
“Is supper ready?” | They wanted to know if supper was ready. |
“Will you be at the party?” | She asked me if I would be at the party. |
“Should I tell her the news?” | He wondered whether he should tell her the news. |
“Where will you stay?” | She inquired if I had decided where I would stay. |
Reported Requests and Orders: Requests and orders are reported similarly to statements. Reported requests often use ‘asked me to’ + infinitive, while reported orders use ‘told me to’ + infinitive.
Direct Request/Order | Reported Speech |
---|---|
“Please help me.” | She asked me to help her. |
“Please don’t smoke.” | He asked me not to smoke. |
“Could you bring my book tonight?” | She asked me to bring her book that night. |
“Could you pass the milk, please?” | He asked me to pass the milk. |
“Would you mind coming early tomorrow?” | She asked me to come early the next day. |
“Please don’t be late.” | He told me not to be late. |
“Go to bed!” | She told the child to go to bed. |
“Don’t worry!” | He told her not to worry. |
“Be on time!” | He told me to be on time. |
“Don’t smoke!” | He told us not to smoke. |
Time Expressions: Time expressions may need to change depending on when the reported speech occurred in relation to the reporting moment. For instance, ‘today’ may become ‘that day’ or ‘yesterday’, ‘yesterday’ might become ‘the day before’, and so forth.
Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
---|---|
“I finished my homework.” | She said she had finished her homework. |
“We are going shopping.” | He told me they were going shopping. |
“She will call you later.” | They mentioned she would call me later. |
“I saw him yesterday.” | She said she had seen him the day before. |
“The party is tonight.” | He mentioned the party would be that night. |
“The concert was last week.” | She told me the concert had been the previous week. |
Reported Speech PDF – download
Reported Speech A2 – B1 Test – download
Indirect speech focuses more on the content of what someone said rather than their exact words. In indirect speech , the structure of the reported clause depends on whether the speaker is reporting a statement, a question or a command.
direct | indirect | reported clause | |
statement | ) I was tired. | -clause | |
question | . . | clause clause clause | |
command | . | -infinitive clause |
Indirect speech: reporting statements
Indirect reports of statements consist of a reporting clause and a that -clause. We often omit that , especially in informal situations:
The pilot commented that the weather had been extremely bad as the plane came in to land. (The pilot’s words were: ‘The weather was extremely bad as the plane came in to land.’ )
I told my wife I didn’t want a party on my 50th birthday. ( that -clause without that ) (or I told my wife that I didn’t want a party on my 50th birthday .)
Reporting yes-no questions and alternative questions.
Indirect reports of yes-no questions and questions with or consist of a reporting clause and a reported clause introduced by if or whether . If is more common than whether . The reported clause is in statement form (subject + verb), not question form:
She asked if [S] [V] I was Scottish. (original yes-no question: ‘Are you Scottish?’ )
The waiter asked whether [S] we [V] wanted a table near the window. (original yes-no question: ‘Do you want a table near the window? )
He asked me if [S] [V] I had come by train or by bus. (original alternative question: ‘Did you come by train or by bus?’ )
Questions: yes-no questions ( Are you feeling cold? )
Indirect reports of wh -questions consist of a reporting clause, and a reported clause beginning with a wh -word ( who, what, when, where, why, how ). We don’t use a question mark:
He asked me what I wanted.
Not: He asked me what I wanted?
The reported clause is in statement form (subject + verb), not question form:
She wanted to know who [S] we [V] had invited to the party.
Not: … who had we invited …
In indirect questions with who, whom and what , the wh- word may be the subject or the object of the reported clause:
I asked them who came to meet them at the airport. ( who is the subject of came ; original question: ‘Who came to meet you at the airport?’ )
He wondered what the repairs would cost. ( what is the object of cost ; original question: ‘What will the repairs cost?’ )
She asked us what [S] we [V] were doing . (original question: ‘What are you doing?’ )
Not: She asked us what were we doing?
We also use statement word order (subject + verb) with when , where, why and how :
I asked her when [S] it [V] had happened (original question: ‘When did it happen?’ ).
Not: I asked her when had it happened?
I asked her where [S] the bus station [V] was . (original question: ‘Where is the bus station?’ )
Not: I asked her where was the bus station?
The teacher asked them how [S] they [V] wanted to do the activity . (original question: ‘How do you want to do the activity?’ )
Not: The teacher asked them how did they want to do the activity?
Questions: wh- questions
Indirect reports of commands consist of a reporting clause, and a reported clause beginning with a to -infinitive:
The General ordered the troops to advance . (original command: ‘Advance!’ )
The chairperson told him to sit down and to stop interrupting . (original command: ‘Sit down and stop interrupting!’ )
We also use a to -infinitive clause in indirect reports with other verbs that mean wanting or getting people to do something, for example, advise, encourage, warn :
They advised me to wait till the following day. (original statement: ‘You should wait till the following day.’ )
The guard warned us not to enter the area. (original statement: ‘You must not enter the area.’ )
Verbs followed by a to -infinitive
We can use the reporting verb in the present simple in indirect speech if the original words are still true or relevant at the time of reporting, or if the report is of something someone often says or repeats:
Sheila says they’re closing the motorway tomorrow for repairs.
Henry tells me he’s thinking of getting married next year.
Rupert says dogs shouldn’t be allowed on the beach. (Rupert probably often repeats this statement.)
We often use the present simple in newspaper headlines. It makes the reported speech more dramatic:
JUDGE TELLS REPORTER TO LEAVE COURTROOM
PRIME MINISTER SAYS FAMILIES ARE TOP PRIORITY IN TAX REFORM
Present simple ( I work )
Reported speech
Reported speech: direct speech
In indirect speech, we can use the past continuous form of the reporting verb (usually say or tell ). This happens mostly in conversation, when the speaker wants to focus on the content of the report, usually because it is interesting news or important information, or because it is a new topic in the conversation:
Rory was telling me the big cinema in James Street is going to close down. Is that true?
Alex was saying that book sales have gone up a lot this year thanks to the Internet.
‘Backshift’ refers to the changes we make to the original verbs in indirect speech because time has passed between the moment of speaking and the time of the report.
direct speech | indirect speech |
not very happy at work.’ | not very happy at work. |
going home.’ | going home. |
be late.’ | be late. |
been working,’ she said. | . |
to make her so angry?’ he asked. | to make her so angry. |
In these examples, the present ( am ) has become the past ( was ), the future ( will ) has become the future-in-the-past ( would ) and the past ( happened ) has become the past perfect ( had happened ). The tenses have ‘shifted’ or ‘moved back’ in time.
direct | indirect | |
present simple | → | past simple |
present continuous | → | past continuous |
present perfect simple | → | past perfect simple |
present perfect continuous | → | past perfect continuous |
past simple | → | past perfect simple |
past continuous | → | past perfect continuous |
future (will) | → | future-in-the-past (would) |
past perfect | ↔ | past perfect (no change) |
The past perfect does not shift back; it stays the same:
Direct speech | Indirect speech |
| already left. |
Some, but not all, modal verbs ‘shift back’ in time and change in indirect speech.
direct speech | indirect speech | change | |
| be there,’ he promised. | be there. | becomes |
| need more money.’ I open it?’ she asked. | need more money. open it. | usually becomes in reported questions, becomes |
| see you at 2.30,’ he added. | see me at 2.30. | becomes |
| be back later,’ she said. wait in the hallway,’ he said. | be back later. wait in the hallway. | (possibility) becomes (permission) becomes |
| pay by 30th April.’ be awful to live in such a noisy place,’ she said. | pay by 30th April. be awful to live in such a noisy place. | (obligation) usually becomes (speculation) does not change |
| sell it for about 2,000 euros,’ he said. | sell it for about 2,000 euros. | no change |
| go there immediately,’ she said. | go there immediately. | no change |
| buy it if I had the money,’ he said. | buy it if he had the money. | no change |
| snow tonight,’ he warned. | snow that night. | no change |
| come till six o’clock,’ he said. | come till six o’clock. | no change |
We can use a perfect form with have + - ed form after modal verbs, especially where the report looks back to a hypothetical event in the past:
He said the noise might have been the postman delivering letters. (original statement: ‘The noise might be the postman delivering letters.’ )
He said he would have helped us if we’d needed a volunteer. (original statement: ‘I’ll help you if you need a volunteer’ or ‘I’d help you if you needed a volunteer.’ )
Used to and ought to do not change in indirect speech:
She said she used to live in Oxford. (original statement: ‘I used to live in Oxford.’ )
The guard warned us that we ought to leave immediately. (original statement: ‘You ought to leave immediately.’ )
We don’t need to change the tense in indirect speech if what a person said is still true or relevant or has not happened yet. This often happens when someone talks about the future, or when someone uses the present simple, present continuous or present perfect in their original words:
He told me his brother works for an Italian company. (It is still true that his brother works for an Italian company.)
She said she ’s getting married next year. (For the speakers, the time at the moment of speaking is ‘this year’.)
He said he ’s finished painting the door. (He probably said it just a short time ago.)
She promised she ’ll help us. (The promise applies to the future.)
Changes to personal pronouns in indirect reports depend on whether the person reporting the speech and the person(s) who said the original words are the same or different.
direct | indirect | |
don’t want to shock people,’ Tom said. | said he didn’t want to shock people. | different speakers ( changes to ) |
’ll look after Toby,’ I said. | said I would look after Toby. | same speaker (no change) |
need to be here at nine o’clock,’ George told Beatrice. | told Beatrice she needed to be there at nine o’clock. | different speakers ( changes to ) |
hope you will join us tonight,’ I said to James. | told James I hoped he would join us that night. | same speaker (no change to ; changes to ) |
We often change demonstratives ( this, that ) and adverbs of time and place ( now, here, today , etc.) because indirect speech happens at a later time than the original speech, and perhaps in a different place.
direct speech | indirect speech |
.’ | the next/following day. |
this moment in time.’ | . |
.” | . |
,’ the boy protested. | . |
direct | indirect | |
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The word order in indirect reports of wh- questions is the same as statement word order (subject + verb), not question word order:
She always asks me where [S] [V] I am going .
Not: She always asks me where am I going .
We don’t use a question mark when reporting wh- questions:
I asked him what he was doing.
Not: I asked him what he was doing?
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Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of communicating what someone else has said without quoting their exact words. For example, if your friend said, “ I am going to the store ,” in reported speech, you might convey this as, “ My friend said he was going to the store. ” Reported speech is common in both spoken and written language, especially in storytelling, news reporting, and everyday conversations.
Reported speech can be quite challenging for English language learners because in order to change direct speech into reported speech, one must change the perspective and tense of what was said by the original speaker or writer. In this guide, we will explain in detail how to change direct speech into indirect speech and provide lots of examples of reported speech to help you understand. Here are the key aspects of converting direct speech into reported speech.
Pronouns are usually changed to match the perspective of the person reporting the speech. For example, “I” in direct speech may become “he” or “she” in reported speech, depending on the context. Here are some example sentences:
Reported speech: tense shifts.
When converting direct speech into reported speech, the verb tense is often shifted back one step in time. This is known as the “backshift” of tenses. It’s essential to adjust the tense to reflect the time elapsed between the original speech and the reporting. Here are some examples to illustrate how different tenses in direct speech are transformed in reported speech:
Reported speech: question format.
When converting questions from direct speech into reported speech, the format changes significantly. Unlike statements, questions require rephrasing into a statement format and often involve the use of introductory verbs like ‘asked’ or ‘inquired’. Here are some examples to demonstrate how questions in direct speech are converted into statements in reported speech:
Reported speech quiz.
Sentence synthesis is about putting the original information together but in a different way. For different types of questions, there are different things to look out for when stringing the information together. Today, we will look at one of the hot favourites in examinations, transforming of direct speech to indirect (or reported) speech.
For this purpose, I am thrilled to introduce to you a new friend in this journey of English, Synthesis-on-a-stick.
Age : 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 (There are 4 of them on that stick!)
Hobbies : Constantly rearranging themselves in different combinations on the stick, eating kebabs.
Talent : Have a record of answering 78 correct sentence synthesis in a row.
Let SOS start telling you more about direct and indirect speech now!
I like to tell my children to remember that when converting a direct speech to indirect speech, what they are essentially doing is reporting what has been said . This makes it easier for them to understand the need for the changes to be made.
There are 4 basic things to look out for when reporting what has been said.
Children can use the acronym TPTP. (Some children will remember it as Toilet Paper Toilet Paper or Ten Pigs Tried Pizza. It is up to your child to make up something fun to remember it by.)
A change in tenses takes place ONLY when the direct speech has already occurred in past tense . A backshift occurs during the change in tenses where each tense shifts one step to the past. Look at the table and backshift timeline below.
The only exception to a change in tenses for direct speech that occurred in the past tense is when what was said is a fact e.g. “The Earth is round.”, “An elephant has a trunk.”.
The teacher said, “An elephant has a trunk.”
The teacher said that an elephant has a trunk.
1. Changing simple present tense from singular to plural (jumps –> jump) 2. Forgetting to change the modal verbs e.g. will, can, shall etc. 3. Not knowing how to change the modal verb “must”.
Pronouns refer to words like “she”, “I”, “us” and “them”. Depending on who has spoken and to whom, the pronouns will be changed accordingly.
1. Forgetting to change “we” to “they” and “us” to “them”. 2. Changing “you” to a singular pronoun e.g. “her” when it should be plural, “them”. (Refer to example above)
Remember, when we report a speech, what was happening will be over by the time we are doing it. Hence, what was “now” would be “then”, “yesterday” would be the “previous day” (and not yesterday from the point you are speaking.).
1. Using “the day before/after” for “yesterday” and “tomorrow”. 2. Forgetting to change “the next day” to “the following day”. 3. Forgetting how to change “ago” to “before”.
A change in place also refers to a change in position . By the time you report what was said, the thing or person would no longer be at that place or position and would be considered distant. Hence, what was “here” would be “there” by the time the speech was reported. Here are a few others:
1. Forgetting to change from “these” to “those”.
I hope today’s post has provided a clear overview of the changes to be made for each component for questions on reported speech and you have benefitted from the examples given as well! Knowing clearly the things to look out for while doing such questions will definitely help to ensure higher accuracy in transforming the sentences. Do remember that it is a good practice to write the changes for reported speech on top of the direct speech (like what is seen in the examples sentences above with coloured bubbles) before transferring the answer so that you will not miss out on the words to be changed when you are writing quickly.
Authentic English Tip : For children who are just learning about direct and indirect speech conversion or those who are still confused, try role-playing with them by telling them a sentence and have them retell it to someone else. You may tell them, “I am hungry.” and their task will be to tell another person, “Mother(or if you are their teacher, your name) said that she was hungry.” When they become more confident, you can increase the complexity of the sentence. This practice can also be carried out after a lesson on this
1. 30 over bite-sized video lessons! (On Golden Rules for sentence synthesis and focused question types)
2. Unique strategies to tackle a wide range of sentence synthesis question types e.g. Active/Passive voice, Direct/Indirect Speech, No sooner had… than…, Not only… but also etc.
3. Topical worksheets accompanying each video consisting of at least 5 questions + A bonus 20-question quiz upon completion of course! (over 150 practice questions in total)
Try the Synthesis and Transformation Quiz consisting of 5 questions and determine your skill level.
With her passion to create relevant and easy-to-understand materials for the lil’ ones, Mrs Lily Chew works alongside her team of teachers to design the Lil’ but Mighty curriculum. Constantly looking at best educational practices and thinking of ways to improve the curriculum, Mrs Chew finds pure joy in unlocking creative and different ways of helping each child achieve his or her personal best.
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Robert F. Kennedy said Friday he is suspending his independent presidential bid and is backing Donald Trump. Kennedy said his internal polls had showed that his presence in the race would hurt Trump and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
▶ Follow the AP’s live coverage and analysis from the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent campaign for the White House and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, a late-stage shakeup of the race that could give the former president a modest boost from Kennedy’s supporters.
Hours later, Kennedy joined Trump onstage at an Arizona rally, where the crowd burst into “Bobby!” cheers.
Kennedy said his internal polls had shown that his presence in the race would hurt Trump and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, though recent public polls don’t provide a clear indication that he is having an outsize impact on support for either major-party candidate.
Kennedy cited free speech, the war in Ukraine and “a war on our children” as among the reasons he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states.
“These are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” Kennedy said at his event in Phoenix.
However, he made clear that he wasn’t formally ending his bid and said his supporters could continue to back him in the majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome. Kennedy took steps to withdraw his candidacy in at least two states late this week, Arizona and Pennsylvania, but election officials in the battlegrounds of Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin said it would be too late for him to take his name off the ballot even if he wants to do so.
Kennedy said his actions followed conversations with Trump over the past few weeks. He cast their alliance as “a unity party,” an arrangement that would “allow us to disagree publicly and privately and seriously.” Kennedy suggested Trump offered him a job if he returns to the White House, but neither he nor Trump offered details.
Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, this week entertained the idea that Kennedy could join Trump’s administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The announcement ended days of speculation and landed with heaps of confusion and contradictions from Kennedy’s aides and allies, an emblematic cap for a quixotic campaign.
Shortly before his speech in Phoenix, his campaign had said in a Pennsylvania court filing that he would be endorsing Trump for president. However, a spokesperson for Kennedy said the court filing had been made in error and the lawyer who wrote it said he’d correct it. Kennedy took the stage moments later, aired his grievances with the Democratic Party, the news media and political institutions, and extolled Trump. He spoke for nearly 20 minutes before he said explicitly that he was endorsing Trump.
Kennedy later joined Trump onstage at a rally co-hosted by Turning Point Action in Glendale, where Trump’s campaign had teased he would be joined by “a special guest.”
Kennedy was greeted by thundering applause as he took the stage to the Foo Fighters and a pyrotechnics display after being introduced by Trump as “a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share.”
“We are both in this to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said, later commending Kennedy for having “raised critical issues that have been too long ignored in this country.”
What to know about the 2024 Election
With Kennedy standing nearby, Trump invoked his slain uncle and father, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, saying he knows “that they are looking down right now and they are very, very proud.”
He said that, if he wins this fall, he will establish a new independent presidential commission on assassination attempts that will release all remaining documents related to John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
And he repeated his pledge to establish a panel — “working with Bobby” — to investigate the increase in chronic health conditions and childhood diseases, including autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity and infertility.
A year ago, some would have thought it inconceivable that a member of arguably the most storied family in Democratic politics would work with Trump to keep a Democrat out of the White House. Even in recent months, Kennedy has accused Trump of betraying his followers, while Trump has criticized Kennedy as “the most radical left candidate in the race.”
Five of Kennedy’s family members issued a statement Friday calling his support for Trump “a sad ending to a sad story” and reiterating their support for Harris.
“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear,” read the statement, which his sister Kerry Kennedy posted on X .
Kennedy Jr. acknowledged his decision to endorse Trump had caused tension with his family. He is married to actor Cheryl Hines, who wrote on X that she deeply respects her husband’s decision to drop out but did not address the Trump endorsement.
“This decision is agonizing for me because of the difficulties it causes my wife and my children and my friends,” Kennedy said. “But I have the certainty that this is what I’m meant to do. And that certainty gives me internal peace, even in storms.”
In a statement, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon reached out to Kennedy’s supporters who are “tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward” and said that Harris wanted to earn their backing.
At Kennedy’s Phoenix event, 38-year-old Casey Westerman said she trusted Kennedy’s judgment and had planned to vote for him, but would support Trump if Kennedy endorsed him.
“My decision would really be based on who he thinks is best suited to run this country,” said Westerman, who wore a “Kennedy 2024” trucker hat and voted for Trump in the last two presidential elections.
Kennedy first entered the 2024 presidential race as a Democrat but left the party last fall to run as an independent. He built an unusually strong base for a third-party bid, fueled in part by anti-establishment voters and vaccine skeptics who have followed his anti-vaccine work since the COVID-19 pandemic. But he has since faced strained campaign finances and mounting legal challenges.
At Trump’s event in Las Vegas, Alida Roberts, 49, said Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump spoke volumes about the current state of the Democratic Party.
“It says that he doesn’t trust what’s going on, that it’s not the party he grew up in,” Roberts said.
Roberts, who voted twice for Trump, said she was relieved and excited by the endorsement because she’d been “teeter-tottering” between the two candidates.
Recent polls put Kennedy’s support in the mid-single digits, and it’s unclear if he’d get even that in a general election.
There’s some evidence that Kennedy’s staying in the race would hurt Trump more than Harris. According to a July AP-NORC poll, Republicans were significantly more likely than Democrats to have a favorable view of Kennedy. And those with a positive impression of Kennedy were significantly more likely to also have a favorable view of Trump (52%) than Harris (37%).
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Ali Swenson in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., Meg Kinnard in Chicago and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
___ The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here . The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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President Biden got a hero’s welcome on the first night of the Democratic National Convention as he passed the torch to Vice President Harris. “I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you for 50 years,” Biden told the cheering Chicago crowd that gave him a five-minute standing ovation. At the beginning, his attempts to speak were repeatedly drowned out by cheers and chants of “thank you, Joe.” Harris also made a surprise early appearance to praise Biden, whose speech was largely a reflection on his legislative accomplishments since taking office.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks onstage during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 19, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption
Thousands of protestors marched in Chicago against Israel’s war in Gaza as the DNC kicked off yesterday. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said the department had a respectful working relationship with protest leaders, and looked forward to supporting the marchers’ right of free speech without a problem.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel has agreed to a ceasefire proposal for the war in Gaza. That announcement came after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu for three hours Monday in Jerusalem. After announcing Israel’s backing of the deal, Blinken called on Hamas to do the same. Netanyahu has not directly said he’s endorsing the new proposal presented last week in Doha.
There are more than 4,600 hospitals in the U.S., and 49% of them are nonprofit and therefore tax-exempt. The CEOs of these nonprofit health systems now earn, on average, $1.3 million a year. Getty Images/E+ hide caption
Nearly half of U.S. hospitals are tax-exempt nonprofits, tasked with providing medical care to their communities. But despite their community-focused missions, the CEOs in charge of these nonprofits command annual paychecks that now top $1 million on average. Researchers found that the CEOs with the largest paychecks work at hospital systems with the biggest financial returns. The question this raises is whether the nonprofit medical systems achieving these profit margins are doing so at the expense of their mission , subverting the intended purpose of their tax-exempt status.
The “Los Angeles League of Musicians” wants you to dance. LA LOM, as the band is known, released its debut album earlier this month. The trio of drums, bass and guitar plays a nostalgic, romanticized musical portrait of Los Angeles. Its tunes are like a time capsule that takes you back to the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Emmy award-winning talk show host Phil Donahue. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images hide caption
This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.
On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, expectations were high and rumors were rampant.
Speculation of a surprise guest — Taylor Swift? Beyoncé? — turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking.
Kamala Harris crushed it.
The vice president was always the main attraction of the four-day event and her Thursday night acceptance speech was always intended as its grand finale.
From the moment she strode out flashing her high-wattage smile, Harris commanded the stage with a purpose and passion that eluded her the last time she ran, aimlessly and unsuccessfully, for the White House.
Los Angeles Times photojournalists Robert Gauthier and Myung J. Chun are on the ground in Chicago to capture behind-the-scenes visuals and candid moments.
Aug. 22, 2024
In just over 37 minutes, Harris capped what’s been a remarkable monthlong run of luck and political success with a powerful address that strongly positions her for the last stretch of this fiercely fought presidential campaign.
Our columnists Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria — who, combined, have attended precisely zero Swift or Beyoncé concerts — overcame their disappointment at the no-show and collected themselves to share these thoughts.
Barabak : Previewing this convention, I’d made fun of the breathless most-important-speech-of-her-career hype that anticipated Harris’ Thursday night closer. Not because it wasn’t true, but because it was so predictable and trite.
That said, it was a hugely consequential political moment, and Harris delivered flawlessly. I’ve followed her career going back to her days as San Francisco district attorney and never saw her give a better speech.
She was tough. She was authoritative. She was substantive. And, yes, she was joyful.
Your thoughts?
Chabria : There was little to criticize with this speech. To put it simply, she looked presidential — which was the whole point.
Throughout the week, we’ve seen dozens of loud, yelling speeches — the kind that are a staple of rallies and meant to inspire with their energy. But on this arena stage, with its made-for-television sound system, many of those have seemed over-the-top theatrical and just plain loud to at-home viewers.
Harris took a different approach. This was a speech meant to inspire with content as much as delivery. She was confident. She was cool — and most of all, she was in control. This was her moment to sell herself to undecided voters, and she gave a flawless pitch.
Barabak : The Democrats’ indulgent and sloppy scheduling pushed other speakers way past TV’s prime time when, crucially, the most people are watching.
That wasn’t a problem Thursday night.
Harris, a former courtroom prosecutor, knows how to hone an argument. She had much ground to cover — she is that odd combination of famous and largely unknown — and she did so crisply and with forensic precision.
She offered her life story, starting as a little girl, outlined her career as politician and prosecutor — leaning heavily into her role as California attorney general, fighting crime and protecting consumers — and outlined a vision of what a Harris presidency would look like.
Buttressing and broadening the middle class would be, Harris vowed, “the defining goal of my presidency.”
She promised a middle-class tax cut, to fight to restore a nationwide right to abortion, to “end America’s housing shortage” — the presidency comes with no magic wand, so good luck with that one — and to fix the nation’s broken immigration system by signing bipartisan legislation that Donald Trump tanked for political purposes.
Chabria: But she also didn’t shy away from the tough stuff. Gaza and the U.S. response to the Israel-Palestine conflict has been a subtext of this convention. While the huge, disruptive protests that many either feared or expected didn’t materialize, there were protests. And there was a hard but unsuccessful push to include a Palestinian speaker on the agenda.
Harris hit the issue head-on, with clear position statements.
“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that the terrorist organization Hamas caused on Oct. 7,” she said.
Then she turned to Gaza.
“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” Harris said. “President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
This part of the speech garnered some of the loudest and longest applause. One speech doesn’t make this issue go away for her, of course, and it shouldn’t — Biden and Harris both need to deliver on those promises.
But hitting it directly and with clarity shows the kind of accountability we look for in leaders.
She also went directly after Trump. What did you think of that part of her remarks, Mark?
Barabak: She lacerated Trump, citing his role inciting the Jan. 6 riot, his felony conviction for election interference and a jury’s finding he was liable for sexual abuse.
“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails,” she said, citing the get-out-of-jail-free card handed him by a pliant Supreme Court.
But Harris didn’t leave it to the imagination, outlining a litany of barbarities that await should Trump slink back into the Oval Office: Journalists and his political opponents jailed. Jan. 6 insurrectionists turned loose. The military sicced on the country’s citizens to clamp down on dissent.
Strong stuff.
Chabria : She certainly gave us a sense of what she must have been like in a courtroom. And it drove Trump nuts. He was over on his Truth Social platform posting like a madman . What struck me was how stale Trump’s comebacks were — labeling her a communist, blaming her for the border — compared with what Harris was saying on stage.
For those all-important undecided voters, she really is offering something fresh, something that wasn’t on the ticket with Biden. Undecided voters are always a mystery because you don’t know if they are just not paying attention, have already made up their minds and don’t want to say or are just working off their own idiosyncratic criteria. But if there are voters out there searching for a candidate with a new feel, she’s it.
Beyond Harris, the convention did a good job last night with the speakers who led up to her. Her grand-nieces did a cute bit on how to pronounce her name (which even Bill Clinton flubbed). Comma-la. Not hard.
Four of the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five , also gave a powerful speech — reminding us how Trump continues to believe in their guilt decades after DNA and identifying the real rapist cleared them. I was struck by how much of Trump’s language around that case, and those Black teens, now mirrors his language around immigrants.
But the one that got me was sexual abuse survivor and advocate Courtney Baldwin , a Californian who was “bought and sold” via the website Backpage.com while she was a teen, she said.
It was the attorney general’s office under Harris (and Assistant Atty. Gen. Maggy Krell, who is now running for California Assembly ) that shut down that site with a novel legal strategy and a lot of relentlessness.
Harris is a champion of sexual abuse victims, and it’s a part of her background that she’s mentioned but is still little understood — for all the trafficking panic on the right, Harris has actually put a lot of pimps behind bars.
“She protected people like me her whole life,” Baldwin said. “I know she will fight for us all as president.”
Was there anything else that stood out to you, Mark?
Barabak: Let’s be real. As a woman, Harris faces doubts about her toughness, especially when it comes to defense and foreign policy. But Trump, with his weird suck-up approach to authoritarianism, made it easy for the vice president to draw a pointed contrast.
She vowed never to be a pushover to flattery, like a certain vain ex-president, and said she would always make sure America has “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”
Take that, Putin!
One of the most interesting things to watch in recent years has been the political role reversal under Trump’s Russia-loving, isolationist Republican Party. Now it’s Democrats who are the Cold Warriors.
Look at all the American flags filling the convention hall and hear those recurrent chants of “USA!” “USA!” and you’d have thought you were at one of Ronald Reagan’s GOP conventions.
Chabria: Republicans love to demonize women, individually and collectively. Remember how they treated Hillary? They literally accused her of staying artificially young by sacrificing children in a secret lair beneath a pizza parlor .
No doubt, Harris will see the pressure to label her as something beyond just a bad politician — something evil — increase.
But that kind of individual attack can’t be separated from the collective attack anymore. Women in general now feel under assault with the abortion issue, and that makes aggression toward Harris’ gender feel different than with Clinton.
As Harris put it, “One must ask why exactly is it that they don’t trust women. Well, we trust women. We trust women.”
Any final thoughts, Mark?
Barabak: Harris has always prepared herself to within an inch of her life. So her boffo performance — it is, after all, a performance — was not surprising.
The vice president’s forte is the big set piece — a major speech, a congressional hearing — where the climate is controlled.
When she leaves Chicago, it’s back to the messy and unpredictable campaign trail and at least one debate with the feral, unpredictable Trump.
Who knows what crisis may present itself in the next 70–odd days or what gaffes Harris might commit. Can her luck continue?
The path from here to November is unclear. But she’s certainly stepping off from the convention on the right foot.
And in a brief programming note, that’s it from Chicago. Thanks for joining us and we hope you’ll stick around for more to come.
Aug. 24, 2024
Aug. 23, 2024
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Mark Z. Barabak is a political columnist for the Los Angeles Times, focusing on California and the West. He has covered campaigns and elections in 49 of the 50 states, including a dozen presidential contests and scores of mayoral, legislative, gubernatorial and congressional races. He also reported from the White House and Capitol Hill during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations.
Anita Chabria is a California columnist for the Los Angeles Times, based in Sacramento. Before joining The Times, she worked for the Sacramento Bee as a member of its statewide investigative team and previously covered criminal justice and City Hall.
Aug. 27, 2024
Aug. 26, 2024
We followed the developments and fact-checked the speakers, providing context and explanation.
Vice President Kamala Harris accepted her party’s nomination for president on the last night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday.
Ms. Harris outlined her biography and warned that her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, was an “unserious man” who was seeking to return to power and bring the United States back to the past. Like the speakers who preceded her on Thursday night and earlier this week, Ms. Harris focused largely on aspirations and ideals and generally did not stray far from the facts.
Here’s an assessment of a few claims made by Ms. Harris and other speakers.
— Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin
Ms. Baldwin referred accurately to comments Mr. Trump made in a March interview with CNBC , in which he said, “There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements.” But Mr. Trump and his campaign clarified that he would not seek to cut the programs, and that he was speaking about “waste.” In rallies and other interviews during this campaign season, he has said that if he is elected president again he will not make cuts to either program.
A few days after the CNBC interview, he told the right-wing website Breitbart that he would “never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” In a campaign event on Thursday , he vowed to “not touch Social Security.”
Still, Mr. Trump has not outlined a clear plan for keeping the programs solvent. And during his time in office, Mr. Trump did propose some cuts to Medicare — though experts said the cost reductions would not have significantly affected benefits — and to Social Security’s programs for people with disabilities.
— Representative Pat Ryan, Democrat of New York
The claim that Donald J. Trump, as president, called veterans “suckers” and “losers” stems from a 2020 article in The Atlantic about his relationship to the military.
Mr. Trump has emphatically denied making the remarks since the article was published. While it relied on anonymous sources, many of the accounts it contained have been corroborated by other outlets, including The New York Times, and by John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who served as Mr. Trump’s White House chief of staff. Here’s a breakdown .
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— Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona
Mr. Kelly omitted a caveat in quoting Donald J. Trump, who, as president, said he told a NATO member nation that Russia could do “whatever the hell they want” to any country that did not meet the alliance’s military spending targets. But the remark was not a blanket invitation for Russia to act with abandon.
Mr. Trump, at a campaign rally in February , repeated his misleading claim that some members of NATO “owed” money to the alliance, referring to informal commitments made by member nations to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic products on their own militaries. In Mr. Trump’s telling, after he had delivered a speech urging members to “pay out,” the president of “one of the big countries” asked if the United States would come to its defense if President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia invaded, but it had failed to meet that 2 percent target. “I said, ‘You didn’t pay. You’re delinquent?’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ ‘No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want,’” Mr. Trump said.
When criticized for his remarks, Mr. Trump repeated his stance later that month at another rally: “Look, if they’re not going to pay, we’re not going to protect.”
More than 20 member nations currently meet the 2 percent target, the secretary general of the alliance recently announced.
— Representative Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona
The unemployment rate for veterans reached 2.2 percent in April 2023, under the Biden-Harris administration. That is indeed the lowest rate recorded since 2003, the earliest year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has available data. The rate has since increased; it was 3 percent in July.
Andrew Duehren
— Vice President Kamala Harris
Former President Donald J. Trump has called for a number of tax cuts during his presidential campaign, including extending the cuts in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that will expire next year. Continuing those tax cuts beyond 2025 would cost about $4.6 trillion in lower tax revenue and greater interest costs over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office .
But those tax cuts — including a larger standard deduction — benefit middle-income Americans, not just billionaires. Mr. Trump has also called for other costly tax cuts on the campaign trail, including cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, exempting tips from taxes and not taxing Social Security benefits. Those tax cuts would not exclusively benefit billionaires and would not cost $5 trillion.
Ms. Harris was referring to Mr. Trump’s proposals to place a 10 to 20 percent tariff on most imports, and a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods. She accurately cited one estimate of the cost. Other estimates are lower, while some are higher.
An analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal think tank, found that tariffs at those levels would cost the average family $3,900 annually.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that the proposals would cost the average middle-class household $2,600 annually under a 20 percent tariff and $1,700 annually under a 10 percent tariff. The Tax Policy Center estimated $320 more annually for the lowest-income households and $1,350 more for middle class households under a 10 percent tariff. And the right-leaning American Action Forum put the cost of the broad tariff at $1,700 to $2,350 annually, and the China-specific one at $1,950.
Mr. Trump has also suggested that he would replace income taxes with tariffs to minimize their impact, though tax policy experts say this is impossible as tariff levels would have to be implausibly high to replace the revenue from income taxes.
Joe Biden took the stage as the final speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday night, with more than three minutes of applause and frequent chants of “We love Joe” from the audience. The 49-minute speech ran long during a night that was already behind schedule.
During the speech, audience members unfurled a banner reading “Stop arming Israel,” several attendees reported, and other people tried to rip the banner away. The disruption didn’t cause much of a ripple due to the vast size of the arena.
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He then took up the subject of reproductive rights. “Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024,” Biden said, flubbing his statement “women are not without electoral power” as “electrical power” instead.
“America, I gave my best to you,” he concluded. “We just have to remember who we are.”
Hillary Clinton, who fell short of becoming the first woman president, told Democrats she believes America is on the verge of breaking through and electing Kamala Harris .
In her speech at the Democratic convention in Chicago, Clinton drew on the legacy of women on the national stage, from Shirley Chisholm to Geraldine Ferraro, and said that Harris will make history.
“I want my children and grandchildren to know I was here at this moment,” she said. “We were here. We were with Kamala Harris every step of the way. This is when we break through. The future is here. Let’s go win it.”
Harris kicked off the convention with a brief appearance, sending a jolt of excitement through the delegates on hand. The Night 1 crowd at the United Center was jubilant about the historic prospect of electing the first female president. The sense of history moving on was buttressed later in the night — as the program ran very long — when attendees started clearing out well before President Joe Biden’s address.
“This is going to be a great week!” Harris said during her brief appearance Monday. She gave a heartfelt thank-you to Biden. “We are forever grateful to you.”
The vice president then gave way to emcee Tony Goldwyn, the actor who played the president on the ABC show “Scandal.” Goldwyn was among a handful of entertainers on stage, following Jason Isbell, who sang “Something More Than Free,” and Mickey Guyton, who performed “Ain’t We All American?”
Goldwyn promised that the week would offer an introduction to Harris and a clear contrast between Donald Trump’s agenda and her vision for the future.
“It is a message that’s joyful, not mean spirited,” Goldwyn said. “Public service — not self service, optimism and opportunity, not chaos and division. It’s a message that has woken us up to who we are.”
The Democratic speakers offered tributes to Biden and Harris, but also sought to prosecute the case against Trump. Many attendees were overheard buzzing in corridors about the most recent Trump outrage — falsely claiming to have been endorsed by Taylor Swift.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democrat who has become one of the youthful faces of the party, was one of most anticipated speakers on the schedule and she was effective in firing up the crowd. Earlier in the day, Donald Trump’s campaign sought to link Harris to Ocasio-Cortez’s positions on issues like defunding the police and the Green New Deal.
When it was her turn at the podium, Ocasio-Cortez didn’t waste time attacking Trump as a plutocrat. AOC demonstrated her muscle as one of the most prominent young Democratic stars to come along in years. Her speech was drowned out in multiple instances by screaming and applause — especially when she took aim at Trump.
“I for one am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed trampling on our way of life,” she said. “The truth is, Don, you cannot love this country if you only fight for the wealthy and big business. To love this country is to fight for all people, working people, everyday Americans.” Ocasio-Cortez also reminded the crowd how important support for House and Senate races are. “We can’t send Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to Washington alone,” she said.
Clinton also didn’t hold back against Trump, saying he “fell asleep at his own trial,” and woke up to find himself convicted on 34 felony counts. In a twist of history, the crowd chanted “Lock him up!” — an echo of chants at Trump rallies eight years ago calling for Clinton to be jailed.
Clinton also drew parallels between Trump’s attacks on her and those on Harris.
“He’s mocking her name and her laugh – sounds familiar,” Clinton said. “But we have him on the run now.” Clinton may have lost the 2016 race against Trump but she remains a rock star with hardcore Democrats.
Spotted in the basement of the United Center were Marisa Tomei, J.J. Abrams and producer Bruce Cohen. They said they had “high hopes” for the campaign. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, have given more than $3 million to Democratic committees this cycle. Cohen is also a prolific donor.
With the convention speeches running late, James Taylor was cut from his scheduled performance before Biden’s speech.
As Democrats got ready for opening night, downtown Chicago was humming Monday with flags, bunting, bootleg t-shirt vendors and all the usual trappings of a political circus come to town.
Delegates from all over the country took time out before the major speechifying at the United Center this evening to look around the city. A rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza drew about 15,000 people, organizers with the Coalition to March on the DNC told ABC News Chicago .
Another hub of activity was on the east side of town at the sprawling McCormick Place center that the hosted DemPalooza showcase featuring a range of left-leaning organizations and causes. There were stages for discussions and Q&As but they were sparsely attended. The five-mile distance between McCormick Place and the United Center has obvious advantages for security and crowd control. But it also makes attendees heavily dependent on the DNC shuttles operating among the hotels and the two venues. The security perimeter around United Center is so large that ride share drivers and even public transit can’t get too close.
Elections are often defined in slogans and there was plenty of sloganeering displayed on the lapels, polo shirts and blouses of delegates, from “Remember Jan. 6” to “Keep Kamala and Carry On,” “Another Cat Lady for Kamala” and “Make Lying Wrong Again.”
More from our brands, it’s really happening: oasis will reunite for a world tour in 2025.
CHICAGO — Amid a cacophony of cheering Democrats and a canopy of red, white and blue balloons, Vice President Kamala Harris made history.
The first woman elected vice president of the United States officially became the first Black and South Asian woman named a major-party presidential nominee, lifting Democrats’ hopes of defeating former President Donald Trump and keeping the White House for another four years.
After three days of buildup about her work as a prosecutor and her promise as a leader, Harris emerged onstage to deafening roars from a packed arena, which cheered over her attempts to begin her speech before she told attendees they had to “get to some business.”
“We are charting a new way forward, forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class,” Harris said in her speech.
“Because we know a strong middle class has always been critical to America’s success, and building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” she continued, calling it a “personal” thing because “the middle class is where I come from.”
“That’s why we will create what I call an opportunity economy, an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed, whether you live in a rural area, small town or big city,” Harris said.
At that, thousands of Democrats inside the arena leaped to their feet, offering a thunderous reception.
In the lead-up to Harris’ appearance, the electricity running through the party was palpable inside the United Center, where Michael Jordan famously led the Chicago Bulls to three of their six championships. All night, the arena was transformed into a rollicking party, with a sea of bodies, many of them wearing white, bouncing, dancing and singing as celebratory music blared.
Harris spent the beginning of her speech laying out her biography, from her family’s story to the early steps of her career. Speaking about her immigrant parents, she said she’s “no stranger to unlikely journeys,” describing her upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area and her start as a prosecutor.
“Every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words: ‘Kamala Harris for the people.’ My entire career, I only had one client: the people,” Harris said.
Harris then wove that story into the traditional applause line accepting her party’s nomination.
“And so, on behalf of the people; on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks; on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey; on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another; on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America,” Harris said.
In the month since President Joe Biden stepped aside from the campaign, Harris has transformed the race, invigorating a stagnant, lackluster campaign weighed down by questions over his age and sharpness. Now, the campaign is awash with money, having raised nearly $500 million since Harris moved to the top of the ticket and later chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate.
In her remarks, Harris spoke in broad outlines about her own agenda, saying she would restore reproductive freedoms, offer a tax cut to the middle class, end America’s housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare.
“They are out of their minds,” she said of Republicans and what she called their attack on women’s reproductive rights. “We trust women,” she said.
She repeatedly hammered away at Trump, calling him a threat to working Americans, saying he would cut taxes for only the wealthy. She also cited Project 2025, a conservative blueprint by the Heritage Foundation meant to be a road map for another Trump term. Trump rejected the document after the blowback around it.
After a program that included The Chicks singing the national anthem and a performance by Pink, pop queen Beyoncé's song “Freedom” also played ahead of the vice president's acceptance speech, reinforcing a theme Harris has leaned on to advocate for everything from voting rights to housing affordability to reproductive rights.
“I believe America cannot truly be prosperous unless Americans are fully able to make their own decisions about their own lives, especially on matters of heart and home. But tonight, in America, too many women are not able to make those decisions, and let’s be clear about how we got here,” Harris said, pointing to Trump’s Supreme Court appointees who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Harris also spoke about strengthening border security and national security, slamming Trump’s opposition to a bipartisan border deal that was proposed in Congress this year, as well as his past comments about American allies. She reaffirmed her commitment to NATO and Ukraine in its war against Russia.
And Harris spoke at length about Israel and its military action against Hamas in Gaza, an issue that has divided Democrats over the last year.
“Let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,” Harris said, speaking about the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. “At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost, desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again.”
Trump, who posted on social media throughout Harris' speech, wrote on his platform Truth Socia l: "She’s done nothing for three and a half years but talk, and that’s what she’s doing tonight, she’s complaining about everything but doing nothing."
The conclusion of the convention capped a tumultuous period for the Democratic Party, with weeks of infighting among its leaders before Biden announced he would step aside. Biden immediately endorsed Harris, and she quickly locked down support across his delegates, avoiding what some had feared could become a messy open convention.
But the prospect of Harris’ landing in the White House had Black leaders beaming all day.
“There is no glass ceiling in this for us. Hillary cracked it. We’re gonna break through it,” said Daniele Monroe-Moreno, the first Black woman to chair the Nevada Democratic Party.
She said Harris’ accomplishment sends a clear message in 2024.
“Every little girl — I don’t care what race, religious belief you are — there is nothing you cannot do,” Monroe-Moreno said. “And that’s what this means. Women. We’re here. We’re the new force in this Democratic Party.”
When Harris launched her first presidential campaign in 2019, she became the third Black woman to seek a major party’s nomination, following Rep. Shirley Chisholm, D-N.Y., in 1972 and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill., in 2004.
Now, little more than half a century after Chisholm’s campaign, which challenged stereotypes and collected a handful of delegates, her party has nominated a Black woman for the most powerful post in the world.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader and MSNBC host, was youth director for Chisholm’s campaign. On Thursday, he put Harris’ nomination in the context of Chisholm and a change in American attitudes on race and gender that she helped foment.
“To see this fulfilled is a long time coming,” Sharpton said. “It shows a growth in the country and in the Democratic Party, not only for Black, but for a woman — it’s a victory over misogyny, institutional misogyny and racism.”
Feelings of pride and patriotism swelled within many of the Black women at Thursday’s session of the convention.
Cathleen Trigg, founder and CEO of iWomanTV , said she had come to Chicago from New York to do everything in her power to help Harris win.
“I can’t really describe the feeling of being at this place in life where we do have our potentially first female, first Black female, first — so many firsts — that could be leading our country, the greatest country in the world,” said Trigg, 56. “It’s a miracle. It’s a blessing. It is an opportunity for change that is much needed in our country.”
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who was the highest-ranking Black lawmaker when he was the Democratic whip in the House, referred to the preamble of the Constitution in explaining the importance of Harris’ nomination.
“It means that we have taken another step toward a more perfect union,” Clyburn said. “It means that a significant, and I hope a majority, segment of this country wishes to continue moving forward, not interested in going backwards, not interested in reliving the past, but charting out a new way forward for our children and grandchildren.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said: “From President Biden, you had this [message of] ‘Oh, my gosh. Democracy is at stake! We can’t let this happen! Kamala Harris brought the joy back into this.”
Speaking from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, before the convention began, Warner said that “every politician is passing through and people are almost giddy!”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in an interview: “Americans like an upbeat, optimistic, joy-filled personality, which is what she’s conveyed.”
Ann-Marie Herod, a Black woman who lives in Chicago and is originally from Mississippi, said it was difficult to put the significance of the night into words.
“When Obama ran, I was a young girl. Now, I’m actually able to go out and be active within this process: canvassing, doing these different things,” said Herod, who was watching Harris’ acceptance from Soldier Field. “I have parents, I have friends, who never could have imagined a Black woman could be in the White House. It is amazing.”
Natasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
Jonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News.
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Time and Place in Reported Speech. When we report something, we may need to make changes to: time (now, tomorrow) place (here, this room) direct speech. reported speech. She said, "I saw Mary yesterday." She said she had seen Mary the day before. He said: "My mother is here."
Reported speech - change of time and place. "I will see you here tomorrow ", she said. —-> She said that she would see me there the next day. "I saw him today", she said. "I saw him yesterday", she said. She said that she had seen him the day before.
She said that she had seen him the day before. The day before yesterday: two days before "I met her the day before yesterday", he said. He said that he had met her two days before. Tomorrow: the next/following day "I'll see you tomorrow", he said: He said that he would see me the next day. The day after tomorrow: in two days time/ two days ...
Below is a list of common time and place words, showing how you change them from direct to reported speech: "It's raining now ." Sophie said (that) it was raining then. "I posted the letter today .". Sam said (that) he had posted the letter that day. "We are going to the theatre tonight. Eva said (that) they were going to the theatre that ...
The relative time reference can be hard to render as reported speech, even for simple words like "yesterday". The best solution is to rephrase them as absolute time references: (on Monday) John says "I came back the day before yesterday". (reported) John said that he came back on Saturday.
Time Expressions with Reported Speech Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech. ... the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December ...
Learn about reported speech in English language: what it is, examples, rules, verb tense changes, modal verbs, time/place changes, and reporting verbs. ... Yesterday: The previous day/ The day before: Last week: The previous week/ The week before: Ago: Previously/ Before: Tonight: That night: No Change in Verb Tenses in Reported Speech.
5. Conversion of expressions of time and place. If there is an expression of time/place in the sentence, it may be changed, depending on the situation. Direct Speech → Peter, "I worked in the garden yesterday .". Reported Speech → Peter said (that) he had worked in the garden the day before. Direct Speech.
Direct speech using would, could, might and should all stay the same in reported speech. "You should speak more" - He said I should speak more. Reporting questions. ... tomorrow - the day after / the next day. yesterday - the day before / the previous day. now - then. next week - the week after. last week - the week before / the ...
Two weeks ago - two weeks before. Yesterday - the day before. Here are some examples. Direct speech: "I am baking cookies now." Indirect speech: He said he was baking cookies then. Direct speech: "Myra went here yesterday." Indirect speech: She said Myra went there the day before. Direct speech: "I will go to the market tomorrow."
Reported Speech: In this article, you will be introduced to reported speech, its meaning and definition, how and when to use it. You can also check out the examples given for a much better understanding of reported speech. ... Yesterday: The previous day: Tonight: That night: Last week: The week before: Next week: The week after: Last month ...
Direct Speech: Indirect Speech: Pronouns and possessive adjectives: We usually change from first or second to third person except when the speaker is reporting his own words. today: that day: yesterday: the day before (the previous day) Tomorrow / the next day: The following day: The day before yesterday: Two days before / earlier: Yesterday ...
From Yesterday to The Day Before: Mastering Reported Speech • Join us on a journey into the world of reported speech and discover how to effectively convey a...
When we use reported speech, we often change the verb tense backwards in time. This can be called "backshift.". Here are some examples in different verb tenses: "I want to go home.". She said she wanted to go home. "I 'm reading a good book.". She said she was reading a good book. "I ate pasta for dinner last night.".
Introduction. In English grammar, we use reported speech to say what another person has said. We can use their exact words with quotation marks, this is known as direct speech, or we can use indirect speech. In indirect speech, we change the tense and pronouns to show that some time has passed. Indirect speech is often introduced by a reporting ...
Yes, and you report it with a reporting verb. He said he wanted to know about reported speech. I said, I want and you changed it to he wanted. Exactly. Verbs in the present simple change to the past simple; the present continuous changes to the past continuous; the present perfect changes to the past perfect; can changes to could; will changes ...
Direct Speech Reported Speech "I finished my homework." She said she had finished her homework. "We are going shopping." He told me they were going shopping. "She will call you later." They mentioned she would call me later. "I saw him yesterday." She said she had seen him the day before. "The party is tonight."
Reported speech: indirect speech - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
Direct: "I will help you," she promised. Reported: She promised that she would help me. Direct: "You should study harder," he advised. Reported: He advised that I should study harder. Direct: "I didn't take your book," he denied. Reported: He denied taking my book. Direct: "Let's go to the cinema," she suggested.
1. He said, " I found the money in the garden yesterday." He said that he had found the money in the garden the day before. 2. The policeman asked me , "What were you wearing last Sunday"? The policeman asked me what I was wearing the previous Sunday / the Sunday before. 3. The teacher explained to us, "The moon takes 28 days to go around the ...
Using "the day before/after" for "yesterday" and "tomorrow". 2. Forgetting to change "the next day" to "the following day". 3. Forgetting how to change "ago" to "before". ... Do remember that it is a good practice to write the changes for reported speech on top of the direct speech ...
Exercises: 1 2 3. Indirect speech - reported speech. Exercise 1. Choose the correct form to complete the sentences below. 1 'I work in a bank.' ⇒ He said that he in a bank. 2 'I am working today.' ⇒ She told us she that day. 3 'I've been ill for a couple of weeks.' ⇒ He told me he for a couple of weeks.
PHOENIX (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent campaign for the White House and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, a late-stage shakeup of the race that could give the former president a modest boost from Kennedy's supporters. Hours later, Kennedy joined Trump onstage at an Arizona rally, where the crowd burst into "Bobby!" cheers.
Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today's top ...
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