Direct and Indirect Speech

Indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past. When we use indirect speech, we don’t use inverted comas. We should change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs for example say, ask, and we may use the word that to introduce the reported words. 

Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)

Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

For example:

She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."

or

"Today's lesson is on presentations," she said.

Indirect Speech / Reported Speech

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

Direct speech  -  "I'm going to the cinema", he said.

Indirect speech-He said he was going to the cinema.