Rules for Changing Persons in Reported speech

In this topic, we are going to discuss the  changes in first person pronouns and also in their  ‘possessive adjectives’,  ‘possessive pronouns’  and  ’emphatic’ or ‘reflexive pronouns’.   Here, we don’t have to concern about the tense form of the reporting verbs.

I.  ‘First person’ pronouns in ‘direct speech’  is  changed into   ‘third person’ pronouns in ‘reported speech’, as follows,

Direct speech                                                    ——–>   Indirect or  Reported speech

First  persons                                                     ——–>   Third persons

I( subject form)                                                 he / she ( sub )

me ( object)                                                        him/ her ( object)

my ( possessive Adjective)                           his / her ( P. Adj.)

mine (possessive pronoun)                          his / hers ( P. Pron)

myself (reflexive/ emphatic pronoun)     himself / herself( R.P / E.P)

We ( Sub.)                                                           they ( sub)

us ( object)                                                         them ( object)

our (P.Adj.)                                                         their ( P.Adj)

ours ( P. Pron)                                                    theirs ( P.Pron)

ourselves ( E.P / R.P)                                       themselves ( E.P / R.P)

eg: Martin said to his friend, "I”  hiked 'my' salary 'myself' because 'mine' was not enough to satisfy 'our' family." Martin told his friend that 'he' had hiked 'his' salary 'himself because 'his' had been not enough to satisfy 'his' family.

Here, we can see, First person subject 'I' is changed to third person subject 'he'

First person possessive adjective 'my' is changed into third person possessive adjective 'his'

First person emphatic  pronoun ‘myself’ is changed into third person emphatic pronoun ‘himself’

First person possessive pronoun  ‘mine’  is changed into third person possessive pronoun ‘his’,  at last,

First person possessive adjective ‘my’ is changed into third person possessive adjective ‘his’

Another example,

They said to their Manager, ” Sir,  ‘we’ can make ‘our’ company the best with using all the resources. Then the world will recognize us”

They told their Manager that ‘they’ could make ‘their’ company the best with using all the resources and added that then the world would recognize ‘them’

Here also, we can see the similar changes that we have seen in the above example.

1. Possessive Adjective :    Adjectives showing a possession,

                                                            eg:   His  car.

                                                            Here,  ‘His’  showing a  ‘possession’ and  also  stands  as an  ‘adjective’.

                                                            Hence, the pronoun  ‘His’  is termed as   ‘possessive adjective’.

1.  Possessive pronoun :     Pronouns showing a possession.

                                                           eg:  His car is  BMW.  But mine is  Jaguar.

                                                            Here  ‘mine’  showing a  ‘possession’  and  also stands as a  ‘pronoun’.

                                                            So,  ‘mine’  is a  ‘Possessive pronoun’.

1.     Emphatic pronoun :      Showing  emphasis.

                                                           eg:  Mr. John  ‘himself’  finished all the work.

                                                            Here,  ‘himself’  is used to emphasize that the work was done by Mr. John,  not  by anyone  else.

                                                             So ‘himself’  is an  ‘emphatic pronoun’.

1. Reflexive pronoun :      used to show that  the subject and object of a sentence is exactly a same person.

                                                          eg: Mary blamed herself for having lost the opportunity.

                                                          Here,  the subject and object of the sentence is  exactly  ‘Mary’.

                                                          So the reflexive pronoun  ‘herself’  is used here.

    ‘Emphatic pronoun’ and ‘Reflexive pronoun’ are  ‘same in form’, but ‘different’ in their ‘functions’ as   mentioned above.

Second person’ in direct speech is changed into either  ‘first person’ or ‘third person’ in reported speech , as shown below

Direct speech -----------------------------------à Reported Speech

Second Person  --------------------à First Person  or Third Person

  You (Sub)                          I / We                                    he/ she / they

You ( obj )                            me/us                                   him/her/ them

Your(P Adj)                         my/our                                                 his/her/ their

Yours ( P. Pron)                 mine/ ours                          his/hers/ theirs

Yourself(E.P/R.P)              myself                                  himself/herself

Yourselves( * )                   ourselves                             themselves

As 'yourself' is singular, it is only related to 'first' and 'third' person 'singulars. Similarly, the plural 'yourselves' is only related to 'first' and 'third' person 'plurals.

Now, let's go through an example to understand the above mentioned changes in second person 'You.

• Manuel said to his wife, " Darling, 'you look so beautiful today. 'You seem to have used the new cream on 'your' face"

Manuel told his wife lovingly that 'she' looked so beautiful that day, and added that 'she' seemed to have used the new cream on 'her' face.

Here, we can see that the 'second person’  subject  ‘you' is changed into 'third person singular' subject 'she' and the second person possessive adjective 'your' is changed into third person singular possessive adjective 'her', as the 'you’ here stands only for one person. ( Manuel's wife)

Another example,

Teacher said to us, "'you' are the best students I have ever seen "

Teacher told us that 'we' were the best students she had ever seen.

Here, the second person subject ‘you’ is changed into the first person plural subject ‘we’ , as the ‘you’ here stands for more than one person(We)