Direct and Indirect speech Past perfect and Past Simple

Direct and Indirect Speech, also known as Reported Speech. Direct Speect is a sentence spoken directly by the speaker and if it is written it will be quoted. While Indirect Speech is a sentence that we report to others indirectly and without commas.

Past Perfect :

Present perfect continuous tense becomes past perfect tense.

If direct speech using present continuous tense then indirect speech using past perfect tense.

Direct : He said “We have been living here for three years”.
Indirect : He said that they had been living there for three years.

Present perfect tense becomes past perfect tense.

If direct speech uses present perfect tense then indirect speech uses past perfect tense.

Direct : John said”I have finished doing my reports”.
Indirect : John said that he had finished doing his reports

Past Simple :

Simple past become past perfect tense. 

If the speech directly using simple past tense then the conversation does not directly use the past perfect tense.

Direct : He said “I went to school yesterday”.
Indirect : He said that he had gone to school the day before.