Pronouns, Time, and Place Changes

When you report what someone said, three kinds of words often stop making sense from your new point of view: pronouns, time words, and place words. You change them so the sentence still points to the right person, the right moment, and the right location.

The trigger is context, not grammar. A shift happens only when the speaker, the time, or the place is different from the original. If nothing has changed, nothing has to change.

The speaker is now you, not Daniel — so I becomes he. The time is now Tuesday, so tomorrow becomes today. You are no longer in the office, but the place word this still shifts to the because you're describing the report from the outside.

Pronoun shifts

Pronouns move to match the new perspective. I and we belonged to the original speaker; when someone else reports them, they become third person. You belonged to the person being addressed; when it is reported, it points to whoever that person was.

The same logic runs through possessives and reflexives.

A few concrete examples:

If the reporter is the original speaker, first-person pronouns do not change. If you said "I'm tired" and you report it yourself, I stays I: I said I was tired.

Time shifts

Time words are anchored to the moment of speaking. When you report later, those anchors drift. Now is no longer now; tomorrow has probably already passed.

In a full sentence:

The choice between the next day and the following day is mostly stylistic — both are standard. The previous week and the week before work the same way.

Place shifts

Place words and demonstratives point from where the speaker stands. When you move, they have to move with you.

When the demonstrative refers to something already identified, it often softens to the:

Shift only when the context has changed

This is the point the rulebook often misses. The changes above are not automatic. They happen only when reporting from a different perspective, a different time, or a different place. If the report happens in the same conversation, on the same day, in the same room, you keep the original words.

Imagine Tom tells you at 10 a.m.: "I'll call you tonight." You turn to Maria two seconds later and pass it on. You are still here, still today, still the person Tom spoke to. The natural report is:

Not "he would call me that night" — that would sound strange and distant. The original time and place still match reality, so nothing shifts. Tense can even stay in the present if the statement is still true.

The same applies to place. If Sarah says "It's cold in here" and you repeat it to someone standing next to you in the same room, here stays here. Only when you leave and describe the moment later does it become there.

A useful test: for each word, ask "is this still accurate from where and when I'm speaking now?" If yes, keep it. If no, shift it.

Putting the three shifts together

A single reported sentence usually combines all three kinds of changes. Walking through them one by one keeps things clean.

Original, spoken by Maria to James on Monday, in Berlin:

Reported by you on Wednesday, in a different city:

The shifts, lined up:

Each shift is triggered by one specific change in context. If you had repeated this to James himself on Monday in Berlin, almost nothing would move — the context would still match.

Common mistakes

Missing pronoun shifts

Shifting time words that are still accurate

Inconsistent pronouns inside one sentence

Keeping "here" when the location has moved

Forgetting demonstrative shifts