Tom said that he was doing his homework now. When reporting this statement, we would say "Tom said that he had been doing his homework then." Reporting statements involves changing the perspective from the original speaker to the person reporting it. This involves changing pronouns like "I" to the speaker ("he" in this case), changing verbs to the past tense, and changing references to times or places.

1. STEP BY STEP

2. his homeworkwas doinghethatsaid
This is how we report statements.
“I am doing my homework now,” said Tom.
Speakers are always mentioned at the
beginning of the sentence in the reported
speech.
Tom
Reporting verbs like “say, tell, explain…” are
used in the Past Simple and placed after the
subject.
The use of “that” is optional in English.
References to people change because the
point of view changes.
“I” refers to Tom, so we change it to “he”.
Tenses move back into the past.
In this case the Present Continuous becomes
Past Continuous.
Again references to people change because
the point of view changed.
“My” refers to Tom’s, so we change it to “his”.
then.
We need to change references to times.
Finally don’t forget to remove the speech
marks (inverted commas) around the spoken
words.
Now let’s take a look at some of
these changes in more detail.

3. TENSE CHANGES: present
make/makes made
am/is/are
making
was/were
making
has/have
made
had made
don’t/doesn’t
make
didn’t
make
Note that we only change the first verb from
present into past.

4. TENSE CHANGES: past
went had gone
didn’t go
hadn’t
gone
was/were
going
had been
going
When the tense is past we need to add
had + past participle
Verbs already in the past perfect do not change.

5. TENSE CHANGES: modal verbs
can could
will would
may might
must
must or
had to
The past modals could, would, should and
might do not change.

6. CHANGES in PLACE & TIME
here there
this that/the
these those
now then
today that day

7. CHANGES in PLACE & TIME
tonight that night
tomorrow
the next day /
the following
day
next week
the following
week
yesterday
the day before/
the previous
day
last month
the previous
month
THAT’S ALL
FOR NOW!