Reported speech

Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
1.Present	1.Past
2.Simple Past	2.Simple Past or Past Perfect
3.Present Continuous	3.Past Continuous
4.Past Continuous	4.Past Continuous
5.Present Perfect	5. Past Perfect
6.Past Perfect	6. Past Perfect
7. Can	7. Could
8.Shall	8. Should
9.Will	9.Would
10.May	10. Might
11.Need	11. Had to or Need
12.Must	12. Had to or Must

Backshift of tenses
from	to
Simple Present	Simple Past
Simple Past	Past Perfect
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
will	would
Progressive forms
am/are/is	was/were
was/were	had been
has been
had been

Backshift of tenses
from	to
Peter: "I work in the garden."	Peter said (that) he worked in the garden.
Peter: "I worked in the garden."	Peter said (that) he had worked in the garden.
Peter: "I have worked in the garden."
Peter: "I had worked in the garden."
Peter: "I will work in the garden."	Peter said (that) he would work in the garden.
Peter: "I can work in the garden."	Peter said (that) he could work in the garden.
Peter: "I may work in the garden."	Peter said (that) he might work in the garden.
Peter: "I would work in the garden." (could, might, should, ought to)	Peter said (that) he would work in the garden. (could, might, should, ought to)
Progressive forms
Peter: "I'm working in the garden."	Peter said (that) he was working in the garden.
Peter: "I was working in the garden."	Peter said (that) he had been working in the garden.
Peter: "I have been working in the garden."
Peter: "I had been working in the garden."

If the sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it as well.

Peter: "I worked in the garden yesterday."
Peter said that he had worked in the garden the day before.

Shifting/Conversion of expressions of time

this (evening)	that (evening)
today/this day	that day
these (days)	those (days)
now	then
(a week) ago	(a week) before
last weekend	the weekend before / the previous weekend
here	there
next (week)	the following (week)
tomorrow	the next/following day

Note:

In some cases the backshift of tenses is not necessary, e.g. when statements are still true.

John: "My brother is at Leipzig university."
John said (that) his brother was at Leipzig university. or
John said (that) his brother is at Leipzig university.