EnglishGrade 9ages 14–15
🗣️ She said she was
When we report what someone else said, English steps the verb one tense back — am becomes was — even though Hebrew reports the very same sentence with the tense left exactly as it was.
Try this lesson freeNo card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreWhat your child learns
- She said: I am tired. In the report: She said she was tired.
- I becomes she. am becomes was. The tense steps back.
- that is optional: She said that she was tired.
- Hebrew says she said that she is tired — the present stays exactly as it was. In English it has to step back.
The mistake most kids make here
She said I am tired when she spoke about herself in the past report.
Try one question
She said about herself I am tired. How do we report it?
Report
- She said I am tired
- She said she was tired
- She said she is tired
Answer
She said she was tired — That's it. Both moved: I became she, and am became was.
How Maya teaches it
Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.
Your child has it when they can: Say She said she was tired, not She said I am.
How to help at home
If someone says 'I am tired,' reporting it later means shifting two things at once: I becomes she or he, and am becomes was. 'She said she was tired,' not 'she said she is tired.'
The word that is optional here: 'she said that she was tired' and 'she said she was tired' mean exactly the same thing — that isn't the part to worry about.
Try it with something your child actually said earlier in the day: if they said 'I am hungry' at breakfast, ask them to report it now — 'I said I was hungry' — and notice the tense step back on its own.
A good sign they've got it: when reporting something said in the past, both the pronoun and the tense shift together, without leaving the original tense behind by mistake.
Questions parents ask
- Why does my child say she said I am tired instead of she said she was tired?
- They're reporting the original sentence word for word instead of shifting it. Two things need to change: the pronoun (I becomes she) and the tense (am becomes was).
- Why does the tense change at all if the person might still be tired?
- English shifts the tense back simply because the reporting happens later than the original statement, regardless of whether the feeling is still true. It's a rule about when it was said, not about what's still going on.
- Is the word that required in reported speech?
- No — she said she was tired and she said that she was tired are both correct and mean the same thing. It's the pronoun and tense shift that matter, not that.
- How does Maya teach this?
- Maya has the child hear a sentence like I am tired and then choose the correctly reported version, so both shifts — the pronoun and the tense — get practiced together.
No card needed. The first lesson is free.
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