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Key things to know about U.S. election polling in 2024

Confidence in U.S. public opinion polling was shaken by errors in 2016 and 2020. In both years’ general elections, many polls underestimated the strength of Republican candidates, including Donald Trump. These errors laid bare some real limitations of polling.

In the midterms that followed those elections, polling performed better . But many Americans remain skeptical that it can paint an accurate portrait of the public’s political preferences.

Restoring people’s confidence in polling is an important goal, because robust and independent public polling has a critical role to play in a democratic society. It gathers and publishes information about the well-being of the public and about citizens’ views on major issues. And it provides an important counterweight to people in power, or those seeking power, when they make claims about “what the people want.”

The challenges facing polling are undeniable. In addition to the longstanding issues of rising nonresponse and cost, summer 2024 brought extraordinary events that transformed the presidential race . The good news is that people with deep knowledge of polling are working hard to fix the problems exposed in 2016 and 2020, experimenting with more data sources and interview approaches than ever before. Still, polls are more useful to the public if people have realistic expectations about what surveys can do well – and what they cannot.

With that in mind, here are some key points to know about polling heading into this year’s presidential election.

Probability sampling (or “random sampling”). This refers to a polling method in which survey participants are recruited using random sampling from a database or list that includes nearly everyone in the population. The pollster selects the sample. The survey is not open for anyone who wants to sign up.

Online opt-in polling (or “nonprobability sampling”). These polls are recruited using a variety of methods that are sometimes referred to as “convenience sampling.” Respondents come from a variety of online sources such as ads on social media or search engines, websites offering rewards in exchange for survey participation, or self-enrollment. Unlike surveys with probability samples, people can volunteer to participate in opt-in surveys.

Nonresponse and nonresponse bias. Nonresponse is when someone sampled for a survey does not participate. Nonresponse bias occurs when the pattern of nonresponse leads to error in a poll estimate. For example, college graduates are more likely than those without a degree to participate in surveys, leading to the potential that the share of college graduates in the resulting sample will be too high.

Mode of interview. This refers to the format in which respondents are presented with and respond to survey questions. The most common modes are online, live telephone, text message and paper. Some polls use more than one mode.

Weighting. This is a statistical procedure pollsters perform to make their survey align with the broader population on key characteristics like age, race, etc. For example, if a survey has too many college graduates compared with their share in the population, people without a college degree are “weighted up” to match the proper share.

How are election polls being conducted?

Pollsters are making changes in response to the problems in previous elections. As a result, polling is different today than in 2016. Most U.S. polling organizations that conducted and publicly released national surveys in both 2016 and 2022 (61%) used methods in 2022 that differed from what they used in 2016 . And change has continued since 2022.

One change is that the number of active polling organizations has grown significantly, indicating that there are fewer barriers to entry into the polling field. The number of organizations that conduct national election polls more than doubled between 2000 and 2022.

This growth has been driven largely by pollsters using inexpensive opt-in sampling methods. But previous Pew Research Center analyses have demonstrated how surveys that use nonprobability sampling may have errors twice as large , on average, as those that use probability sampling.

The second change is that many of the more prominent polling organizations that use probability sampling – including Pew Research Center – have shifted from conducting polls primarily by telephone to using online methods, or some combination of online, mail and telephone. The result is that polling methodologies are far more diverse now than in the past.

(For more about how public opinion polling works, including a chapter on election polls, read our short online course on public opinion polling basics .)

All good polling relies on statistical adjustment called “weighting,” which makes sure that the survey sample aligns with the broader population on key characteristics. Historically, public opinion researchers have adjusted their data using a core set of demographic variables to correct imbalances between the survey sample and the population.

But there is a growing realization among survey researchers that weighting a poll on just a few variables like age, race and gender is insufficient for getting accurate results. Some groups of people – such as older adults and college graduates – are more likely to take surveys, which can lead to errors that are too sizable for a simple three- or four-variable adjustment to work well. Adjusting on more variables produces more accurate results, according to Center studies in 2016 and 2018 .

A number of pollsters have taken this lesson to heart. For example, recent high-quality polls by Gallup and The New York Times/Siena College adjusted on eight and 12 variables, respectively. Our own polls typically adjust on 12 variables . In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary to have that much intervention by the pollster. But the real world of survey research is not perfect.

Predicting who will vote is critical – and difficult. Preelection polls face one crucial challenge that routine opinion polls do not: determining who of the people surveyed will actually cast a ballot.

Roughly a third of eligible Americans do not vote in presidential elections , despite the enormous attention paid to these contests. Determining who will abstain is difficult because people can’t perfectly predict their future behavior – and because many people feel social pressure to say they’ll vote even if it’s unlikely.

No one knows the profile of voters ahead of Election Day. We can’t know for sure whether young people will turn out in greater numbers than usual, or whether key racial or ethnic groups will do so. This means pollsters are left to make educated guesses about turnout, often using a mix of historical data and current measures of voting enthusiasm. This is very different from routine opinion polls, which mostly do not ask about people’s future intentions.

When major news breaks, a poll’s timing can matter. Public opinion on most issues is remarkably stable, so you don’t necessarily need a recent poll about an issue to get a sense of what people think about it. But dramatic events can and do change public opinion , especially when people are first learning about a new topic. For example, polls this summer saw notable changes in voter attitudes following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. Polls taken immediately after a major event may pick up a shift in public opinion, but those shifts are sometimes short-lived. Polls fielded weeks or months later are what allow us to see whether an event has had a long-term impact on the public’s psyche.

How accurate are polls?

The answer to this question depends on what you want polls to do. Polls are used for all kinds of purposes in addition to showing who’s ahead and who’s behind in a campaign. Fair or not, however, the accuracy of election polling is usually judged by how closely the polls matched the outcome of the election.

By this standard, polling in 2016 and 2020 performed poorly. In both years, state polling was characterized by serious errors. National polling did reasonably well in 2016 but faltered in 2020.

In 2020, a post-election review of polling by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) found that “the 2020 polls featured polling error of an unusual magnitude: It was the highest in 40 years for the national popular vote and the highest in at least 20 years for state-level estimates of the vote in presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial contests.”

How big were the errors? Polls conducted in the last two weeks before the election suggested that Biden’s margin over Trump was nearly twice as large as it ended up being in the final national vote tally.

Errors of this size make it difficult to be confident about who is leading if the election is closely contested, as many U.S. elections are .

Pollsters are rightly working to improve the accuracy of their polls. But even an error of 4 or 5 percentage points isn’t too concerning if the purpose of the poll is to describe whether the public has favorable or unfavorable opinions about candidates , or to show which issues matter to which voters. And on questions that gauge where people stand on issues, we usually want to know broadly where the public stands. We don’t necessarily need to know the precise share of Americans who say, for example, that climate change is mostly caused by human activity. Even judged by its performance in recent elections, polling can still provide a faithful picture of public sentiment on the important issues of the day.

The 2022 midterms saw generally accurate polling, despite a wave of partisan polls predicting a broad Republican victory. In fact, FiveThirtyEight found that “polls were more accurate in 2022 than in any cycle since at least 1998, with almost no bias toward either party.” Moreover, a handful of contrarian polls that predicted a 2022 “red wave” largely washed out when the votes were tallied. In sum, if we focus on polling in the most recent national election, there’s plenty of reason to be encouraged.

Compared with other elections in the past 20 years, polls have been less accurate when Donald Trump is on the ballot. Preelection surveys suffered from large errors – especially at the state level – in 2016 and 2020, when Trump was standing for election. But they performed reasonably well in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, when he was not.

During the 2016 campaign, observers speculated about the possibility that Trump supporters might be less willing to express their support to a pollster – a phenomenon sometimes described as the “shy Trump effect.” But a committee of polling experts evaluated five different tests of the “shy Trump” theory and turned up little to no evidence for each one . Later, Pew Research Center and, in a separate test, a researcher from Yale also found little to no evidence in support of the claim.

Instead, two other explanations are more likely. One is about the difficulty of estimating who will turn out to vote. Research has found that Trump is popular among people who tend to sit out midterms but turn out for him in presidential election years. Since pollsters often use past turnout to predict who will vote, it can be difficult to anticipate when irregular voters will actually show up.

The other explanation is that Republicans in the Trump era have become a little less likely than Democrats to participate in polls . Pollsters call this “partisan nonresponse bias.” Surprisingly, polls historically have not shown any particular pattern of favoring one side or the other. The errors that favored Democratic candidates in the past eight years may be a result of the growth of political polarization, along with declining trust among conservatives in news organizations and other institutions that conduct polls.

Whatever the cause, the fact that Trump is again the nominee of the Republican Party means that pollsters must be especially careful to make sure all segments of the population are properly represented in surveys.

The real margin of error is often about double the one reported. A typical election poll sample of about 1,000 people has a margin of sampling error that’s about plus or minus 3 percentage points. That number expresses the uncertainty that results from taking a sample of the population rather than interviewing everyone . Random samples are likely to differ a little from the population just by chance, in the same way that the quality of your hand in a card game varies from one deal to the next.

The problem is that sampling error is not the only kind of error that affects a poll. Those other kinds of error, in fact, can be as large or larger than sampling error. Consequently, the reported margin of error can lead people to think that polls are more accurate than they really are.

There are three other, equally important sources of error in polling: noncoverage error , where not all the target population has a chance of being sampled; nonresponse error, where certain groups of people may be less likely to participate; and measurement error, where people may not properly understand the questions or misreport their opinions. Not only does the margin of error fail to account for those other sources of potential error, putting a number only on sampling error implies to the public that other kinds of error do not exist.

Several recent studies show that the average total error in a poll estimate may be closer to twice as large as that implied by a typical margin of sampling error. This hidden error underscores the fact that polls may not be precise enough to call the winner in a close election.

Other important things to remember

Transparency in how a poll was conducted is associated with better accuracy . The polling industry has several platforms and initiatives aimed at promoting transparency in survey methodology. These include AAPOR’s transparency initiative and the Roper Center archive . Polling organizations that participate in these organizations have less error, on average, than those that don’t participate, an analysis by FiveThirtyEight found .

Participation in these transparency efforts does not guarantee that a poll is rigorous, but it is undoubtedly a positive signal. Transparency in polling means disclosing essential information, including the poll’s sponsor, the data collection firm, where and how participants were selected, modes of interview, field dates, sample size, question wording, and weighting procedures.

There is evidence that when the public is told that a candidate is extremely likely to win, some people may be less likely to vote . Following the 2016 election, many people wondered whether the pervasive forecasts that seemed to all but guarantee a Hillary Clinton victory – two modelers put her chances at 99% – led some would-be voters to conclude that the race was effectively over and that their vote would not make a difference. There is scientific research to back up that claim: A team of researchers found experimental evidence that when people have high confidence that one candidate will win, they are less likely to vote. This helps explain why some polling analysts say elections should be covered using traditional polling estimates and margins of error rather than speculative win probabilities (also known as “probabilistic forecasts”).

National polls tell us what the entire public thinks about the presidential candidates, but the outcome of the election is determined state by state in the Electoral College . The 2000 and 2016 presidential elections demonstrated a difficult truth: The candidate with the largest share of support among all voters in the United States sometimes loses the election. In those two elections, the national popular vote winners (Al Gore and Hillary Clinton) lost the election in the Electoral College (to George W. Bush and Donald Trump). In recent years, analysts have shown that Republican candidates do somewhat better in the Electoral College than in the popular vote because every state gets three electoral votes regardless of population – and many less-populated states are rural and more Republican.

For some, this raises the question: What is the use of national polls if they don’t tell us who is likely to win the presidency? In fact, national polls try to gauge the opinions of all Americans, regardless of whether they live in a battleground state like Pennsylvania, a reliably red state like Idaho or a reliably blue state like Rhode Island. In short, national polls tell us what the entire citizenry is thinking. Polls that focus only on the competitive states run the risk of giving too little attention to the needs and views of the vast majority of Americans who live in uncompetitive states – about 80%.

Fortunately, this is not how most pollsters view the world . As the noted political scientist Sidney Verba explained, “Surveys produce just what democracy is supposed to produce – equal representation of all citizens.”

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Scott Keeter is a senior survey advisor at Pew Research Center .

Courtney Kennedy is Vice President of Methods and Innovation at Pew Research Center .

How do people in the U.S. take Pew Research Center surveys, anyway?

How public polling has changed in the 21st century, what 2020’s election poll errors tell us about the accuracy of issue polling, a field guide to polling: election 2020 edition, methods 101: how is polling done around the world, most popular.

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NASA says astronauts stuck in space will not return on Boeing capsule, will wait for SpaceX craft

NASA will call on SpaceX to bring home two astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since early June after their Boeing spacecraft ran into several problems midflight, the agency said Saturday.

The decision for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to hitch a ride back to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, rather than on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that they rode into orbit, puts to rest months of speculation and tension within the space agency over how — and when — the two crew members could safely return. The mission was planned to last about eight days.

“Spaceflight is risky — even at its safest and even at its most routine — and a test flight, by nature, is neither safe nor routine, and so the decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is a result of a commitment to safety,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday at a news briefing.

The Starliner drama has been a major setback for Boeing's space ambitions, adding to years of struggle to get the capsule off the ground and keep up with rival company SpaceX. Even before Wilmore and Williams launched in June, the Starliner program was more than $1.5 billion over budget and years behind schedule.

Top NASA officials, including Nelson, gathered Saturday at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to conduct a formal review based on the results of tests done in orbit and on the ground .

While the agency has finally settled on how to bring the astronauts back, their return trip will not be immediate. Instead, Wilmore and Williams will remain at the space station for about six more months before flying home in February.

NASA said it will free up two seats on an upcoming SpaceX launch, known as Crew-9, that will be taking a new rotation of space station crew members to the orbiting outpost. By transporting two astronauts instead of the planned four, Wilmore and Williams will be able to fly back in the open seats at the end of the Crew-9 mission in February.

The Crew-9 flight is currently scheduled to lift off on Sept. 24 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The beleaguered Starliner capsule, meanwhile, will journey back to Earth without a crew, likely sometime in early September, according to NASA.

Boeing said in a statement following the announcement: “We continue to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return.”

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that while Boeing officials expressed confidence in their spacecraft, the decision to go with SpaceX was unanimous among NASA officials.

“There was just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters,” Stich said. “If we had a model, [if] we had a way to accurately predict what the thrusters would do for the undock and all the way through the de-orbit burn, through the separation sequence, I think we would have taken a different course of action.”

NASA’s uncertainty in recent weeks stood in stark contrast to the public messaging from Boeing. The aerospace company has said that tests done in orbit and on the ground indicated that the Starliner capsule was safe to bring the astronauts home.

Over the past month, Boeing officials have not taken part in news briefings hosted by NASA to discuss the Starliner mission. Boeing was publishing details of the flight’s status on the company’s website, but there have been no mission updates posted since Aug. 2. In that statement from earlier this month , Boeing said it “remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely with crew.”

Wilmore and Williams arrived at the space station on June 6. As they were approaching the orbiting outpost, five of Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned , causing a nearly hourlong delay in the docking process. Separately, mission managers also detected helium leaking from the capsule’s propulsion system — an issue that was known prior to the spacecraft’s launch but appeared to worsen during the flight.

Engineers from NASA and Boeing spent weeks analyzing the problems using a test engine that was built for future Starliner flights. Mission managers also conducted two “hot fire tests” in space, which involved firing the capsule’s thrusters in short bursts while it remained docked at the space station.

Wilmore and Williams launched to the International Space Station on June 5 on the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The mission, which was meant to last just over a week, was a crucial test flight for Boeing, serving as the last major step before NASA could certify the Starliner spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the space station on a regular basis.

It’s unclear how NASA will proceed with the certification process now, including how the space agency will evaluate Starliner’s performance on the crewed test flight.

SpaceX, meanwhile, has been ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2020.

Both Boeing and SpaceX developed their space capsules as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an initiative that started in 2011 to support private companies in building new space vehicles to take astronauts to low-Earth orbit following the retirement of the agency’s space shuttles.

Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator, praised the teams at NASA and Boeing and said the work done over the past few months will inform future missions.

“We are a learning organization,” he said. “We’ll learn from this effort so that our crews, who are at the top of the pyramid on these missions, and their families can continue to know we’ve done that and we’ll always do our best.”

Denise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.

At Military-Themed Event, Trump Slams Harris Over Afghanistan: Election Updates

The former president has made America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 a central focus of his attacks on Democrats over foreign policy and national security issues.

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Michael Gold Simon J. Levien and Maggie Astor

Here’s the latest on the presidential race.

On the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members, former President Donald J. Trump held two military-themed campaign events and attacked his rival over the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

At a conference in Detroit for the National Guard Association of the United States, Mr. Trump argued that American’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan was a domino that led to global conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Mr. Trump said. He added, “It gave us Russia going into Ukraine. It gave us the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, because it gave us lack of respect.”

The Biden administration has noted that Mr. Trump made a deal with the Taliban in 2020 that set a timeline for America’s exit, and Democrats have argued that Mr. Trump flip-flopped on the withdrawal after Mr. Biden saw it through.

Ms. Harris will hit the campaign trail next on Wednesday, when she and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, are scheduled to begin a bus tour in Georgia. Ms. Harris is also scheduled to hold a rally in Savannah, Ga., on Thursday. On Monday and Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will campaign in Wisconsin on Ms. Harris’s behalf.

Election Day is just 71 days away. Here’s what else to know:

Harris-Trump debate: The two campaigns are again at odds over the presidential debate scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC, with Mr. Trump questioning on social media why he would participate in the debate. And Ms. Harris’s campaign asked that both candidates’ microphones be live throughout the full broadcast, a change from the rules that the Biden campaign had agreed to for the June debate.

Georgia lawsuit: Democrats sued the Georgia state election board , arguing that new measures approved this month seeking to alter the election certification process were illegal and could create chaos on Election Day.

Trump and Vance: Mr. Trump is scheduled to give a keynote address at a meeting of the conservative group Moms for Liberty on Friday, a day after his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, holds a fund-raiser in Florida. Mr. Trump’s campaign website also shows a town-hall event in La Crosse, Wis., on Thursday and a rally in Johnstown, Pa., on Friday.

First to vote: In Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important battleground state, some voting options start Sept. 16. In Minnesota and Virginia, Democratic-leaning states that are unlikely to be closely contested in the presidential race but have important down-ballot races, voting starts Sept. 20.

Big fund-raising numbers: Ms. Harris’s campaign said on Sunday that it had raised $540 million over the last month, including $82 million during the Democratic National Convention last week.

A generational gap: New York Times/Siena College polls this month found an extraordinary gender gap in support for Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump among members of Generation Z — much larger than the gaps among members of previous generations. The Upshot spoke with young women and men to examine what was driving the shift.

Nate Schweber

In the Hamptons, Doug Emhoff calls Kamala Harris a ‘joyful warrior.’

Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, told receptive crowds at two fund-raisers in the Hamptons on Monday evening that his wife had met the moment — quickly winning the Democratic Party’s support for her candidacy under difficult circumstances after President Biden dropped out of the race.

“She’s just the most badass version of Kamala Harris,” he said, “when we needed it most.”

Mr. Emhoff spoke at the homes of supporters of Ms. Harris’s presidential campaign — on patios beside large, expensive houses, in backyards landscaped with oaks, hydrangeas and swimming pools. He traveled via a seven-car motorcade. Both events — one in Water Mill, the other in Sag Harbor — had many dozens of attendees. “My wife could be the next president of the United States,” he said at in Sag Harbor. “That would be pretty cool!”

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, was scheduled to introduce Mr. Emhoff in Sag Harbor but had tested positive in the morning for Covid. Her husband took her place and expressed a friendly touch of jealousy at the prospect of Mr. Emhoff getting to be the country’s first “first gentleman.”

“He’s going to get the only job I really wanted for the last 20 years,” former President Bill Clinton said. “And he’ll be great at it.”

The events raised more than $2 million for Ms. Harris’s campaign and for other Democratic candidates.

At both events, Mr. Emhoff detailed how Ms. Harris had pushed him to crusade against antisemitism.

He described Ms. Harris as a capitalist who is for business growth — but also reminded his wealthy audience about her history of prosecuting lawbreaking businesses.

“If you cheat, if you take advantage of folks,” he said, “there you go, there has got to be consequences for that.”

And he characterized her as a “joyful warrior.”

“There’s the joy,” he said, “there’s also the warrior.”

In Sag Harbor, Mr. Emhoff spoke about Ms. Harris’s commitment to abortion rights and her respect for veterans. He contrasted her positions to those of Donald J. Trump, reminding the crowd about insulting comments about the military by the former president.

Laurie Tisch, who attended the event in Sag Harbor, imagined a different title for Mr. Emhoff, should Ms. Harris win the presidential race.

“Isn’t he a mensch?” she said. “We’re going to call him the First Mensch.”

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Chris Cameron

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, said in an interview that ran tonight that he had been asked to join the Trump campaign’s presidential transition team to “help pick the people who will be running the government.” “I’m looking forward to that,” Kennedy told Tucker Carlson in the interview. The Trump campaign did not immediately confirm Kennedy’s addition to the transition team when asked for comment.

In a podcast interview that ran on Monday, Donald Trump again attacked current military leadership as “woke,” and mocked his former chief of staff and the man he appointed as his top military adviser as “stupid.” “Milley was a stupid person, very stupid,” Trump said of Gen. Mark A. Milley, whom he picked to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . He added of his onetime chief of staff , “Guys like John Kelly are one of the — he’s one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. A bully, but a weak bully. And, you know, we just have some stupid people. Kelly wasn’t so involved in that, but we have some really stupid people at the top.”

Former aides to Bush, Romney and McCain back Harris over Trump.

More than 200 people who previously worked for President George W. Bush and Senators Mitt Romney and John McCain have signed a letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Many of the more prominent signatories, including a chief of staff, a legislative director and a deputy campaign manager for Mr. McCain, had signed a letter supporting President Biden in the 2020 election. Others work for organizations like The Bulwark and the Lincoln Project that oppose former President Donald J. Trump’s leadership of the Republican Party.

But the former Republican officials’ renewed support of the Democratic ticket reflects how Mr. Trump has transformed the Republican Party under his leadership, as well as deep and persistent opposition to his candidacy from those who served Republican presidential candidates.

Mr. Romney, Mr. Bush and other high-profile Republicans skipped the Republican nominating convention last month, while the Harris campaign made significant efforts to highlight the support of anti-Trump Republicans — as well as former members of Mr. Trump’s staff who no longer support him — with speaking slots at the Democratic convention last week.

“We have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,” the letter said. “That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”

The signatories include Mark Salter, a former chief of staff for Mr. McCain; Joe Donoghue, the senator’s former legislative director; Reed Galen, his deputy campaign manager and a co-founder of the Lincoln Project; Mike Murphy, a former McCain campaign strategist; Jean Becker, a chief of staff for George H.W. Bush; and Jim Swift, a senior editor of The Bulwark.

Nick Corasaniti

Democrats sue the Georgia state election board, warning of ‘chaos.’

Democrats sued the Georgia state election board on Monday, arguing that measures approved by the board this month seeking to alter the election certification process in the state were illegal and could create chaos on Election Day.

The lawsuit claims that the board intended to give local election officials a broad license to “hunt for purported election irregularities of any kind, potentially delaying certification and displacing longstanding (and court-supervised) processes for addressing fraud.”

The lawsuit was filed in state court by local election officials, political candidates, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia with support from Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. The move comes weeks after the state election board voted 3-2 to pass rules to give election officials authority to conduct “reasonable inquiry” into elections before certification and to require that county election officials be given “all election related documentation” before certification. Both rules, the lawsuit argues, create the impression that local election officials have discretionary power over certifying election results.

The political spotlight has pivoted back to Georgia in recent weeks, since President Biden withdrew from the presidential race and polls have shown Ms. Harris closing the gap with former President Donald J. Trump in the critical swing state. The increasingly close nature of the race there has thrust the actions of the state election board to center stage.

Members of the board who voted to pass the new rules said that they would not permit officials to ignore deadlines for certification set by state law. But the lawsuit notes that some local election officials in Georgia have already sought to delay or refuse certification, and that the new measures add to a legal uncertainty that undermines the entire election process across the state.

“These novel requirements introduce substantial uncertainty in the postelection process and — if interpreted as their drafters have suggested — invite chaos by establishing new processes at odds with existing statutory duties,” the lawsuit argues.

The suit is asking the court to clearly state that certification is mandatory and cannot be delayed by election officials. It also seeks clarification that the courts, and not local election boards, are the venue for resolving disputes about alleged irregularities or fraud.

Delaying certification, the lawsuit argues, could also result in “mass disenfranchisement of eligible, registered Georgians.”

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Democrats pointed to praise that members of the state election board received from Mr. Trump, and recalled the Trump effort to overturn the result in Georgia in 2020.

“The three members Donald Trump called his ‘pit bulls’ for ‘victory’ disagree, and they’re determined to establish a new power of not certifying an election result should their preferred candidate lose — as he did in 2020,” said Representative Nikema Williams, the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia.

Members of the state board of election did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit lands months after right-wing election activists obtained a 3-2 majority on the state election board, and began passing a host of rules and regulations that aligned with conservative goals.

During meetings in which both rules were passed, election officials from across the state weighed in, saying that some of the board’s proposals would create difficulties for local election officials so close to the election and cause unneeded extra work and costs.

In a statement, Quentin Fulks, a deputy campaign manager for Ms. Harris, framed the new rules as part of a broader effort by Republicans “to lay the groundwork to challenge the election results when they lose again in November.”

The shift in the board, and the new rules, have alarmed Democrats, voting-rights groups and even some Republicans, who have said that the board has exceeded its authority.

Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state, chastised the state election board this month, stating that the last-minute changes were undermining confidence in elections and risking the integrity of the election.

“Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” Mr. Raffensperger said in a statement. “Misguided attempts by the State Election Board will delay election results and undermine chain of custody safeguards. Georgia voters reject this 11th-hour chaos, and so should the unelected members of the State Election Board.”

An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of a deputy campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris. He is Quentin Fulks, not Quinten Fulks. The story also mis-characterized Mr. Fulk’s statement. He said that Georgia’s new election rules -- not the Democrats’ lawsuit -- were part of a broader effort by Republicans “to lay the groundwork to challenge the election results.”

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Jill Stein will remain on the ballot in Wisconsin after a court order.

Jill Stein, the presidential candidate for the Green Party, will remain on the ballot in Wisconsin, the state’s Supreme Court said, after the court declared a Democratic technical challenge to her ballot access moot on Monday.

The three-page order, left unsigned by members of the court, represented a significant victory for Ms. Stein’s third-party presidential bid, as the Green Party had been disqualified from the ballot in Wisconsin in 2020 . The presence of Ms. Stein — a minor left-wing candidate — on the ballot could also pose a risk to Vice President Kamala Harris’s prospects in Wisconsin, which has been won on razor-thin margins in recent presidential races.

David Strange, a staff member of the Democratic National Committee, filed a complaint to the Wisconsin Elections Commission this month asserting that the Green Party was ineligible to place a presidential candidate on the ballot because the party had no candidates for state office, or state officeholders, who could nominate presidential electors — those who officially cast votes for a presidential candidate in the Electoral College.

The order by the state’s Supreme Court, which offered few details for its reasoning, said that it had determined “that the petitioner is not entitled to the relief he seeks” and that “all other pending motions are denied as moot.”

An election last year in Wisconsin , the most expensive judicial election in American history, was won by a liberal judge and tipped the balance of the court from the conservatives.

The decision on Monday represents the latest legal battle over ballot access for third-party candidates, which both Democrats and Republicans believe could shape the outcome of the election by pulling support from Ms. Harris and former President Donald J. Trump in key states like Wisconsin. Democrats had made significant efforts to undermine Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ballot access — concerned that he could draw more support from Democrats than Republicans — before he ended his independent presidential candidacy and backed Mr. Trump.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Mr. Trump in Wisconsin by a margin of 22,748 votes . Ms. Stein, who was also the Green Party candidate in 2016, won 31,072 votes while Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, won 106,674 votes that year. Mr. Biden won the state by 20,682 votes in 2020 after the Green Party candidate failed to qualify.

Michael Gold

Trump hits Harris over ‘humiliation’ in the military’s Afghanistan exit.

Former President Donald J. Trump wrapped himself in military imagery on Monday, attacking the Biden administration over its withdrawal from Afghanistan. Observing the third anniversary of a deadly suicide bombing in Kabul, the Afghan capital, he visited Arlington National Cemetery, then later spoke in Detroit to a gathering of National Guard members.

During his remarks in Detroit, at a conference for the National Guard Association of the United States, Mr. Trump blamed President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the bombing and America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he argued led to the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

As he has attacked Democrats over foreign policy and national security issues this year, Mr. Trump, who often highlights his allegiance to the troops, has made the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 a central focus. He and his allies have pointed frequently to the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021, which killed 13 American service members and as many as 170 civilians, arguing that the Biden administration’s handling of the event showed a disregard for American service members.

Still, Mr. Trump has been fending off criticism from Democrats and some veterans groups that he has been insufficiently respectful of the military and has made comments in which he has appeared to mock, attack or express disdain for service members who are wounded, captured or killed.

During their national convention, Democrats repeatedly brought up the claim that Mr. Trump, while president, called veterans “suckers” and “losers.” And this month Mr. Trump drew the ire of veterans groups after he described the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians, as being “much better” than the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, because service members who receive it are often severely wounded or dead.

Mr. Trump and his campaign drew a contrast on Monday between his decision to visit Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where he laid three wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknowns to honor the troops killed at the airport attack, and Ms. Harris’s role in the withdrawal.

In an interview with CNN in 2021, Ms. Harris said she was the last person in the room when Mr. Biden decided to pull out from Afghanistan. Mr. Trump has pointed to that remark as proof that she was directly involved with and bore some responsibility for the chaotic withdrawal.

In a statement on Monday, Ms. Harris mourned the loss of the 13 American soldiers killed in the airport attack and said she honored those who served in the 20-year war in Afghanistan. She also reiterated her support for Mr. Biden’s “courageous and right decision” to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, attacked Mr. Trump’s leadership. “The Biden-Harris administration inherited a mess from Donald Trump,” he said in a statement. “Trump wants America to forget that he had four years to get out of Afghanistan, but failed to do it. ”

During his speech in Detroit, Mr. Trump noted that he was criticizing “not that we withdrew, but the way we did it.” He repeated his promise to demand the resignations of senior miliary officials involved in the withdrawal. He also repeated his insistence that he could bring the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to an end immediately after being elected, though he has yet to offer specific plans for doing so.

As he spoke to Air and Army National Guard officers and service members and their families, Mr. Trump insisted that Democrats were “waging war” on the “rights and liberties” that the military was deployed to defend.

And Mr. Trump, whose false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election led some of his supporters to attack the Capitol and prevent the peaceful transfer of power, insisted he would “make American democracy great again.”

Mr. Trump covered a range of topics in his Detroit speech, though he largely stayed focused on issues he could tie to the National Guard, like military concerns and foreign policy. He used the deployment of the Texas National Guard to the border as a peg for extensive remarks on immigration. And as he attacked Ms. Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, for voicing support for protesters after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, Mr. Trump bragged about supporting the deployment of the National Guard to stop looting or violence.

Still, Mr. Trump’s remarks veered occasionally into asides, including questioning Harris’s becoming the Democratic nominee without winning a vote in a primary race, accusing Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department against him and attacking Europeans for taking advantage of America on trade.

Mr. Trump also promised to create a separate Space National Guard to work with Space Force, the military branch whose creation he oversaw. He again bragged about telling NATO members that he would not defend them from Russian aggression unless they raised their military spending. NATO members have made informal commitments to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their militaries, and more than 20 of the alliance’s 32 members were on track to hit that target as of July.

But in his speech, Mr. Trump said that he would insist NATO members “spend at least 3 percent,” a target that he could not set unilaterally but that raises questions about his continued commitment to the alliance .

Mr. Trump at one point invited Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman, who has since left the Democratic Party, to the stage to formally endorse him. She served two combat tours in the Middle East and is helping him with debate preparations .

After his cemetery visit earlier on Monday, he stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church, Va., where he appeared with Hung Cao, who is the Republican Senate candidate in the state and a retired Navy captain. Standing next to Mr. Cao, he lamented the deaths at the Abbey Gate bombing, saying “these are people that should have never been killed.”

Mr. Trump and his campaign are hoping to flip Virginia, which has not been won by a Republican in a presidential race since 2004. At the restaurant, he said he thought Mr. Cao had strong chances of winning, even though Virginia was “traditionally not necessarily for Republicans, but I’m not the average Republican and neither are you.” In front of a crowd of Asian Americans, Mr. Trump also said he believed Mr. Cao’s “name alone should get you elected, right?”

Chris Cameron contributed reporting from Falls Church, Va.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien

An administrative law judge in Georgia has kicked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off the state’s ballot, on the grounds that the New York address listed on his petitions was invalid. He had used the same Katonah, N.Y. address for ballot petitions in many states, and earlier this month a New York judge ruled that it was a “sham.” Of course, Kennedy says he is in the process of withdrawing from the ballot in swing states , so this may be a moot point.

Trump, speaking to the National Guard Association of the United States, vowed to push for a “Space National Guard” if he is elected in November. Trump signed the bill that created Space Force, the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military, in 2019. The association has advocated for a separate Space National Guard, arguing against incorporating existing members of the Air National Guard into Space Force.

Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who served two combat tours in the Middle East, just formally endorsed Donald Trump in Detroit. Her endorsement is not as a surprise: Gabbard left the Democratic Party after her 2020 presidential run and has been helping Trump with debate prep.

Speaking to an association of members of the National Guard, Donald Trump accused his political opponents of having “waged war” on the rights and liberties that soldiers of the National Guard “risked your lives to defend.” Trump has repeatedly tried to portray his political opponents as antidemocratic in a bid to blunt criticism over his actions in spurring a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Today in Detroit, he said this election was “a fight between communism and freedom, a very serious fight.”

Kid Rock, the pro-Trump musician from Michigan, just took the stage ahead of Donald Trump at an annual conference of the National Guard Association happening in Detroit. The musician, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, performed shortly before Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention and has become one of the leading entertainers to back the former president.

Maggie Astor

The Foo Fighters have joined the list of artists saying they don’t want Donald Trump to use their music: “No,” they said on X when asked if they had authorized Trump’s use of the song “My Hero” to welcome Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a rally stage. Celine Dion issued a similar statement earlier this month, and the estate of Isaac Hayes is suing Trump for using one of his songs.

No — Foo Fighters (@foofighters) August 24, 2024

When a reporter asked if he would consider Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the post of health and human services secretary if he were re-elected, Trump said they had not talked about it. But he added that Kennedy “knows a lot about the subject,” and that he had made a good impression within the Republican Party.

Trump told members of the news media during a campaign event in Northern Virginia that he thought ABC should be “shut out” of hosting a debate, but then added that he and his team were still “thinking about” whether he should participate in the one scheduled for Sept. 10, adding that Harris and her team “also want to change the rules.”

Trump Still ‘Thinking About’ Participating in Presidential Debate

During a campaign stop in northern virginia, donald trump raised the possibility of not participating in the presidential debate with vice president kamala harris on abc news, claiming that the network’s executives and anchors were biased against him..

I think ABC is really — should be shut out. I’d much rather do it on NBC. I’d much rather do it on CBS, frankly. I think CBS is very unfair. But the best of the group — and certainly I’d do it on Fox, I’d even do it on CNN. I thought CNN treated us very fairly the last time. I think Jake Tapper was very fair and Dana Bash was very fair. They also want to change the rules. You know, the deal was we keep the same rules. Now all of a sudden, they want to make a change in the rules because she can’t answer questions. Why doesn’t she do a couple of question-answer? Why doesn’t she do something like I’m doing right now? The agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted. I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine. I mean, ask Biden how it worked out. It was fine. And I think it should be the same. We agreed to the same rules, same rules and same specifications, and I think that’s probably what it should be. But they’re trying to change it.

Trump also said it didn’t matter to him if the microphones were muted at times during his debate with Harris.

“I’d rather have it probably on,” Trump said. “But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”

Theodore Schleifer

JD Vance is keeping up his aggressive fund-raising schedule on behalf of Trump, who himself doesn’t headline that many finance events. Vance had two events this weekend in the Hamptons, one a Sunday dinner hosted by Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets. Tomorrow he’s headed to a fund-raiser in Nashville, and on Thursday he has one in Dade City, Fla. After Labor Day, he’ll hit fund-raisers in Phoenix (Sept. 5) and Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., (Sept. 6); an event hosted by the tech investor David Sacks in Los Angeles (Sept. 8); and an event in Manhattan hosted by another tech investor, Keith Rabois, and his husband, Jacob Helberg (Sept. 12).

For the wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump was accompanied by two marines who were injured in the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan: Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart, who was paralyzed in the attack and now uses a wheelchair, and Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who lost his right arm and left leg.

Trump has just laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, a marine killed in the Abbey Gate bombing three years ago during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Among those present at this wreath ceremony is Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman and Democrat who has rebranded herself as a celebrity among Trump’s supporters. She is also helping Trump prepare for his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump laid three wreaths at the tomb, two honoring Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee — two marines killed in the Abbey Gate bombing — and another wreath dedicated to all 13 service members who were killed in the attack.

Michael M. Grynbaum and Maggie Astor

Trump tussles with Harris over the ABC debate.

At the weigh-in before a big bout, prizefighters often taunt their opponents in an effort to try to psych them out.

So it goes with the presidential pugilists set to meet next month in the city of Rocky Balboa.

The Harris and Trump campaigns squabbled on Monday over the ground rules of their coming ABC News debate in Philadelphia, with each side trying to score political points off the other. And within hours, the Trump campaign found its argument undermined by an unlikely foil: Mr. Trump himself.

The tussle began on Sunday when former President Donald J. Trump blasted ABC in a social media post, suggesting that the network’s anchors and executives were biased against him and threatening, not for the first time, to pull out of the event. “I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Mr. Trump wrote.

Then, on Monday, Ms. Harris’s campaign went public with an effort to change one of the agreed-upon conditions for the debate: that each candidate’s microphone be muted when it isn’t their turn to speak.

“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast,” Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, told Politico.

He added a dig for good measure: “Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own.”

Jason Miller, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, shot back. “ABC offered the exact same debate rules as CNN, and we accepted — as did the Harris camp,” he wrote, referring to the CNN debate between Mr. Trump and President Biden in June, when the muted microphones rule was in effect.

Mr. Miller tossed in a gibe of his own: “Now, after the Harris campaign has begun debate prep, they’re clearly concerned about what they’re seeing from Harris’ performance.”

But when Mr. Trump was asked about the microphone issue by reporters in Virginia, he seemed to back away from the fierce objections of his team.

He told members of the news media that it “doesn’t matter to me” whether the microphones were muted, adding, “I’d rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.” Mr. Trump also said that ABC should be “shut out” of hosting the debate, while adding he was still “thinking about” whether he should participate.

For its part, ABC News declined to comment.

When Mr. Biden was the Democratic nominee, his team pushed hard for the muted microphones rule, arguing that Mr. Trump could not be trusted to stay silent when Mr. Biden was speaking.

But Ms. Harris was not in charge of the campaign at that point. Her camp’s reversal on the muting rule seems intended to underscore reports that the vice president’s rise in the polls has rattled Mr. Trump. (Mr. Trump has vociferously denied those reports.) One of Ms. Harris’s standout moments in her 2020 vice-presidential debate came when Mike Pence, on a live microphone, seemed to interrupt her, prompting a memorable rejoinder from Ms. Harris: “I’m speaking.”

Mr. Trump has called for his own variations on the debate rules, urging Ms. Harris to participate in a debate sponsored by Fox News “ with a full arena audience .”

For decades, the televised forums were organized by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. But this year, the commission was sidelined when Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump agreed to negotiate directly with television networks, and to hold the events earlier than the commission had scheduled. The candidates agreed to a debate on CNN on June 27, and a debate on ABC News on Sept. 10.

The exact format and ground rules of the ABC debate have been in flux, but both campaigns have broadly agreed to a format similar to that of the CNN debate that took place between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. More than 51 million Americans watched that debate live, by far the biggest audience of any political event this year, a sign of how consequential the televised forums can be in a tight presidential race.

ABC’s debate is scheduled to last for 90 minutes and be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The ABC anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis are the moderators.

Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump have never debated face-to-face. Ms. Harris’s team has signaled it is open to another debate in October, but no plans have been set. Several television networks are jockeying for the right to host that debate if it does ultimately occur.

Michael Gold , Jonathan Swan , Chris Cameron and Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.

Former President Donald Trump will attend a wreath-laying ceremony this morning at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia to honor 13 American troops who were killed in the Abbey Gate bombing during the withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago. Trump has frequently cited the bombing and the death toll to criticize President Biden and his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Vance defends tariffs and claims Trump would veto a national abortion ban.

Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, denied in an interview with NBC News on Sunday that tariffs had caused higher costs for Americans, as economists have documented, and said he believed Mr. Trump would veto a federal abortion ban, trying to blunt two potent lines of attack from Democrats.

Mr. Vance also equivocated when asked repeatedly whether the mass deportations of undocumented migrants Mr. Trump has called for would involve separating families.

In a lengthy exchange on tariffs, Mr. Vance denied that the tariffs Mr. Trump had imposed during his first term in office had raised prices for Americans, though data shows they did , and maintained that they had brought a significant number of jobs back to the United States, though data shows they didn’t .

“When Kamala Harris says if we do the thing that Trump already did, it’s going to be way worse than it was last time, I just don’t think that makes a lot of sense,” he said, adding, “Donald Trump already did it, he brought a lot of jobs back, and it didn’t cause inflation.”

In response to follow-up questions from NBC’s Kristen Welker, Mr. Vance described the theoretical argument for tariffs — that they would encourage companies to produce goods domestically by punishing them for importing from countries, he said, like China.

Mr. Vance did not acknowledge a nonpartisan study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showing that Mr. Trump’s tariffs did not accomplish that goal. At one point, Mr. Vance suggested that even if consumers did end up paying more, it wouldn’t matter because the higher costs would be offset by higher wages.

The Biden administration has adopted some of Mr. Trump’s protectionist trade policies, keeping in place many of his tariffs and adding new ones. But since replacing Mr. Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Ms. Harris has denounced Mr. Trump’s proposals to expand tariffs. She has not said specifically which of the existing ones she would keep or remove.

Ms. Welker also asked whether Mr. Vance could say definitively that, if elected, he and Mr. Trump would not “impose a federal ban on abortion.”

“I can absolutely commit to that,” he said. He added, when asked if that meant Mr. Trump would veto a bill like the 15-week ban Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, has proposed, “If you’re not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it.”

Mr. Vance — who had expressed support for national abortion restrictions before he was Mr. Trump’s running mate — went on to try to parse the meaning of the word “ban.” Mr. Graham’s bill would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks’ gestation, but Mr. Vance said that “Lindsey Graham himself has not advocated a federal abortion ban. Lindsey Graham has advocated a federal minimum standard.” (Mr. Vance added that Mr. Trump didn’t support that either.)

Appearing on NBC immediately after the Vance interview aired, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said Democrats should not trust Mr. Vance’s or Mr. Trump’s recent pledges not to pursue a national abortion ban, given that Mr. Trump has boasted about appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and that Mr. Vance urged the Justice Department last year to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act to stop the mailing of abortion pills.

“American women are not stupid,” Ms. Warren said, “and we are not going to trust the futures of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking access to abortion.”

In one of the most contentious portions of Mr. Vance’s interview, Ms. Welker asked him three times whether families would be separated under Mr. Trump’s proposed mass deportations of undocumented migrants — a possibility, for example, when one member of a family is in the country illegally and others are not. Mr. Vance did not give a direct answer.

He obliquely acknowledged the possibility before claiming, without providing evidence, that the Biden-Harris administration’s policies were separating more families than a Trump-Vance administration would.

“I think that families are currently being separated, and you’re certainly going to have to deport some people in this country,” he said.

“So that’s a yes?” Ms. Welker asked.

“No,” Mr. Vance said.

He added, “You start with the most violent criminals,” before revisiting his claims that the policies of the Biden administration had allowed children to fall into the hands of drug cartels and sex traffickers.

Mr. Vance also said he was glad Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had endorsed the Trump ticket . Mr. Kennedy has said, falsely, that vaccines cause autism, linked antidepressants to school shootings and refused to “take sides on 9/11 or any of the other debates.”

“There are things that Robert Kennedy has said that I disagree with. I’m sure there are things that I’ve said that he’s going to disagree with,” he said. “But I think what his endorsement represents is that Donald J. Trump’s Republican Party is a big-tent party.”

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Trump’s plans if he returns to the White House include deportation raids, tariffs and mass firings

President Joe Biden has a lot of unfinished business from his first term that he intends to continue if reelected. It’s a far different vision for the country than Donald Trump has outlined during his own campaign. (Nov. 12)

FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican Party of Florida Freedom Summit, Nov. 4, 2023, in Kissimmee, Fla.Trump is already laying a sweeping set of policy goals should he win a second term as president. Priorities on the Republican’s agenda include a mass deportation operation, a new Muslim ban and tariffs on all imported goods. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump pumps his fist after speaking in the East Room of the White House, early Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Washington. Trump is already laying a sweeping set of policy goals should he win a second term as president. Priorities on the Republican’s agenda include a mass deportation operation, a new Muslim ban and tariffs on all imported goods. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, July 29, 2023, in Erie, Pa. Trump is already laying a sweeping set of policy goals should he win a second term as president. Priorities on the Republican’s agenda include a mass deportation operation, a new Muslim ban and tariffs on all imported goods.. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks at the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women Lilac Luncheon, June 27, 2023, in Concord, N.H. Trump is already laying a sweeping set of policy goals should he win a second term as president. Priorities on the Republican’s agenda include a mass deportation operation, a new Muslim ban and tariffs on all imported goods.. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures after speaking Oct. 11, 2023, at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Hialeah, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

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NEW YORK (AP) — A mass deportation operation. A new Muslim ban. Tariffs on all imported goods and “freedom cities” built on federal land.

Much of the 2024 presidential campaign has been dominated by the myriad investigations into former President Donald Trump and the subsequent charges against him. But with less than a year until Election Day, Trump is dominating the race for the Republican nomination and has already laid out a sweeping set of policy goals should he win a second term.

His ideas, and even the issues he focuses on most, are wildly different from President Joe Biden’s proposals . If implemented, Trump’s plans would represent a dramatic government overhaul arguably more consequential than that of his first term. His presidency, especially the early days, was marked by chaos, infighting and a wave of hastily written executive orders that were quickly overturned by the courts.

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Some of his current ideas would probably end up in court or impeded by Congress. But Trump’s campaign and allied groups are assembling policy books with detailed plans.

A look at his agenda:

DISMANTLING THE ‘DEEP STATE’

Trump would try to strip tens of thousands of career employees of their civil service protections. That way, they could be fired as he seeks to “totally obliterate the deep state.”

He would try to accomplish that by reissuing a 2020 executive order known as “Schedule F.” That would allow him to reclassify masses of employees, with a particular focus, he has said, on “corrupt bureaucrats who have weaponized our justice system” and “corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus.” Given his anger at the FBI and federal prosecutors pursuing criminal cases against him, Trump probably would target people linked to those prosecutions for retribution.

Beyond the firings, he wants to crack down on government officials who leak to reporters. He also wants to require that federal employees pass a new civil service test.

THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER

Trump has pledged to “immediately stop the invasion of our southern border” and end illegal immigration.

As part of that plan, he says he would immediately direct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to undertake the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. He would target people who are legally living in the United States but harbor “jihadist sympathies” and revoke the student visas of those who espouse anti-American and antisemitic views.

In a bid to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump says he will move thousands of troops currently stationed overseas and shift federal agents, including those at the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI, to immigration enforcement. He also wants to build more of the border wall.

Trump wants to reimpose his travel ban that originally targeted seven Muslim-majority countries and expand it to “keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the country.” In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel, he has pledged to put in place “ideological screening” for immigrants. His aim: bar “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots, and maniacs,” as well as those who “empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists.”

To deter migrants, he has said he would end birthright citizenship, using an an executive order that would introduce a legally untested interpretation of the 14th Amendment. The order would prevent federal agencies from granting automatic citizenship to the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally. It would require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their children to be eligible for passports, Social Security numbers and other benefits.

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Trump says he will institute a system of tariffs of perhaps 10% on most foreign goods. Penalties would increase if trade partners manipulate their currencies or engage in other unfair trading practices.

He will urge that Congress pass a “Trump Reciprocal Trade Act,” giving the president authority to impose a reciprocal tariff on any country that imposes one on the U.S.

Much of the agenda focuses on China. Trump has proposed a four-year plan to phase out Chinese imports of essential goods, including electronics, steel and pharmaceuticals. He wants to ban Chinese companies from owning vital U.S. infrastructure in sectors such as energy, technology and agriculture, and says he will force Chinese owners to sell any holdings “that jeopardize America’s national security.”

FOREIGN POLICY

Trump claims that even before he is inaugurated, he will have settled the war between Russia and Ukraine. That includes, he says, ending the “endless flow of American treasure to Ukraine” and asking European allies to reimburse the U.S. for the cost of rebuilding stockpiles.

It is unclear whether he would insist that Russia withdraw from territory in Ukraine it seized in the war that it launched in February 2022.

Trump has said he will stand with Israel in its war with Hamas and support Israel’s efforts to “destroy” the militant group. He says he will continue to “fundamentally reevaluate” NATO’s purpose and mission.

TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

Trump says he will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that “only two genders,” as determined at birth, are recognized by the United States.

As part of his crackdown on gender-affirming care, he will declare that hospitals and health care providers that offer transitional hormones or surgery no longer meet federal health and safety standards and will be blocked from receiving federal funds, including Medicaid and Medicare dollars.

He would push Congress to prohibit hormonal or surgical intervention for transgender minors in all 50 states.

Doctors typically guide kids toward therapy before medical intervention. At that point, hormone treatments such as puberty blockers are far more common than surgery. They have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are standard treatments backed by major doctors’ organizations, including the American Medical Association.

Trump’s goal, he says, is for the U.S. to have the lowest-cost energy and electricity of any nation in the world, including China.

Under the mantra “DRILL, BABY, DRILL,” he says he would ramp up oil drilling on public lands and offer tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal producers. He would roll back Biden administration efforts to encourage the adoption of electric cars and reverse proposed new pollution limits that would require at least 54% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.

And again, he says, he will exit the Paris Climate Accords, end wind subsidies and eliminate regulations imposed and proposed by the Biden admiration targeting incandescent lightbulbs, gas stoves, dishwashers and shower heads.

Trump has pledged to terminate the Department of Education, but he also wants to exert enormous influence over local school districts and colleges.

He would push the federal government to give funding preference to states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure, adopt merit pay to reward good teachers and allow the direct election of school principals by parents.

He has said he would cut funding for any school that has a vaccine or mask mandate and will promote prayer in public schools.

Trump also wants a say in school curricula, vowing to fight for “patriotic education.” He says that under his administration, schools will “teach students to love their country, not to hate their country like they’re taught right now” and will promote “the nuclear family” including “the roles of mothers and fathers” and the “things that make men and women different and unique.”

To protect students, he says he will support school districts that allow trained teachers to carry concealed weapons. He would provide federal funding so schools can hire veterans, retired police officers, and other trained gun owners as armed school guards.

HOMELESSNESS

Trump wants to force the homeless off city streets by building tent cities on large open parcels of inexpensive land. At the same time, he says he will work with states to ban urban camping, giving violators the choice between being arrested or receiving treatment.

He also wants to bring back large mental institutions to reinstitutionalize those who are “severely mentally ill” or “dangerously deranged.”

PUBLIC SAFETY

Trump would again push to send the National Guard to cities such as Chicago that are struggling with violence. He would use the federal government’s funding and prosecution authorities to strong-arm local governments.

He says he will require local law enforcement agencies that receive Justice Department grants to use controversial policing measures such as stop-and-frisk. As a deterrent, he says local police should be empowered to shoot suspected shoplifters in the act. “Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” he said in one recent speech.

Trump has called for the death penalty for drug smugglers and those who traffic women and children. He has also pledged a federal takeover of the nation’s capital, calling Washington a “dirty, crime-ridden death trap” unbefitting of the country.

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Reported Speech in English

“Reported speech” might sound fancy, but it isn’t that complicated.

It’s just how you talk about what someone said.

Luckily, it’s pretty simple to learn the basics in English, beginning with the two types of reported speech: direct (reporting the exact words someone said) and indirect (reporting what someone said without using their exact words ).

Read this post to learn how to report speech, with tips and tricks for each, plenty of examples and a resources section that tells you about real world resources you can use to practice reporting speech.

How to Report Direct Speech

How to report indirect speech, reporting questions in indirect speech, verb tenses in indirect reported speech, simple present, present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous, simple past, past continuous, past perfect, past perfect continuous, simple future, future continuous, future perfect, future perfect continuous, authentic resources for practicing reported speech, novels and short stories, native english videos, celebrity profiles.

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Direct speech refers to the exact words that a person says. You can “report” direct speech in a few different ways.

To see how this works, let’s pretend that I (Elisabeth) told some people that I liked green onions.

Here are some different ways that those people could explain what I said:

Direct speech: “I like green onions,” Elisabeth said.

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Direct speech: “I like green onions,” she told me. — In this sentence, we replace my name (Elisabeth) with the pronoun she.

In all of these examples, the part that was said is between quotation marks and is followed by a noun (“she” or “Elisabeth”) and a verb. Each of these verbs (“to say,” “to tell [someone],” “to explain”) are ways to describe someone talking. You can use any verb that refers to speech in this way.

You can also put the noun and verb before what was said.

Direct speech: Elisabeth said, “I like spaghetti.”

The example above would be much more likely to be said out loud than the first set of examples.

Here’s a conversation that might happen between two people:

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1: Did you ask her if she liked coffee?

2: Yeah, I asked her.

1: What did she say?

2. She said, “Yeah, I like coffee.” ( Direct speech )

Usually, reporting of direct speech is something you see in writing. It doesn’t happen as often when people are talking to each other. 

Direct reported speech often happens in the past. However, there are all kinds of stories, including journalism pieces, profiles and fiction, where you might see speech reported in the present as well.

This is sometimes done when the author of the piece wants you to feel that you’re experiencing events in the present moment.

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For example, a profile of Kristen Stewart in Vanity Fair  has a funny moment that describes how the actress isn’t a very good swimmer:

Direct speech: “I don’t want to enter the water, ever,” she says. “If everyone’s going in the ocean, I’m like, no.”

Here, the speech is reported as though it’s in the present tense (“she says”) instead of in the past (“she said”).

In writing of all kinds, direct reported speech is often split into two or more parts, as it is above.

Here’s an example from Lewis Carroll’s “ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ,” where the speech is even more split up:

Direct speech: “I won’t indeed!” said Alice, in a great hurry to change the subject of conversation. “Are you—are you fond—of—of dogs?” The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly: “There is such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you!”

Reporting indirect speech is what happens when you explain what someone said without using their exact words.

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Let’s start with an example of direct reported speech like those used above.

Direct speech: Elisabeth said, “I like coffee.”

As indirect reported speech, it looks like this:

Indirect speech: Elisabeth said she liked coffee.

You can see that the subject (“I”) has been changed to “she,” to show who is being spoken about. If I’m reporting the direct speech of someone else, and this person says “I,” I’d repeat their sentence exactly as they said it. If I’m reporting this person’s speech indirectly to someone else, however, I’d speak about them in the third person—using “she,” “he” or “they.”

You may also notice that the tense changes here: If “I like coffee” is what she said, this can become “She liked coffee” in indirect speech.

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However, you might just as often hear someone say something like, “She said she likes coffee.” Since people’s likes and preferences tend to change over time and not right away, it makes sense to keep them in the present tense.

Indirect speech often uses the word “that” before what was said:

Indirect speech: She said that she liked coffee.

There’s no real difference between “She said she liked coffee” and “She said that she liked coffee.” However, using “that” can help make the different parts of the sentence clearer.

Let’s look at a few other examples:

Indirect speech: I said I was going outside today.

Indirect speech: They told me that they wanted to order pizza.

Indirect speech: He mentioned it was raining.

Indirect speech: She said that her father was coming over for dinner.

You can see an example of reporting indirect speech in the funny video “ Cell Phone Crashing .” In this video, a traveler in an airport sits down next to another traveler talking on his cell phone. The first traveler pretends to be talking to someone on his phone, but he appears to be responding to the second traveler’s conversation, which leads to this exchange:

Woman: “Are you answering what I’m saying?”

Man “No, no… I’m on the phone with somebody, sorry. I don’t mean to be rude.” (Direct speech)

Woman: “What was that?”

Man: “I just said I was on the phone with somebody.” (Indirect speech)

When reporting questions in indirect speech, you can use words like “whether” or “if” with verbs that show questioning, such as “to ask” or “to wonder.”

Direct speech: She asked, “Is that a new restaurant?”

Indirect speech: She asked if that was a new restaurant. 

In any case where you’re reporting a question, you can say that someone was “wondering” or “wanted to know” something. Notice that these verbs don’t directly show that someone asked a question. They don’t describe an action that happened at a single point in time. But you can usually assume that someone was wondering or wanted to know what they asked.

Indirect speech: She was wondering if that was a new restaurant.

Indirect speech: She wanted to know whether that was a new restaurant.

It can be tricky to know how to use tenses when reporting indirect speech. Let’s break it down, tense by tense.

Sometimes, indirect speech “ backshifts ,” or moves one tense further back into the past. We already saw this in the example from above:

Direct speech: She said, “I like coffee.”

Indirect speech: She said she liked coffee.

Also as mentioned above, backshifting doesn’t always happen. This might seem confusing, but it isn’t that difficult to understand once you start using reported speech regularly.

What tense you use in indirect reported speech often just depends on when what you’re reporting happened or was true.

Let’s look at some examples of how direct speech in certain tenses commonly changes (or doesn’t) when it’s reported as indirect speech.

To learn about all the English tenses (or for a quick review), check out this post .

Direct speech: I said, “I play video games.”

Indirect speech: I said that I played video games (simple past) or I said that I play video games  (simple present).

Backshifting into the past or staying in the present here can change the meaning slightly. If you use the first example, it’s unclear whether or not you still play video games; all we know is that you said you played them in the past.

If you use the second example, though, you probably still play video games (unless you were lying for some reason).

However, the difference in meaning is so small, you can use either one and you won’t have a problem.

Direct speech: I said, “I’m playing video games.”

Indirect speech: I said that I was playing video games (past continuous) or I said that I’m playing video games (present continuous).

In this case, you’d likely use the first example if you were telling a story about something that happened in the past.

You could use the second example to repeat or stress what you just said. For example:

Hey, want to go for a walk?

Direct speech: No, I’m playing video games.

But it’s such a nice day!

Indirect speech: I said that I’m playing video games!

Direct speech: Marie said, “I have read that book.”

Indirect speech: Marie said that she had read that book (past perfect) or Marie said that she has read that book (present perfect).

The past perfect is used a lot in writing and other kinds of narration. This is because it helps point out an exact moment in time when something was true.

The past perfect isn’t quite as useful in conversation, where people are usually more interested in what’s true now. So, in a lot of cases, people would use the second example above when speaking.

Direct speech: She said, “I have been watching that show.”

Indirect speech: She said that she had been watching that show (past perfect continuous) or She said that she has been watching that show (present perfect continuous).

These examples are similar to the others above. You could use the first example whether or not this person was still watching the show, but if you used the second example, it’d probably seem like you either knew or guessed that she was still watching it.

Direct speech: You told me, “I charged my phone.”

Indirect speech: You told me that you had charged your phone (past perfect) or You told me that you charged your phone (simple past).

Here, most people would probably just use the second example, because it’s simpler, and gets across the same meaning.

Direct speech: You told me, “I was charging my phone.”

Indirect speech: You told me that you had been charging your phone (past perfect continuous) or You told me that you were charging your phone (past continuous).

Here, the difference is between whether you had been charging your phone before or were charging your phone at the time. However, a lot of people would still use the second example in either situation.

Direct speech: They explained, “We had bathed the cat on Wednesday.”

Indirect speech: They explained that they had bathed the cat on Wednesday. (past perfect)

Once we start reporting the past perfect tenses, we don’t backshift because there are no tenses to backshift to.

So in this case, it’s simple. The tense stays exactly as is. However, many people might simplify even more and use the simple past, saying, “They explained that they bathed the cat on Wednesday.”

Direct speech: They said, “The cat had been going outside and getting dirty for a long time!”

Indirect speech: They said that the cat had been going outside and getting dirty for a long time. (past perfect continuous)

Again, we don’t shift the tense back here; we leave it like it is. And again, a lot of people would report this speech as, “They said the cat was going outside and getting dirty for a long time.” It’s just a simpler way to say almost the same thing.

Direct speech: I told you, “I will be here no matter what.”

Indirect speech: I told you that I would be here no matter what. (present conditional)

At this point, we don’t just have to think about tenses, but grammatical mood, too. However, the idea is still pretty simple. We use the conditional (with “would”) to show that at the time the words were spoken, the future was uncertain.

In this case, you could also say, “I told you that I will be here no matter what,” but only if you “being here” is still something that you expect to happen in the future.

What matters here is what’s intended. Since this example shows a person reporting their own speech, it’s more likely that they’d want to stress the truth of their own intention, and so they might be more likely to use “will” than “would.”

But if you were reporting someone else’s words, you might be more likely to say something like, “She told me that she would be here no matter what.”

Direct speech: I said, “I’ll be waiting for your call.”

Indirect speech: I said that I would be waiting for your call. (conditional continuous)

These are similar to the above examples, but apply to a continuous or ongoing action.

Direct speech: She said, “I will have learned a lot about myself.”

Indirect speech: She said that she would have learned a lot about herself (conditional perfect) or She said that she will have learned a lot about herself (future perfect).

In this case, using the conditional (as in the first example) suggests that maybe a certain event didn’t happen, or something didn’t turn out as expected.

However, that might not always be the case, especially if this was a sentence that was written in an article or a work of fiction. The second example, however, suggests that the future that’s being talked about still hasn’t happened yet.

Direct speech: She said, “By next Tuesday, I will have been staying inside every day for the past month.”

Indirect speech: She said that by next Tuesday, she would have been staying inside every day for the past month (perfect continuous conditional) or She said that by next Tuesday, she will have been staying inside every day for the past month (past perfect continuous).

Again, in this case, the first example might suggest that the event didn’t happen. Maybe the person didn’t stay inside until next Tuesday! However, this could also just be a way of explaining that at the time she said this in the past, it was uncertain whether she really would stay inside for as long as she thought.

The second example, on the other hand, would only be used if next Tuesday hadn’t happened yet.

Let’s take a look at where you can find resources for practicing reporting speech in the real world.

One of the most common uses for reported speech is in fiction. You’ll find plenty of reported speech in novels and short stories . Look for books that have long sections of text with dialogue marked by quotation marks (“…”). Once you understand the different kinds of reported speech, you can look for it in your reading and use it in your own writing.

Writing your own stories is a great way to get even better at understanding reported speech.

One of the best ways to practice any aspect of English is to watch native English videos. By watching English speakers use the language, you can understand how reported speech is used in real world situations.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

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Celebrity profiles, which you can find in print magazines and online, can help you find and practice reported speech, too. Celebrity profiles are stories that focus on a famous person. They often include some kind of interview. The writer will usually spend some time describing the person and then mention things that they say; this is when they use reported speech.

Because many of these profiles are written in the present tense, they can help you get used to the basics of reported speech without having to worry too much about different verb tenses.

While the above may seem really complicated, it isn’t that difficult to start using reported speech.

Mastering it may be a little difficult, but the truth is that many, many people who speak English as a first language struggle with it, too!

Reported speech is flexible, and even if you make mistakes, there’s a good chance that no one will notice.

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StoryLearning

Learn A Language Through Stories

A Comprehensive Guide To Reported Speech In English

There are times when someone tells you something and you’ll have to report what they said to someone else.

How can you do this in English?

You’ll need to know how to use what's called reported speech in English and this is what you’ll learn in this blog post.

What Is Reported Speech In English?

Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of retelling what someone else has said without repeating their exact words. 

For example, let’s say you have a friend called Jon and one called Mary. Mary has organised a house party and has invited you and Jon. 

Jon, however, is not feeling well. He says to you, “Sorry but I cannot come to the party. I spent all day working outside under the rain and I feel ill today.” 

A few days after the party, you meet Sarah. She’s another one of your friends and she was at the party too, but she arrived late – a moment before you left. You only had time to say hello to each other. 

She asks you, “I saw you at the party but I didn’t see Jon. Where was he?”

When Sarah asks you, “Where was Jon?” you can say, 

“Jon said, ‘Sorry but I cannot come to the party. I spent all day working outside under the rain and I feel ill today’.”

However, it would be more natural to use indirect speech in this case. So you would say, “Jon said he couldn’t come to the party. He had spent all day working outside under the rain and he felt ill that day .” 

Did you notice how the sentence changes in reported speech?

Here’s what happened:

• “I” became “he”
• “Cannot” became “couldn’t”
• “Spent” became “had spent”
• “I feel ill today” became “he felt ill on that day” 

Let’s take a closer look at how we form reported speech.

How To Form Reported Speech In English

To form reported speech, you might have to make a few changes to the original sentence that was spoken (or written). 

You may have to change pronouns, verb tenses, place and time expressions and, in the case of questions, the word order.

There are certain patterns to learn for reporting promises, agreements, orders, offers, requests, advice and suggestions.

Let’s have a look at all these cases one by one.

Reported Speech In English: Changing Verb Tenses

In general, when we use reported speech, the present tenses become past tenses.  

We do this because we are often reporting someone else’s words at a different time (Jon’s words were spoken 3 days before you reported them to Sarah).

Here’s an example:

Jenny (on Saturday evening) says,  “I don't like this place. I want to go home now.”(present tenses)

Matt (on Sunday morning) talks to James and says, “Jenny said that she didn't like the place, and she wanted to go home. (past tenses)

So this is how different verb tenses change:

Simple Present → Simple Past

DIRECT: I need money.

INDIRECT: She said she needed money.

Present Progressive → Past Progressive

DIRECT: My French is improving.

INDIRECT: He said his French was improving.

Present Perfect → Past Perfect

DIRECT: This has been an amazing holiday.

INDIRECT: She told me that it had been an amazing holiday.

What if there is a past simple form of the verb in direct speech? Well, in this case, it can stay the same in reported speech or you can change it to past perfect .

Past Simple → Past Simple Or Past Perfect

DIRECT: I didn’t go to work.

INDIRECT: Mary said that she didn’t go to work / Mary said that she hadn’t gone to work 

Past Perfect Tenses Do Not Change

DIRECT: I arrived late because I had missed the bus.

INDIRECT: He said he arrived (or had arrived) late because he had missed the bus.

Modal verbs like “can,” “may,” and “will” also change in reported speech.

Will → Would

DIRECT: The exam will be difficult.

INDIRECT: They said that the exam would be difficult.

Can → Could

DIRECT: I can’t be there.

INDIRECT: He told me he couldn’t be there.

May → Might

DIRECT: We may go there another time.

INDIRECT: They said they might go there another time.

However, past modal verbs don’t change (would, must, could, should, etc.) don’t change in reported speech.

DIRECT: It would be nice if we could go to Paris.

INDIRECT: He said it would be nice if we could go to Paris.

Here are some other examples:

So, in summary, 

• am/is → were
• do/does → did
• have/has → had
• had done → had done
• will → would
• can → could
• may → might
• could → could
• would → would
• like/love/buy/see → liked/loved/bought/saw or had liked/ had loved/had bought/had seen.

You make these verb tense shifts when you report the original words at a different time from when they were spoken. However, it is often also possible to keep the original speaker’s tenses when the situation is still the same.

For example, 

1. DIRECT: I am feeling sick.

   INDIRECT: She said she is feeling sick.

2. DIRECT: We have to leave now.

   INDIRECT: They said they have to leave now.

3. DIRECT: I will call you later.

   INDIRECT: He said he will call me later.

4. DIRECT: She is not coming to the party.

   INDIRECT: He said she is not coming to the party.

5. DIRECT: They are working on a new project.

   INDIRECT: She said they are working on a new project.

What about conditional sentences? How do they change in reported speech?

Sentences with “if” and “would” are usually unchanged.

DIRECT: It would be best if we went there early.

INDIRECT: He said it would be best if they went there early.

But conditional sentences used to describe unreal situations (e.g. second conditional or third conditional sentences) can change like this:

DIRECT: If I had more money I would buy a new car.

INDIRECT: She said if she had had more money, she would have bought a new car OR She said if she had more money, she would buy a new car.

Reported Speech In English: Changing Pronouns

In reported speech, because you’re reporting someone else’s words, there’s a change of speaker so this may mean a change of pronoun.

An example:

Jenny says,  “I don't like this place. I want to go home now.”

Matt says, “Jenny said that she didn't like the place, and she wanted to go home.” 

In this example, Jenny says “I” to refer to herself but Matt, talking about what Jenny said, uses “she”.

So the sentence in reported speech becomes:

• Jenny said that she didn’t like . . . ( not Jenny said that I didn’t like . . .)

Some other examples:

1 . DIRECT: I have been studying for hours.

   INDIRECT: He said he had been studying for hours.

2. DIRECT: I don’t like that movie.

   INDIRECT: She said she didn’t like that movie.

3. DIRECT: He doesn't like coffee.

   INDIRECT: She said he doesn't like coffee.

4. DIRECT: We have a new car.

   INDIRECT: They told me they had a new car.

5. DIRECT: We are going on vacation next week.

    INDIRECT: They said they are going on vacation next week.

Reported Speech In English: Place And Time Expressions

When you’re reporting someone’s words, there is often a change of place and time.  This may mean that you will need to change or remove words that are used to refer to places and time like “here,” “this,” “now,” “today,” “next,” “last,” “yesterday,” “tomorrow,” and so on. 

Check the differences in the following sentences:

DIRECT: I'll be back next month.

INDIRECT: She said she would be back the next month , but I never saw her again.

DIRECT: Emma got her degree last Tuesday.

INDIRECT: He said Emma had got her degree the Tuesday before.

DIRECT: I had an argument with my mother-in-law yesterday .

INDIRECT: He said he’d had an argument with his mother-in-law the day before .

DIRECT: We're going to have an amazing party tomorrow.

INDIRECT: They said they were going to have an amazing party the next day.

DIRECT: Meet me here at 10 am.

INDIRECT: He told me to meet him there at 10 am.

DIRECT: This restaurant is really good.

INDIRECT: She said that the restaurant was really good.

DIRECT: I'm going to the gym now.

INDIRECT: He said he was going to the gym at that time.

DIRECT: Today is my birthday.

INDIRECT: She told me that it was her birthday that day .

DIRECT: I'm leaving for Europe next week.

INDIRECT: She said she was leaving for Europe the following week.

Reported Speech In English: Word Order In Questions

What if you have to report a question? For example, how would you report the following questions?

• Where’s Mark?
• When are you going to visit your grandmother?
• What do I need to buy for the celebration?
• Where are your best friend and his wife staying?
• Do you like coffee?
• Can you sing?
• Who’s your best friend?
• What time do you usually wake up?
• What would you do if you won the lottery?
• Do you ever read nonfiction books?

In reported questions, the subject normally comes before the verb and auxiliary “do” is not used.

So, here is what happens when you're reporting a question:

DIRECT: Where’s Mark?

INDIRECT: I asked where Mark was. 

DIRECT: When are you going to visit your grandmother?

INDIRECT: He wanted to know when I was going to visit my grandmother.

DIRECT: What do I need to buy for the celebration?

INDIRECT: She asked what she needed to buy for the celebration.

DIRECT: Where are your best friend and his wife staying?

INDIRECT: I asked where his best friend and his wife were staying.

DIRECT: Do you like coffee?

INDIRECT: I asked if she liked coffee.

DIRECT: Can you sing?

INDIRECT: She asked me if I could sing.

DIRECT: Who’s your best friend?

INDIRECT: They asked me who my best friend was. 

DIRECT: What time do you usually wake up?

INDIRECT: She asked me what time I usually wake up.

DIRECT: What would you do if you won the lottery?

INDIRECT: He asked me what I would do if I won the lottery.

DIRECT: Do you ever read nonfiction books?

INDIRECT: She asked me if I ever read nonfiction books.

You might have noticed that question marks are not used in reported questions and you don’t use “say” or “tell” either.

Promises, Agreements, Orders, Offers, Requests & Advice

When you’re reporting these, you can use the following verbs + an infinitive:

Here are some examples:

DIRECT SPEECH: I’ll always love you.

PROMISE IN INDIRECT SPEECH: She promised to love me.

DIRECT SPEECH: OK, let’s go to the pub.

INDIRECT SPEECH: He agreed to come to the pub with me.

DIRECT SPEECH: Sit down!

INDIRECT SPEECH: They told me to sit down OR they ordered me to sit down.

DIRECT SPEECH: I can go to the post office for you.

INDIRECT SPEECH: She offered to go to the post office.

DIRECT SPEECH: Could I please have the documentation by tomorrow evening?

INDIRECT SPEECH: She requested to have the documentation by the following evening.

DIRECT SPEECH: You should think twice before giving him your phone number.

INDIRECT SPEECH: She advised me to think twice before giving him my phone number.

Reported Speech In English

All right! I hope you have a much clearer idea about what reported speech is and how it’s used. 

And the good news is that both direct and indirect speech structures are commonly used in stories, so why not try the StoryLearning method ? 

You'll notice this grammatical pattern repeatedly in the context of short stories in English.

Not only will this help you acquire it naturally, but you will also have a fun learning experience by immersing yourself in an interesting and inspiring narrative.

Have a wonderful time learning through books in English !

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• English Grammar
• Reported Speech

Reported Speech - Definition, Rules and Usage with Examples

Reported speech or indirect speech is the form of speech used to convey what was said by someone at some point of time. This article will help you with all that you need to know about reported speech, its meaning, definition, how and when to use them along with examples. Furthermore, try out the practice questions given to check how far you have understood the topic.

Table of Contents

Definition of reported speech, rules to be followed when using reported speech, table 1 – change of pronouns, table 2 – change of adverbs of place and adverbs of time, table 3 – change of tense, table 4 – change of modal verbs, tips to practise reported speech, examples of reported speech, check your understanding of reported speech, frequently asked questions on reported speech in english, what is reported speech.

Reported speech is the form in which one can convey a message said by oneself or someone else, mostly in the past. It can also be said to be the third person view of what someone has said. In this form of speech, you need not use quotation marks as you are not quoting the exact words spoken by the speaker, but just conveying the message.

Now, take a look at the following dictionary definitions for a clearer idea of what it is.

Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”

Reported speech is a little different from direct speech . As it has been discussed already, reported speech is used to tell what someone said and does not use the exact words of the speaker. Take a look at the following rules so that you can make use of reported speech effectively.

• The first thing you have to keep in mind is that you need not use any quotation marks as you are not using the exact words of the speaker.
• You can use the following formula to construct a sentence in the reported speech.

• You can use verbs like said, asked, requested, ordered, complained, exclaimed, screamed, told, etc. If you are just reporting a declarative sentence , you can use verbs like told, said, etc. followed by ‘that’ and end the sentence with a full stop . When you are reporting interrogative sentences, you can use the verbs – enquired, inquired, asked, etc. and remove the question mark . In case you are reporting imperative sentences , you can use verbs like requested, commanded, pleaded, ordered, etc. If you are reporting exclamatory sentences , you can use the verb exclaimed and remove the exclamation mark . Remember that the structure of the sentences also changes accordingly.
• Furthermore, keep in mind that the sentence structure , tense , pronouns , modal verbs , some specific adverbs of place and adverbs of time change when a sentence is transformed into indirect/reported speech.

Transforming Direct Speech into Reported Speech

As discussed earlier, when transforming a sentence from direct speech into reported speech, you will have to change the pronouns, tense and adverbs of time and place used by the speaker. Let us look at the following tables to see how they work.

Here are some tips you can follow to become a pro in using reported speech.

• Select a play, a drama or a short story with dialogues and try transforming the sentences in direct speech into reported speech.
• Write about an incident or speak about a day in your life using reported speech.
• Develop a story by following prompts or on your own using reported speech.

Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written. Check them out.

• Santana said that she would be auditioning for the lead role in Funny Girl.
• Blaine requested us to help him with the algebraic equations.
• Karishma asked me if I knew where her car keys were.
• The judges announced that the Warblers were the winners of the annual acapella competition.
• Binsha assured that she would reach Bangalore by 8 p.m.
• Kumar said that he had gone to the doctor the previous day.
• Lakshmi asked Teena if she would accompany her to the railway station.
• Jibin told me that he would help me out after lunch.
• The police ordered everyone to leave from the bus stop immediately.
• Rahul said that he was drawing a caricature.

Transform the following sentences into reported speech by making the necessary changes.

1. Rachel said, “I have an interview tomorrow.”

2. Mahesh said, “What is he doing?”

3. Sherly said, “My daughter is playing the lead role in the skit.”

4. Dinesh said, “It is a wonderful movie!”

5. Suresh said, “My son is getting married next month.”

6. Preetha said, “Can you please help me with the invitations?”

7. Anna said, “I look forward to meeting you.”

8. The teacher said, “Make sure you complete the homework before tomorrow.”

9. Sylvester said, “I am not going to cry anymore.”

10. Jade said, “My sister is moving to Los Angeles.”

Now, find out if you have answered all of them correctly.

1. Rachel said that she had an interview the next day.

2. Mahesh asked what he was doing.

3. Sherly said that her daughter was playing the lead role in the skit.

4. Dinesh exclaimed that it was a wonderful movie.

5. Suresh said that his son was getting married the following month.

6. Preetha asked if I could help her with the invitations.

7. Anna said that she looked forward to meeting me.

8. The teacher told us to make sure we completed the homework before the next day.

9. Sylvester said that he was not going to cry anymore.

10. Jade said that his sister was moving to Los Angeles.

What is reported speech?

What is the definition of reported speech.

Reported speech, according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “a report of what somebody has said that does not use their exact words.” The Collins Dictionary defines reported speech as “speech which tells you what someone said, but does not use the person’s actual words.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, reported speech is defined as “the act of reporting something that was said, but not using exactly the same words.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines reported speech as “the words that you use to report what someone else has said.”

What is the formula of reported speech?

You can use the following formula to construct a sentence in the reported speech. Subject said that (report whatever the speaker said)

Give some examples of reported speech.

Given below are a few examples to show you how reported speech can be written.

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100 Reported Speech Examples: How To Change Direct Speech Into Indirect Speech

Reported speech, also known as indirect speech, is a way of communicating what someone else has said without quoting their exact words. For example, if your friend said, “ I am going to the store ,” in reported speech, you might convey this as, “ My friend said he was going to the store. ” Reported speech is common in both spoken and written language, especially in storytelling, news reporting, and everyday conversations.

Reported speech can be quite challenging for English language learners because in order to change direct speech into reported speech, one must change the perspective and tense of what was said by the original speaker or writer. In this guide, we will explain in detail how to change direct speech into indirect speech and provide lots of examples of reported speech to help you understand. Here are the key aspects of converting direct speech into reported speech.

Reported Speech: Changing Pronouns

Pronouns are usually changed to match the perspective of the person reporting the speech. For example, “I” in direct speech may become “he” or “she” in reported speech, depending on the context. Here are some example sentences:

Reported Speech: Reporting Verbs

Reported speech: tense shifts.

When converting direct speech into reported speech, the verb tense is often shifted back one step in time. This is known as the “backshift” of tenses. It’s essential to adjust the tense to reflect the time elapsed between the original speech and the reporting. Here are some examples to illustrate how different tenses in direct speech are transformed in reported speech:

Reported Speech: Changing Time and Place References

Reported speech: question format.

When converting questions from direct speech into reported speech, the format changes significantly. Unlike statements, questions require rephrasing into a statement format and often involve the use of introductory verbs like ‘asked’ or ‘inquired’. Here are some examples to demonstrate how questions in direct speech are converted into statements in reported speech:

Reported Speech: Omitting Quotation Marks

Reported speech quiz.

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A Short Introduction to Free Indirect Style

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Free indirect style, alternatively known as free indirect speech or free indirect discourse, is a narrative style which requires some explanation and unpicking, since it is subtle and sometimes difficult to spot in a work of fiction. However, it is one of the most powerful tools a writer possesses, and has been used to great effect by writers as diverse as Jane Austen , James Joyce , and D. H. Lawrence .

What Is Free Indirect Style?

What is free indirect style (free indirect speech/free indirect discourse)? Put simply, free indirect style is when the voice of a third-person narrator takes on the style and ‘voice’ of one of the characters within the story or novel. It is, if you will, as if a detached third-person narrator has begun to turn into a first-person narrator, i.e. one of the characters within the story (or novel). The objectivity and detachment we associate with third-person narrators dissolves into the subjective and personal style of a character.

Let’s look at a hypothetical example.

Imagine we have a story narrated in the third person. In this particular scene, the protagonist, Bob, is watching his cat, Dribbles, who is meowing urgently at him. A conventional third-person narrator might ‘report’ or narrate this as follows:

Bob looked at his cat, Dribbles, who was meowing at him. He wondered what the cat wanted.

This second sentence, ‘He wondered what the cat wanted’, is a simple statement or summary of Bob’s thought. We might report this slightly differently, as follows:

Bob looked at his cat, Dribbles, who was meowing at him. What does the cat want? he wondered.

Here, in that second sentence, rather than simply summarising Bob’s thought, we have it framed as the question Bob would have ‘asked’ to himself, in his mind. We know this is Bob’s thought because we have the helpful tag provided: ‘he wondered’. But what if we removed that tag, so that the thought was, as it were, floating free of the narrator?

Bob looked at his cat, Dribbles, who was meowing at him. What did the cat want?

This has now become free indirect style, because that helpful tag, a kind of ‘stabiliser’ which makes it explicit to the reader that what we are reading is Bob’s thought rather than the narrator’s question, has been removed. Instead, we’re left in some doubt (though not too much) as to whose question that is . Is the narrator still speaking in his/her own words, or has the narrator’s voice been co-opted by the character, Bob? Is the narrator now ventriloquising Bob’s inner monologue?

This would be even clearer if the phrasing of that second question made it obvious that the rational, detached voice of the third-person narrator had given way to something more subjective and personal. What if we allowed a little more of Bob’s thoughts and feelings to show in that question?

Bob looked at his cat, Dribbles, who was meowing at him. What on earth did the thing want now?

As mentioned before, third-person narrators tend to be (though not always, it’s true) rational, detached, objective. They report what happened in the story, and tend not to pass personal judgments on people’s cats. It would be a weird kind of third-person narrator who suddenly described Bob’s cat as a ‘thing’ rather than a creature or animal, and the rather frustrated tone of the question (‘What on earth…’) sounds like Bob’s impatience rather than the narrator’s.

Here, then, we have moved from the detached reporting of the third-person narrator in the first sentence (‘Bob looked at his cat’) to the altogether more personal thoughts and feelings of Bob (‘What on earth did the thing want now?’), and Bob’s thoughts and feelings are being given to us in his own words . The narrator isn’t merely summarising Bob’s thoughts (‘What did the cat want? he wondered’), but is relaying Bob’s state of mind to us in the precise words that Bob is using in his own head.

This, in essence, is the nature of free indirect style.

Why Use Free Indirect Style?

This provides a clue to the purpose of free indirect speech: it can bring us closer to the character, and it can even give us a clearer sense of their personality. We know from that simple sentence quoted above that Bob is frustrated at his cat; perhaps he is not especially fond of the animal (‘the thing’ strips poor Dribbles of his animate qualities, rendering him an object rather than a living creature; and who on earth calls their poor cat ‘Dribbles’ anyway?), and perhaps he is not an altogether nice person.

Perhaps he is a good man, but we’ve merely caught him in a moment of frustration. The rest of the narrative will probably allow us to form a firmer judgment about him.

Let’s turn from a made-up illustrative example of free indirect discourse to some examples of the real thing, taken from proper writers who’ve actually written works of literature and such. First, consider this example, the opening paragraphs from Katherine Mansfield’s short story ‘Bliss’ (1918):

Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at – nothing – at nothing, simply.

What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling of bliss – absolute bliss! – as though you’d suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe? …

Oh, is there no way you can express it without being ‘drunk and disorderly’? How idiotic civilisation is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?

One of the easiest ways of spotting free indirect style in a work of fiction is the use of questions and exclamations. So-called ‘omniscient’ third-person narrators, as the word ‘omniscient’ indicates, are supposed to know everything, so they have little use for questions (although it’s true they may use rhetorical questions occasionally).

Exclamations, similarly, can sound too emotional, and therefore not in keeping with the usually dry, detached, level-headed ‘voice’ of an impersonal third-person narrator.

We can see from the excerpt above that although the narrative voice begins with conventional reporting (‘Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk’), it quickly begins to take on the ‘feel’ and sound of a different person’s idiom: Bertha’s own:

What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling of bliss – absolute bliss! – as though you’d suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe?

Here questions and exclamations suggest that we are reading, not the words of the narrator, but the thoughts and opinions of Bertha, which are being channelled through the narrator. But the narrator is not going to ‘tidy’ these up for us by saying, for instance, ‘Bertha thought of how wonderful it was to be overcome by a feeling of absolute bliss. She reflected that it was like suddenly swallowing a bright piece of late afternoon sun…’).

Instead, the narrator is going to pass on Bertha’s thoughts to us – a little messy, repetitive, verging on being out of control – as they tumble into her head, unfiltered, unedited. That’s free indirect speech.

Free Indirect Style: a case study

Free indirect style can sometimes be put to even greater use by a writer – indeed, it can change our entire interpretation of the story. Rudyard Kipling’s short story ‘ Mary Postgate ’ (1915), written during the First World War, focuses on a woman who works as a servant for a family in England. The son, Wynn – whom, we gather, Mary Postgate secretly loves – signs up and goes off to train with the army, but before he can see any action he is killed in a practice flight. Mary is distraught.

When an airman crash-lands in the family’s garden, Mary is the first on the scene, as she is out there burning Wynn’s books and other belongings. Seeing that the man who has crashed is a German pilot and therefore the enemy, Mary decides to deny him medical treatment and instead watch him slowly die of his injuries. This is how Kipling describes the scene:

By its light she saw, half hidden behind a laurel not five paces away, a bare-headed man sitting very stiffly at the foot of one of the oaks. A broken branch lay across his lap — one booted leg protruding from beneath it. His head moved ceaselessly from side to side, but his body was as still as the tree’s trunk. He was dressed — she moved sideways to look more closely – in a uniform something like Wynn’s with a flap buttoned across the chest. For an instant she had some idea that it might be one of the young flying men she had met at the funeral. But their heads were dark and glassy. This man’s was as pale as a baby’s, and so closely cropped that she could see the disgusting pink skin beneath. His lips moved.

‘What do you say?’ Mary moved towards him and stooped.

‘Laty! Laty! Laty!’ he muttered, while his hands picked at the dead wet leaves. There was no doubt as to his nationality. It made her so angry that she strode back to the destructor, though it was still too hot to use the poker there. Wynn’s books seemed to be catching well.

Of course, there is a question mark hanging over Mary’s actions. Is letting the man die in agony the moral thing to do, even though he’s the enemy? Wouldn’t it be morally right to fetch the authorities and have the man treated so he can stand trial or be dealt with by the British army?

But there is another doubt here. Is the man even the enemy?

At no point in the story does the third-person narrator tell us in a reliable voice that the airman is German. He speaks with a foreign accent, but then that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s German: he might be French and therefore an ally of the British. How good is Mary Postgate at distinguishing between foreign accents?

Note how this strange airman is wearing ‘a uniform something like Wynn’s’ (suggesting he’s on the same side, after all?) and that she initially assumes he is one of Wynn’s fellow British soldiers (again, implying that this man is no German but on ‘Mary’s’ side).

And then there is the masterstroke, that piece of free indirect discourse: ‘“Laty! Laty! Laty!” he muttered, while his hands picked at the dead wet leaves. There was no doubt as to his nationality.’

But sufficient doubt has already been cast on his nationality, so we assume that this is Mary’s pronouncement rather than the narrator’s. And she is wrong. The airman may well be German, but it is not true that there is no doubt about it. We have just been given several insinuations that his nationality is very much in some doubt. Mary’s certainty is deadly, but the irony of it can easily be missed by a reader of Kipling’s story.

I suspect that was his intention: ‘Mary Postgate’ can thus be read as a patriotic story about a woman who exacts revenge on the German enemy, or a subtler, more morally ambiguous tale about a woman who condemns a possibly innocent man to death. And much of this ambiguity is created thanks to the role played by free indirect speech in the story.

The problem here – we say ‘problem’ but of course it’s quite deliberate on the part of Kipling, and part of the ingenuity of his handling of narration here – is that the story is heavily focalised through Mary’s eyes.

Focalisation is, essentially, another name for ‘point of view’: it relates to whose eyes we see the story through, and how closely the narrator ‘follows’ that character, at the expense of the bigger, more objective picture. (A good example here is George R. R. Martin ’s A Song of Ice and Fire or ‘ Game of Thrones ’: each chapter is focalised in a very limited way through one specific character, so we learn what they learn and see what they see, but don’t learn something if that character misses it.)

In summary, then, to conclude this short(ish) introduction to free indirect style: free indirect speech can be used to bring us closer to a character through giving us an insight into not just what they’re thinking, but how they think it.

But free indirect discourse can be difficult to identify and analyse, because it can sometimes be difficult to identify where the narrator’s words end and the character’s interior monologue begins. But therein lies its power.

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10 thoughts on “A Short Introduction to Free Indirect Style”

Great post! The four versions of the sentence about Dribbles really clarify the concept.

• Pingback: A Short Introduction to Free Indirect Style | collect magazine

I don’t think Kipling intended the identity of the dying man to be ambiguous. He has already been introduced as the pilot of the German plane who jettisoned his bombs over the village and killed a child. Mary tells him “‘Ich haben der todt Kinder gesehn,” although her real motive is clearly that she was in love with the son of the house who died before he could kill the enemy for himself, (he too would have been a pilot, an irony which Kipling actually misses).

Is the dying man really the same man as the pilot, though? Or is this what we’re led to assume, following the story, as we are, very closely through Mary’s eyes (and inflected by her strong feelings for Wyn and her grief at his death)? I’m not sure…

• Pingback: May Sinclair’s Modernist Masterpiece: The Life and Death of Harriett Frean | Interesting Literature
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Great Post! I shall refer to this page when teaching this to my students 😊

That’s great to hear! I hope they find it useful – it’s something I’ve been meaning to blog about for a while :)

• Pingback: Craft of Writing: How Brent Weeks Uses Third Person Limited Point of View (POV) – Stephen Taylor

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Reported Speech

Direct speech and reported speech (indirect speech), reported speech table of contents:, overview and definitions, reporting verbs.

• Using the word THAT

Reported speech – changes

Third person singular verbs, place and time expressions, tense backshift, no tense backshift, reporting questions, reporting orders and requests.

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• She says we should go.
• They told us to bring our stuff.
• He asked them the time.
• I  explained  the rules to her.

The word THAT

• She says they are full = She says that they are full
• I told them we could help = I told them that we could help
• I suggest we start = I suggest that we start

How to report

So when reporting speech we must apply this rule.

A list of common place and time expressions

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• English ESL Video Lessons
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• Reported Speech (Indirect speech)

The Princess Who Never Smiled - Reported Speech Practice

Reported Speech (Meaning, Rules, Examples, And FREE Worksheet)

Have you ever wondered how we can share what someone said without using their exact words?

That’s where reported speech comes in.

Whether you’re recounting a story, sharing an interview, or simply conveying what someone said, reported speech adds depth and authenticity to your communication.

In this blog post, we’ll uncover the secrets of transforming direct speech into indirect speech, making conversations come to life in a whole new way.

What Is Reported Speech?

Picture this scenario: your best friend tells you about a great movie he watched. Later, when you’re chatting with another friend, you tell them, “ My best friend said he watched a great movie. ”

Bingo! That’s reported speech.

It’s how we pass along or ‘report’ what someone else has said. Instead of repeating their exact words (that’s called direct speech), we often rephrase things, put them in our own words, or change the tense. 

We use reported speech all the time, often without even realizing it—it’s a key part of how we share information.

In the  English language , reported speech (also known as indirect speech ) is a handy tool, so let’s dig into it some more. 

Don’t worry. We’ll take it step by step!

Reported Speech Rules

Alright, now that we know what reported speech is, let’s talk about the rules. Don’t worry, and it’s not as scary as it sounds. Just like in a football game or a board game, rules help everything flow smoothly. 

Here’s how it works with reported speech:

1. Say Bye To Quotation Marks

When we’re using reported speech, we don’t need quotation marks . Quotation marks are like party guests who show up when we’re quoting someone’s words directly. But for reported speech, we’re rephrasing things, so the quotation marks can take a little break.

2. Change The Tense

Usually, we shift the tenses back. This is because we’re usually talking about something that happened in the past. It’s like time  travel  but with words! If someone said, “I love pizza,” and you reported it, you’d say, “She said she loved pizza.”

3. Adjust Pronouns

Just like you wouldn’t wear your friend’s glasses, we don’t use the same pronouns when we shift to reported speech. We need to change them to match who we’re talking about. If your brother said, “I aced my  IELTS speaking test ,” you would tell your friends, “My brother said he aced his IELTS speaking test.”

4. Time And Place References

If the direct speech mentions a  specific time  or place, you may have to change these references too. So if your friend tells you on a Monday, “I’ll visit you tomorrow,” and you report it on Tuesday, you’d say, “She said she would visit me today.”

Tense Change In Reported Speech

Changes In Time And Place In Reported Speech

When we’re telling someone else about a conversation that happened at another time or place, it’s super important to adjust the time and place references.

It might sound complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it’s really just about making sure everything makes sense.

Let’s check out more examples:

Isn’t it cool how these little changes help keep the timeline clear when we’re sharing past conversations? That way, there’s no mix-up over when or where things happened! It’s one of the many neat tricks that language gives us.

Questions In Reported Speech

You know when someone asks a question, it sounds and looks a certain way, right? Well, when we talk about that question later, we change it up a bit.

We turn the question into a statement.

Sounds tricky? Don’t worry, I’ll explain!

See what we did there? We made those questions smooth out into statements. It’s like ironing the question mark right out of them!

Oh, and one more thing. If the question starts with a question word (like ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘where’), keep it in the reported speech. But if it’s a yes/no question, use ‘if’ or ‘whether.’

Reported Speech Worksheet With Answers

Here are a few reported speech exercises to practice and reinforce your understanding:

Exercise 1: 

Rewrite the following direct speech sentences as reported speech sentences.

• “I love ice cream,” said Emily.
• “Have you finished your homework?” asked the teacher.
• “We’re going on vacation next week,” said Mark.
• “Why didn’t you attend the meeting?” he asked.
• “I will help you with your project,” she promised.
• “I will visit my grandparents next weekend,” said Jack.
• Emily said she loved ice cream.
• The teacher asked if I had finished my homework.
• Mark said they were going on  vacation   the following week.
• He asked why I hadn’t attended the meeting.
• She promised to help me with my project.
• Jack said he would visit his grandparents the following weekend.

Exercise 2: Change the following sentences from reported speech to direct speech.

• He said that he had finished his work.
• She told me that she would call me later.
• They said they were going to the movies.
• The teacher told us to study for the test.
• He said he had seen the movie before.
• “I have finished my work,” he said.
• “I will call you later,” she told me.
• “We are going to the movies,” they said.
• “Study for the test,” the teacher told us.
• “I have seen the movie before,” he said.

FAQs On Reported Speech 

What are the 5 examples of reported speech.

Here are five examples for you:

1. “She’s really tired,” becomes, “He said she was really tired.” 2. “I’ll help you tomorrow,” becomes, “She said she would help me tomorrow.” 3. “I’m reading a great book,” becomes, “He said he was reading a great book.” 4. “We’re going on vacation,” becomes, “They said they were going on vacation.” 5. “I’ve lost my hat,” becomes, “She said she had lost her hat.”

What Are The 3 Most Common Reporting Verbs In Reported Speech?

The three most common reporting verbs are “say,” “tell,” and “ask.” We use these all the time in reported speech!

What Is An Example Of Reported Speech For Kids?

If your friend Billy says, “I have a new bike,” and you want to tell someone else what Billy said, you would use reported speech. You might say, “Billy told me that he had a new bike.”

What Are The 3 Main Elements Of A Reported Speech?

The three main elements are:

1. Pronoun: In reported speech, pronouns are typically changed to match the perspective of the person doing the reporting. For example, first-person pronouns in direct speech (“I,” “we”) become the third person (“he,” “she,” “they”) in reported speech. This keeps the meaning clear when the speaker’s words are reported by someone else.

2. Reporting Verb: This is the verb used to indicate that speech or thought is being reported. Common reporting verbs include “say,” “tell,” “ask,” “think,” and “feel,” among others. The choice of reporting verb can convey additional nuances about how the speech was originally delivered.

3. Tense Shift: Known as “backshifting,” the shifting of tenses is common in reported speech. If the direct speech is in the present tense , it’s customary to shift it to the past tense in reported speech. For instance, “I am happy” would become “she said she was happy.” This shift accurately portrays that the reported action or state happened at a previous time.

These elements work together to convey the original meaning of the speaker’s words while fitting into the grammatical structure of the reporting sentence .

Wrapping Up Reported Speech

Congratulations on completing your journey into the realm of reported speech! 

Remember to adjust pronouns, tenses, and other elements to accurately report speech. 

As you continue to practice and apply what you’ve learned, you’ll become more confident in reporting speech accurately and creatively.

If you’ve found this post helpful, please do follow Hi English Hub   on  Pinterest  and  Twitter  for more linguistic insights, and feel free to share this with others who might also benefit. 

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• Swords, Sorcery, & Self-Rescuing Damsels

Writing the Short Story part 2: indirect speech #amwriting

In a short story, our words are limited, so we must craft our prose to convey a sense of naturalness. Scenes have an arc of rising and ebbing action, so let’s consider how conversation fits into the arc of the scene .

J.R.R. Tolkien said that dialogue must have a premise or premises and move toward a conclusion of some sort. If nothing comes of it, the conversation is a waste of the reader’s time.

What do we want to accomplish in this scene? Ask yourself three questions.

• Who needs to know what?
• Why must they know it?
• How many words do you intend to devote to it?

My rule of thumb is, keep the conversations short and intersperse them with scenes of actions that advance the plot.

Author  James Scott Bell  says dialogue has five functions:

• To reveal story information
• To reveal character
• To set the tone
• To set the scene
• To reveal theme

So now that we know  what  must be conveyed and  why, we find ourselves in the minefield of the short story: 

• Delivering the backstory .

Don’t give your characters long paragraphs with lines and lines and lines of uninterrupted dialogue. A short story has no room for  bloated exposition .

Let’s look at a scene that opens upon a place where the reader and the protagonists must receive information. The way the characters speak to us can take several forms:

• Direct discourse. Nattan said, “I was going to give it to Benn in Fell Creek, but he wasn’t home, and I had to get on the road.”
• Italicized thoughts: Nattan stood looking out the window. Benn’s not home. What now?
• Free indirect speech: Nattan stood looking out the window. Benn wasn’t home, so who should he give it to?

Examples two and three are versions of indirect speech , which is a valuable tool in your writer’s toolbox

Wikipedia describes free indirect speech this way:

Free indirect speech  is a style of  third-person narration  which uses some of the characteristics of third-person along with the essence of  first-person  direct speech; it is also referred to as  free indirect discourse ,  free indirect style , or, in  French ,  discours indirect libre .

Free indirect discourse can be described as a “technique of presenting a character’s voice partly mediated by the voice of the author” (or, reversing the emphasis, “that the character speaks through the voice of the narrator”) with the voices effectively merged. This effect is partially accomplished by eliding direct speech attributions, such as “he said” or “she said”.

The following is an example of sentences using direct, indirect and free indirect speech:

• Quoted  or  direct speech :  He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. “And just what pleasure have I found, since I came into this world?” he asked.
• Reported  or normal  indirect speech :  He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. He asked himself what pleasure he had found since he came into the world.
• Free indirect speech :  He laid down his bundle and thought of his misfortune. And just what pleasure had he found, since he came into this world?

According to British philologist Roy Pascal,  Goethe  and  Jane Austen  were the first novelists to use this style consistently and nineteenth century French novelist   Flaubert  was the first to be consciously aware of it as a style. [1]

When I began writing seriously, I was in the habit of using italicized thoughts and characters talking to themselves as a way to express what was going on inside of them.

That isn’t necessarily wrong. When used sparingly, thoughts and internal dialogue have their place. When they are used as a means for dumping information, they can become a wall of italicized words.

In the last few years, as I’ve evolved in my writing habits, I am drawn more and more to the various forms of free indirect speech as a way of showing who my characters think they are and how they see their world.

The main thing to watch for when employing indirect speech in a short story is to stay only in one person’s head. Remember, short stories are limited for space, so it’s essential to only tell the protagonist’s story.

In  longer pieces, such as novels, you could show different characters’ internal workings provided you have clear scene or chapter breaks between each character’s dialogue.

If you aren’t careful, you can slip into “head-hopping,” which is incredibly confusing for the reader. First, you’re in one person’s thoughts, and then another—it’s like watching a tennis match.

When you are limited in word count, you must find the most powerful ways to get the story across with a minimum of words. Showing important ruminations as an organic part of the unfolding plot is one way to give information and reveal a character while keeping to lean, powerful prose.

Credits and Attributions:

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Free indirect speech,”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Free_indirect_speech&oldid=817276599 (accessed March 30, 2021).

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Tagged as #writetip , free indirect discourse , How to write thoughts without italics , short fiction , writing , writing craft , writing short fiction

7 responses to “ Writing the Short Story part 2: indirect speech #amwriting ”

Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog .

Like Liked by 1 person

😀 Thank you for the reblog, Chris ❤

Reblogged this on Valerie Ormond's Thoughts On… and commented: Thank you, Connie, for another clear explanation of tools in the writing craft.

Thank you for the reblog!

Perhaps this is me being thick but I do not understand “limited word count”. Surely what needs to be told should be wither you use more or fewer words? “Head- hopping? such as Thomas Harris, Voltaire, Erik Axel Sund, William Peter Blatty? where you are completely unsure of whose thoughts you are reading and have to figure it out yourself? Lol- it is probably just me, please explain.

Hello! First, Limited Word Count — that comes into play if you are writing a short story for a contest or anthology where the editors require stories of, say, 2,000 words or less. Many will say no more than 7,500 and some flash-fictions will want less than 500. Drabbles are stories that are 100 words or less!

Second – head-hopping is a mixed bag: it’s bad when the thoughts of two or more characters are shown in such a way that you can’t easily sort out who is doing the thinking. Sometimes, the thoughts of two characters can be shown in a scene, but the author needs to really make it clear who is doing the thinking.

And finally, some readers find that too many thoughts back and forth are jarring and will write negative reviews about it. As a rule, I try not to show the ruminations of more than one character in a scene. I hope this has helped clear up your confusion 😀

Thanks Connie, your explanation has made things a tad clearer as I really was bamboozled. Not sure that I understand all of it but it has certainly helped, thanks.

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