what exactly is reported speech?

Question

to the majority of websites that i've visited it tells me that its about using past tense but this site http://esl.about.com/od/grammarintermediate/a/reported_speech.htm tells me that if a sentence is in simple present, to leave it present. Check it out to see if its the site or me thats wrong. thnx

Answer 1

a grammatical construction in which reports are made of something that was said, written, or thought (eg, She said she was going home); also called indirect speech.