The most commonly used verbs for reporting speech are say and tell. There is one small difference between them. After tell we use a personal pronoun such as me, us, her etc. i.e. we indicate the listener or receiver of the information. With say it is incorrect to use a personal pronoun after the reporting verb.
Let’s look at an example:
Original statement: “I am going to the supermarket.”
Report with said:
She said [that] she was going to the supermarket.
(SUB) + (Reporting Verb) + (That) + (Reported statement)
Report with told:
She told me [that] she was going to the supermarket.
(SUB) + (Reporting Verb) + (Object (listener)) + (That) + (Reported statement)
Note – Inclusion of ‘that’ is optional with both verbs.
A note on pronouns:
Pay attention to pronouns! It is also necessary to change personal pronouns, object pronouns and possessive pronouns in order to convey the correct meaning in the reported speech.
For example:
Original Statement – Mary to me: “I work at a school in the centre of town with your cousin. We sometimes have coffee breaks together!”
Me later reporting the conversation: “She told me she worked at a school in the centre of town with my cousin. She said that they sometimes had coffee breaks together.