Indirect Speech

is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech).
Here what a

person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.
Indirect Speech / Reported Speech
Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.
When transforming sentences from direct into indirect speech, you have to change:
pronouns;
place and time expressions;
tenses (backshift).

to agree, to announce, to answer, to approve, to argue,

to ask, to breathe out, to call, to claim, to confess, to confute, to contradict, to counter, to cry out, to declare, to demand, to disagree, to disapprove, to exclaim, to explain, to groan, to grumble, to hint, to implore, to inquire, to interrogate, to mention, to murmur, to mutter, to notice, to order, to plead, to proclaim, to propose, to refuse, to rejoin, to remark, to repeat, to reply, to report, to respond, to retort, to say, to scream, to shout, to state, to suggest, to try to find out, to want to know, to utter, to whisper, to wonder, to yell.

intelligent.
You dance so well.
You've got [have got] lovely

hair.
I'll never forget this day.

He said I was pretty.
He said I was so intelligent.
He said I danced so well.
He said I had got lovely hair.
He said he would never forget that day.

ever been to Boston?
He asked me if/whether I liked ballet.

He asked me if/whether I had ever been to Boston.

you reading?
When will we meet again?
Why don't you

stay longer?

He asked me where I studied.
He asked me what I was reading.
He asked me when I should meet him again.
He asked me why I didn't stay longer.

my telephone number.
He asked me to ring him up

the next morning.
He asked me to help him to translate an article from English.

Give me your telephone number, please.
Ring me up tomorrow.
Help me to translate an article from English!

direct speech, then use a construction with if or whether.

If a WH question is asked, then use the WH to introduce the clause.

part of the very to say is used. In that

case the verb tenses usually remain the same.

used. If the verb said is used, then the form

of the modal, or another modal that has a past meaning is used.

take place.
now
here
this, these
today
tomorrow
yesterday
next

week
next year
last week
last year

then
there
that, those
that day
the following day
the previous day
the following week
the following year
the previous week
the year before