Direct and Indirect Speech — Important Questions

I am going home,” said Riya.

This sentence contains the exact words spoken by Riya within quotation marks, so it is direct speech.

She said she was feeling well.

This sentence reports what someone said in a changed form, without quotation marks. That is indirect speech.

It usually moves back one step

When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tense of the reported speech usually moves back one step, e.g., present simple becomes past simple.

It remains unchanged

When the reporting verb is in the present or future tense, the tense of the reported speech does not change.