Reported Speech (also called Indirect Speech) is used to communicate what someone else said, but without using the exact words. A few changes are necessary; often a pronoun has to be changed and the verb is usually moved back a tense, where possible.

EG: He said that he was going to come. (The person's exact words were "I'm going to come.")

Direct speech is used to give the exact words used by another speaker. The words are given between quotation marks (" ") in writing:

EG: "I'm coming now," he said