ENGLISH GRAMMAR
DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
Study the sentences written below:
1. He says, “ I am unwell.”
2. He will say, “ I am unwell.”
3. He said, “ I am unwell.”
All the three sentences written above are the examples of
Direct Speech. In the Direct Speech , we have two
parts; reporting speech, and the reported speech. In the
above three sentences, he says, he will say,
CONTINUED …
and he said are said to be REPORTING SPEECH and
the sentence I am unwell which is enclosed within
double inverted commas in all the three sentences is said
to be REPORTED SPEECH.
The verb in the reporting speech is said to be a reporting
verb and the verb of the reported speech is known as
reported verb.
CONTINUED …
When we quote speaker’s actual words, this is called
DIRECT SPEECH.
We may report what he said without quoting his exact
words. This is called INDIRECT ( or REPORTED)
SPEECH. The first three sentences written above are the
examples of the DIRECT SPEECH. We may change
them to Indirect speech without changing their meaning
as done below:
CONTINUED…
1. He says that he is unwell.
2. He will say that he is unwell.
3. He said that he was unwell.
The basic rule to change a sentence from Direct speech to
Indirect Speech is:
RULE : If the reporting verb is in the present tense or in
the future tense the tense of the reported verb will not
be changed.( you can see this happen in sentence no. 1
and 2 above).
CONTINUED…
And if the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tense
of the reported verb is changed to its corresponding past
except in cases where reported speech talks of a
universal truth or habitual action ( for example: the
teacher said, “ The sun rises in the east.” will be changed
to The teacher said that the sun rises in the east.)
CONTINUED…
Help List one
—Words indicating nearness are changed into words showing
distance:
Here—there,
tomorrow—the next day/the following day,
this—that,
yesterday—the previous day or the day
before,
these —those,
the next week—the following week,
today—that day,
now—then,
tonight—that night
CONTINUED…
Help list two
—The following changes in the tense need to be
considered;
Is/am—was, can—could,will—would,
Are —were,shall—should,may—might
Is (sleeping)—was(sleeping)
Are (sleeping)—were(sleeping)
Has/have killed—had killed
Was/were laughing— had been laughing
Did—had done
SOME EXAMPLES OF THE PREVIOUS RULE
DIRECT SPEECH INDIRECT SPEECH
I said, “My mother cooks I said that my mother
well.” cooked well.
She said, “I am reading a She said that she was
novel now.” reading a novel then.
He said, “I killed an ant.” He said that he had
We said, “They have done killed an ant.
their job.” We said that they had
done their job.
CONTINUED…
Direct Speech Indirect Speech
She said, “ We were She said that they had
all laughing been all laughing
uncontrollably.” uncontrollably.
He said that he could
He said, “I can do it.”
do it.
She said to me, “You
She told me that I
may need help.” might need help.
He said, “She will do He said that she
this task quickly.’ would do that task
quickly.
CONTINUED…
Direct speech Indirect Speech
He said to me, “ I have He reminded me that he
often told you not to had often told me not to
play with fire.” play with fire.
“You have all done The teacher remarked that
very badly!” remarked they had all done very
the teacher. badly.
The teacher promised, The teacher promised that
“ If you will come he would explain it they
before school would come before
tomorrow, I will school the next day.
explain it.”
CONTINUED…
Direct Speech Indirect Speech
The Prince said, “It gives The prince said that it
me great pleasure to be gave him great pleasure
here this evening.” to be there that evening.
He said, “I shall go as He said that he would go
soon as it is possible.” as soon as it was possible.
He said, “ I do not wish to He said that he did not
see any of you; go away.” wish to see any of them
and ordered them to go
away.
QUESTIONS OR INTERROGATIVE
SENTENCES
Interrogative sentences are of three types as indicated
below:
1. yes /No Questions (Those questions which can be
answered in yes or no are known as yes/no questions.)
2. Wh Questions (Those questions which begin with Wh
words such as; Who, what, when ,where etc, how is also
treated as a wh question)
3. Tag/Tail Questions ( when a tag is added with any
statement affirmative or negative sentences, it is said to
be a tag question. For example; He is a good boy, Isn’t
he?, or He plays football, Doesn’t he? Or She does not
sing,does she? Etc) Note: The first two types of
questions are relevant in the present context.
CONTINUED…
Yes/No questions need if or whether words which act as
conjunction to join reporting speech and reported speech.
Whereas Wh questions need nothing as they themselves act
as conjunction in Indirect Speech.For example:
He said to me, “Are you a student?” ( You can answer this
question in yes or in no ,hence, this is an yes/ no question
which will be changed to indirect speech as; He asked me if
(or Whether)I was a student. Here if or whether acts as a
conjunction and not as a question word.
He said to me, “What are you doing?” can be changed to the
Indirect speech as ; He asked me what I was doing. Note that
wh word what itself functions as a conjunction here, no extra
word has been inserted to join the two sentences.
HhehHer
EXERCISES ON INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
Direct Speech Indirect Speech
“Where do you The stranger asked
live?”asked the where I lived.
stranger.
He said, “Will you He asked them if they
listen to such a man?” would listen to such a
man.
“What do you want?”
He asked her what
he said to her. she wanted.
He said, “ How’s your
He asked how her/his
father?” father was.
CONTINUED…
Direct Speech Indirect
“Are you coming home He asked if she/he
with me?” he asked. was going home with
him
“which way did she
The young man asked
go?” asked the young
which way she had
man. gone.
“Have you anything to
The judge finally
say on behalf of the asked if he/she had
prisoner?” said the anything to say on
judge finally. behalf of the prisoner.
