Direct and Indirect Speech

Direct and Indirect Speech

• Direct speech: Quotes the speaker's exact words. Uses quotation marks.
• Indirect speech: Reports what the speaker said without using the exact words. No quotation marks.

Changing Tense in Indirect Speech

• Statements: Past tenses are used for direct speech that is in present tense or future tense.
  • Present tense in direct becomes past tense in indirect.
  • Future tense in direct becomes conditional or past future tense in indirect.
• Examples:
  • "I am reading a book" becomes "He said that he was reading a book."
  • "I will go to the market tomorrow" becomes "She said that she would go to the market the next day."
  • "We have completed our homework" becomes "They said that they had completed their homework."

Changing Pronouns and Possessive

• Adapt pronouns and possessive forms (e.g., "I", "me", "my") to reflect the reported speaker's perspective
• Examples:
  • "This is my favorite movie" becomes "She said that it was her favorite movie."

Statements with Imperfect Past Tense

• When a direct speech quote is in the imperfect past tense, the indirect speech tense becomes the past perfect.

• Example: "I broke the window" becomes "The boy said that he had broken the window."

Changing Time Expressions in Indirect Speech

• Replace the time expressions based on the context of the reported speech
• Examples:
  • "Tomorrow" can become "the next day" or "the following day."
  • "Today" can become "that day."

Questions in Indirect Speech

• Questions: Forming a question in indirect speech often involves:
  • Removing quotation marks
  • Changing the verb tense (depending on the subject of the question)
  • Adding "if" or "whether" (in some cases)
  • Adjusting personal pronouns and nouns to the reported speaker's perspective
• Examples:
  • "Where are you going?" becomes "She asked where I was going."
  • "What is your name?" becomes "He asked what my name was."
  • "Did you complete your homework?" becomes "The teacher asked if I had completed my homework."

Imperative Sentences in Indirect Speech

• When the direct quote is an imperative, the indirect speech typically takes this form: "'Close the door' becomes 'He told me to close the door."'"

• Use "to" after the verb and adjust pronouns, nouns and other information as needed for the indirect speech.

Exclamations in Indirect Speech

• Exclamations in direct speech are reported in indirect speech forms using "exclaimed" and adjusting verbs and other parts of the statement.

Mixed Examples

• Indirect speech can involve combining features from different sentence structures.
  • "I will be late because I missed the bus" becomes "He said that he would be late because he had missed the bus."
  • "Do you know how to solve this problem?" becomes "She asked if I knew how to solve that problem."
  • "Work harder, or you will not win" becomes "The coach told them to work harder, or they would not win."

Suggestions in Indirect Speech

• Suggesting an action translates into the indirect speech through verbs like "suggested" or "proposed."
  • "Let's go to the park" becomes "He suggested going to the park."