Direct and Indirect Speech
Direct and Indirect Speech is known as reported speech. There are two ways to report what someone said:
A) Direct Speech
Direct speech is a reporting of speech exactly what someone has said, a direct quote. While writing the direct speech, the said sentence was put within speech marks; an inverted commas.
As in direct speech other person repeats exactly what the speaker said so it could be in any forms of tense.
Example: Lucy said, “I will eat a chocolate.”
In this example, “Lucy said” is a reporting clause and “I will eat a chocolate” is a reported clause. The comma is used between the reporting clause and reported clause.
B) Indirect Speech
Indirect speech is a means of reporting the content of statement, questions or other utterances of someone in own sentence, without quoting them exactly the same.
As in indirect speech other person mentions the speaker speech in own words in a later stage so it would be only in past tense.
Example: Lucy said that she would eat a chocolate.
In indirect speech, speech marks are not used and the reporting clause and reported clause are joined together with the use of the conjunction “that”.
Rules to change direct speech in indirect speech
1. Change of Pronoun
In order to convert direct speech into indirect speech, the pronoun is changed as such: a) First Person is changed according to the subject of reported speech. b) Second Person is changed according to the object of reporting verb. c) Third Person is not changed.
“I” is changed into “He/she”, “You” is changed into “He/she/they”, “We” is changed into “They”, “Us” is changed into “Them”, “Our” is changed into “Their”, “They, He, She, It, His, Her, Its” is not changed.
2. Change of Tense
I) If the reporting verb is in the present tense or future tense, then the tense of the sentence does not change in indirect speech. While converting into indirect speech “Tells” will be used at the place of “says to”.
Example: Direct Speech: Lucy says, “I eat a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy says that she eat a chocolate. Direct Speech: Lucy says to me, “I will eat a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy tells me that she will eat a chocolate.
(In place of ‘say’ or ‘said’, ‘tell’ or ‘told’ is also used in reported speech, but in this case it is essential to add the object pronoun.)
II) If the reporting verb is in past tense, reported speech are changed as follows:
a) Simple Present Tense is changed into Simple Past Tense Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “I eat a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that she ate a chocolate.
b) Present Continuous Tense is changed into Past Continuous Tense Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “I am eating a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that she was eating a chocolate.
c) Present Perfect Tense is changed into Past Perfect Tense Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “I have eaten a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that she had eaten a chocolate.
d) Present Perfect Continuous is changed into Past Perfect Continuous Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “I have been eating a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that she had been eating a chocolate.
e) Simple Past Tense is changed into Past Perfect Tense Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “I ate a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that she had eaten a chocolate.
f) Past Continuous is changed into Past Perfect Continuous Tense Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “I was eating a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that she had been eating a chocolate.
Note: Past Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous Tense are not converted into Indirect Speech.
g) Auxiliary verbs shall, will, may, and can is changed into should, could, might, and could respectively. Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “I shall eat a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that she would eat a chocolate. Direct Speech: David said, “I will be eating a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: David said that he would be eating a chocolate. Direct Speech: Mary said, “I may eat a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Mary said that she might eat a chocolate. Direct Speech: David said, “I can eat a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: David said that she could eat a chocolate.
3. Change of Place and Time
While converting the sentence from direct speech to indirect speech, words in relation to place and time change in an Indirect Speech to replace nearness from a distance. The words changed as follows:
“Now” is changed into “Then”, “Here” is changed into “There”, “Today” is changed into “That day”. “Tomorrow” is changed into “The next day”, “Last week” is changed into “The previous week”, “This” is changed into “That”, “Tonight” is changed into “That night”, “Ago” is changed into “Before”, “Thus” is changed into “So”, “Hither” is changed into “Thither”, “Come” is changed into “Go”, “Hence” is changed into “Thence”, “Next” is changed into “Following”
4. Orders and request
In place of reporting verb “say”, “order” or “request” are used in Indirect Speech.
Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said to Rani, “Eat this chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy ordered Rani to eat that chocolate. Direct Speech: Lucy said to Rani, “Please pass me a chocolate.” Indirect Speech: Lucy requested Rani to pass her a chocolate.
5. Exclamation
In place of reporting verb “say”, “exclaimed” are used in Indirect Speech. A note of Exclamation “!” replaced with Full stop “.”.
Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “What a delicious chocolate it is.” Indirect Speech: Lucy exclaimed that chocolate is a delicious.
6. Questions (Interrogation):
In place of reporting verb “say”, “ask” or “enquire of” are used in Indirect Speech. A note of Interrogation “?” replaced with Full stop “.”.
Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said to me, “What are you doing?” Indirect Speech: Lucy asked me what I was doing. Direct Speech: Lucy said to me, “Can you purchase a chocolate?” Indirect Speech: Lucy asked me if I could purchase a chocolate.
7. The universal truths are not changed in Indirect Speech
Example: Direct Speech: Lucy said, “The sun rises in the east” Indirect Speech: Lucy said that the sun rises in the east.