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Direct and Indirect Speech

The document explains the concepts of direct and indirect speech, illustrating how to report someone's words either by quoting them directly or paraphrasing them. It details the rules for changing verb tenses and time expressions when converting from direct to indirect speech, as well as how to report questions. Examples are provided to clarify the differences between the two forms of speech.

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10 views

Direct and Indirect Speech

The document explains the concepts of direct and indirect speech, illustrating how to report someone's words either by quoting them directly or paraphrasing them. It details the rules for changing verb tenses and time expressions when converting from direct to indirect speech, as well as how to report questions. Examples are provided to clarify the differences between the two forms of speech.

Uploaded by

barbaradevil0203
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DIRECT AND

INDIRECT SPEECH
DIRECT When we want to describe what

SPEECH someone said, one option is to use direct


speech. We use direct speech when we
simply repeat what someone says,
putting the phrase between speech
marks:
Paul came in and said, “I’m really
hungry.”
It is very common to see direct speech used in books or in a

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newspaper article. For example:
The local MP said, “We plan to make this city a safer place
for everyone.”

As you can see, with direct speech it is common to use the


verb ‘to say’ (‘said’ in the past). But you can also find other
verbs used to indicate direct speech such as ‘ask’, ‘reply’,
and ‘shout’. For example:
When Mrs Diaz opened the door, I asked, “Have you
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seen Lee?”
She replied, “No, I haven’t seen him since lunchtime.”
The boss was angry and shouted, “Why isn’t he here? He
hasn’t finished that report yet!”
INDIRECT SPEECH

When we want to report what someone said without speech


marks and without necessarily using exactly the same words,
we can use indirect speech (also called reported speech). For
example:
Direct speech: “We’re quite cold in here.”
Indirect speech: They say (that) they’re cold.
When we report what someone says in the present simple, as in the above
sentence, we normally don’t change the tense, we simply change the
subject. However, when we report things in the past, we usually change the
tense by moving it one step back. For example, in the following sentence the
present simple becomes the past simple in indirect speech:

Direct speech: “I have a new car.”


Indirect speech: He said he had a new car.

All the other tenses follow a similar change in indirect speech. Here is an
example for all the main tenses:
The same rule of moving the tenses one
step back also applies to modal verbs.
For example:
Using ‘say’ or ‘tell’
As an alternative to using ‘say’ we can also use ‘tell’ (‘told’ in the past) in reported speech, but in this
case you need to add the object pronoun. For example:
He told me he was going to call Alan.
They told her they would arrive a little late.
You told us you’d already finished the order.
Changing Time Expressions
Sometimes it’s necessary to change the time expressions when you report speech, especially when you
are speaking about the past and the time reference no longer applies. For example:
Direct speech: “I’m seeing my brother tomorrow.”
Indirect speech: She said she was seeing her brother the following day.
Here are some other examples:
Direct speech: “I had a headache yesterday.”
Indirect speech: You said you’d had a headache the day before yesterday.
Direct speech: “It’s been raining since this afternoon.”
Indirect speech: He said it’d been raining since that afternoon.
Direct speech: “I haven’t seen them since last week.”
Indirect speech: She said she hadn’t seen them since the previous week.
INDIRECT
QUESTIONS
When you report a question you need to change the interrogative form into
an affirmative sentence, putting the verb tense one step back, as with
normal reported speech.

There are two types of questions that we can report – questions that have a
yes/no response, and questions that begin with a question word like ‘what’,
‘where’, ‘who’ etc. When we report a yes/no question, we use ‘if’. For example:
Direct speech: “Do they live here?”
Indirect speech: You asked me if they lived here.

As you can see, in the reported version of the question, ‘do’ is eliminated
because it is no longer a question, and the verb ‘live’ becomes ‘lived’.
EXAMPLES

Direct: "What time is it?"


Indirect: "Could you tell me what time it is?"
Direct: "Where is the library?"
Indirect: "Do you know where the library is?"
Direct: "Does he like coffee?"
Indirect: "I was wondering if he likes coffee."
Direct: "Why did she leave?"
Indirect: "Can you tell me why she left?"

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