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The English language has two ways for conveying the spoken-words of one person to
another person, as follows:
1. Direct Speech
2. Indirect Speech
For example, you are at your college where your teacher (named David) says to you “I
want to meet your parents”. When you come home, you can say to your parents, about
David’s wish to meet them, in the following two ways:
Direct speech:
David said, “I want to meet your parents”.
Indirect speech:
David said that he wanted to meet my parents.
Here is another example. Suppose you see your friend (named John) in a market who
says to you, “I have bought a book for you”. When you come home, you can say about
this to your brother in the following two ways:
Direct speech:
John said, “I have bought a book for you”
Indirect speech:
John said that he had bought a book for me.
In direct speech, the actual words spoken by a person (with no change in them) are
conveyed to another person.
In indirect speech, the actual words spoken by a person are slightly changed while
conveying them to another person. For instance, the verb and pronouns are changed.
Direct speech: As noted earlier, the actual words uttered by a person (with no
change) are quoted. Therefore, the exact words of the speaker are enclosed in inverted
commas or quotation marks. In the sentence, a comma is also added after the word
‘said’ that introduces the spoken words.
Example.
He said, “I am going to school”.
Indirect speech: In indirect speech, the actual words of the speaker are slightly
changed. This is because the actual words were spoken by the speaker in past time,
but now you are speaking these words in the present time. Therefore, the verb (or
tense) of the spoken words is changed. Similarly, when the speaker was speaking these
words, he/she was addressing you directly but now you are addressing another person.
Therefore, the pronouns of the sentence are also changed.
Example.
Direct speech:
He said, “I broke the cup”.
Indirect speech:
He said that he had broken the cup.
Note. Direct and indirect speeches are also called direct and indirect narrations.
Before learning the rules for conversion of speech, you must learn the following two
parts of the sentence.
Reporting verb: The verb in the first part of the sentence (i.e., he said, she said,
he says, she says, etc.) is called reporting verb.
Examples.
Reported speech: The second part (actual words of the speaker) of the sentence
which is enclosed in inverted commas is called reported speech.
Examples.
Example.
Direct speech:
She said, “I won a prize”.
Indirect speech:
She said that she had won a prize.
Rule 2. Usage of the word 'that': The conjunction ‘that’ is always used between
reporting verb and reported speech in indirect speech.
Example.
Direct speech:
He said, I write a letter.
Indirect speech:
He said that he wrote a letter.
Example.
Direct speech:
He said, “Sara is going to school”.
Indirect speech:
He said that Sara was going to school. (Tense changed)
Direct speech:
He says, “Sara is going to school”.
Indirect speech:
He said that Sara is going to school. (Tense not changed)
Direct speech:
He will say,“Sara is going to school”.
Indirect speech:
He will say that Sara is going to school. (Tense not changed)
Example.
Direct speech:
He said, “I eat an apple”.
Indirect speech:
He said that he ate an apple.
Direct speech:
She said, “I am reading a poem”.
Indirect speech:
She said that she was reading a poem.
Direct speech:
He said to me, “I like your shirt”.
Indirect speech:
He said to me that he liked my shirt.
Examples.
Direct speech:
She said, “I am feeling good today”.
Indirect speech:
She said that she was feeling good that day.
Direct speech:
He said, “I will meed David tomorrow”.
Indirect speech:
He said that he would meet David the next day..
Direct speech:
He said, “I lost my wallet yesterday”.
Indirect speech:
He said that he had lost his wallet the previous day.
Direct speech:
She said, “I need your help now”.
Indirect speech:
She said that she needed my help then.