DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

Direct Speech: Quoting actual words.

Ex. Ram said, “I am very busy now.”
Indirect Speech: Reporting what is said without quoting exact words.
Ex. Ram said that he was very busy then.

Note:
A sentence in Direct Speech has two parts-
Reporting Verb: The part outside the inverted commas.
Reported Speech: The part of sentence inside the inverted commas.
Ex.
Ram said, “I am very busy now.”

Reporting verb Reported speech

General Rules to change Direct Speech to Indirect Speech

The following three points apply on all sentences while changing them from
direct speech to indirect speech-
a. Change of Tense
b. Change of Person
c. Change of other Parts of Speech

CHANGE OF TENSE
If the reporting verb is in Past Tense(said), then reported speech is changed as
follows-
i. Simple Present Tense to Simple Past Tense
Ex.
Ram said, “I am unwell.”
Ram said that he was unwell.
ii. Present Continuous Tense to Past Continuous Tense
Ex.
Ram said, “I am going to school.”
Ram said that he was going to school.
iii. Present Perfect Tense to Past Perfect Tense
Ex.
He said, “I have completed the work.”
He said that he had completed the work.
iv. Present Perfect Continuous to Past Perfect Continuous
Ex.
He said, “I have been playing since morning.”
He said that he had been playing since morning.
v. Simple Past Tense to Past Perfect Tense
Ex.
He said, “The horse died.”
He said that the horse had died.
vi. Past Continuous Tense to Past Perfect Continuous Tense
Ex.
He said, “Boys were playing in the morning.”
He said that boys had been playing in the morning.

Note:
1. There is no change in Past Perfect Tense and Past Perfect
Continuous Tense.
2. Will, shall, can and may are changed to would, should, could
and might respectively.
3. There is no change of verb in the following in the following
cases-
i. Universal Truth
Ex.
The teacher said, “The earth moves round the sun.”
The teacher said that the earth moves round the sun.
ii. Habitual Facts
Ex.
His father said, “Ravi gets up early in the morning daily.”
His father said that Ravi gets up early in the morning daily.
iii. Proverbs with Universal Truth
Ex.
Mohan said, “When the cat is away, the mice play.”
Mohan said that when the cat is away, the mice play.
iv. Historical Facts
Ex.
He said, “Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India.”
He said that Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India.
 CHANGE OF PERSON
Personal pronouns are used for three types of persons-
a. First Person: The person who speaks. (I, me, my)
b. Second Person: The person spoken to. (You, your, you)
c. Third Person: The person spoken of. (He, his, him)
Person Chart

Note:
1. Common words are used for both masculine and feminine
gender in case of first and second person.
2. In case of third person, “He, his, him” are used for masculine
gender and “She, her, hers” are used for feminine gender.
3. “They, them, there” are used for both masculine and feminine
gender in plural form.

# Rules to change person

The formula to change “person” is as follows-
• First Person : According to Subject : S
• Second Person : According to Object : O
• Third Person : No change : N
 # Some examples of person change #
• Examples of changing first person
a. Sita said, “I have done my homework.”
Sita said that she had done her homework.
b. I said, “I write a letter to my father.”
I said that I wrote a letter to my father.
c. You said, “I write a letter to my father.”
You said that you wrote a letter to your father.
d. They said, “We write a letter to our father.”
They said that they wrote a letter to their father.
• Examples of changing second person
a. He said to him, “You write a letter to your father.”
He said to him that he wrote a letter to his father.
b. He said to them, “You are happy.”
He told them that they were happy.
c. He said to you, “You are happy.”
He told you that you were happy.
d. He said to her, “You are happy.”
He told her that she was happy.
e. He said to me, “You are happy.”
He told me that I was happy.
• Examples of changing first person
a. He said to her, “He is very happy.”
He said to her that he was very happy.
CHANGE OF OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH
Note:
If an object, place or time is in front of the speaker at the time of
speaking, do not change the words that refer to them.
Ex.
a. He said, “This is my book.”
He said that this was his book.
b. He said, “He lived in this street in 1990.”
He said that he had lived in this street in 1990.
c. He said, “I will do it now or never.”
He said that he would do it now or never.
d. He said, “I will speak here.”
He said that he would speak here.
 CHANGING DIRECT SPEECH TO INDIRECT SPEECH

ASSERTIVE SENTENCES

➢ Important points:
a. Assertive sentences can be changed from direct to indirect speech by
using the general rule of changing tense, person and other parts of
speech as mentioned earlier.
b. In Assertive sentences, ‘that’ is used to combine Reporting Verb and
Reported Speech after removing inverted commas.
c. The following changes are made for different reporting verbs-
i. Say/Says/Will say Say/Says/Will say
ii. Say to/Says to/Will say to Tell/Tells/Will tell
iii. Said Said
iv. Said to Told

Note:
If the reporting verb is in present or future tense (say/says/will say),
then the Tense of Reported Speech is NOT changed. However, person
is changed as per the rule of ‘S O N’

➢ Some Examples:
a. Ram said to him, “He is reading a book.”
Ram told him that he was reading a book.
b. Ram says to me, “He reads a book.”
Ram tells me that he reads a book.
c. The teacher said, “Ram, I am pleased with you.”
The teacher told Ram that he was pleased with him.
d. My friend said to me, “Good morning, I am happy to see you.”
My friend bade me good morning and said that he was happy to see me.
e. I asked him, “Are you ill?”. He said, “Yes.”
I asked him if you were ill. He replied in the affirmative.
I asked him if you were ill. He replied that he was.
f. I asked him, “Are you ill?”. He said, “No.”
I asked him if you were ill. He replied in the negative.
I asked him if you were ill. He replied that he was not.
 INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
➢ Important points:
a. Interrogative sentences can be changed from direct to indirect speech
by using the general rule of changing tense, person and other parts of
speech as mentioned earlier.
b. Interrogative sentence is changed to assertive form and question
mark(?) is replaced by full stop(.).
c. The following changes are made for different reporting verbs-
i. Say/Says/Will say/ Ask/Asks/Will ask
Say to/Says to/Will say to (“enquire” can also be used in place of ask)
ii. Said/Said to Asked/Enquired
d. In Interrogative sentences (Yes/No type), ‘if/whether’ is used to
combine Reporting Verb and Reported Speech after removing inverted
commas.
e. In Interrogative sentences (Wh- type), NONE of the connective word
(that, if, whether) is used to combine Reporting Verb and Reported
Speech after removing inverted commas. Instead, Reporting Verb and
Reported Speech are combined using the Interrogative word (Wh-) used
in the sentence.

Note:
If the reporting verb is in present or future tense (say/says/will say),
then the Tense of Reported Speech is NOT changed. However, person
is changed as per the rule of ‘S O N’

➢ Some Examples:
a. He said to me, “Are you going to school today?”
He asked me if I was going to school that day.
b. He said to him, “Will you listen to such a man?”
He enquired him whether he would listen to such a man.
c. Ram said to him, “Who are you?”
Ram asked him who he was.
d. He said to me, “Where are you going today?”
He enquired me where I was going that day.
e. The boy said to him, “What is your name?”
The boy asked him what his name was.
 IMPERATIVE SENTENCES
➢ Important points:
a. In Imperative sentences, ‘to’ is used to combine Reporting Verb and
Reported Speech after removing inverted commas.
b. The following changes are made for different reporting verbs-
i. For Commands/Orders : Said is changed to asked/commanded/ordered
ii. For Requests : Said is changed to requested
iii. Advices : Said is changed to advised
c. If orders are in negative and ‘do not’ is used in the sentence, then ‘do’ is
removed and ‘not to’ is written. Also, we can remove ‘do not’ and use
‘forbade’.
Examples-
i. He said to me, “Do not laugh at me.”
He asked me not to laugh at him.
He forbade me to laugh at him.
ii. The teacher said to the boys, “Do not speak loudly.”
The teacher ordered the boys not to speak loudly.
The teacher forbade the boys to speak loudly.
d. In requests, the words ‘please’ and ‘kindly’ are removed. Also,
“Sir/Madam” is replaced by “respectfully”.
Examples-
i. He said to me, “Please give your pen.”
He requested me to give him my pen.
ii. Ram said to me, “Sir, help me.”
Ram requested me respectfully to help him.
e. Sometimes requests are made through questions. In such sentences,
“can, could, will, would” is used. These sentences are changed as
follows-
i. The boy said to me, “Will you please help me?”
The boy requested me to help him.
ii. The stranger said to the passer-by, “Can you please tell me the way?”
The stranger requested the passer-by to tell him the way.
iii. He said to him, “Could you please lend me your book for a minute?”
He requested him to lend him his book for a minute.
f. In cases of advice, sentences are changed as follows-
i. The doctor said to the patient, “Take complete rest.”
The doctor advised the patient to take complete rest.
ii. My elder brother said, “Do not smoke.”
My elder brother advised me not to smoke.
 USE OF ‘LET’
➢ Important points:
a. In case of request, “said to” is changed to “requested” and ‘to’ is used as
connective.
Examples-
i. I said to my friends, “Let me work.”
I requested my friends to let me work.
ii. I said to my father, “Let me sleep now.”
I requested my father to let me sleep then.
b. In case of proposal or suggestion (Let us), “said to” is changed to
“proposed to/suggested” and ‘that’ is used as connective and ‘should’ is
also used.
Examples-
i. I said to Ram, “Let us go home.”
I proposed to Ram that we should go home.
ii. He said, “Let us wait for the result.”
He suggested that they should wait for the result.
c. In case of order, “said to” is changed to “ordered” and ‘to’ is used as
connective.
Examples-
i. The principal said to the teacher, “Let the boys go home.”
The principal ordered the teacher to let the boys go home.
ii. The captain said, “Let the soldiers go.”
The captain ordered to let the soldiers go.
d. The reporting verb “shouted” is not changed.
i. He shouted, “Let me go.”
He shouted to let him go.
 OPTATIVE SENTENCES
➢ Important points:
a. In optative sentences ‘that’ is used as connective.
b. The following changes are made for different reporting verbs-
i. For wish : Said is changed to wished
ii. For blessing : Said is changed to blessed
iii. For prayer : Said is changed to prayed
iv. For curse : Said is changed to cursed
c. The word ‘might’ is also used in optative sentences.
d. In Optative sentences, exclamation mark(!) is replaced by full stop(.).
e. In Optative sentences, the word “Wished” is used with “Good morning”
and the word “Bade” is used with “Good bye/ Good night”.
➢ Some Examples:
a. He said, “May you have a happy journey!”
He wished that he might have a happy journey.
b. The saint said to me, “May you live long!”
The saint blessed me that I might live long.
c. They said, “Long live the king!”
They wished that the king might live long.
d. The preacher said to me, “May God help you!”
The preacher prayed that God might help me.
e. He said to me, “May you die!”
He cursed me that I might die.
f. My friend said to me, "Good bye, I will see you soon."
My friend bade me good bye and said that he would see me soon.
g. He said, “Good morning, my sister!”
He wished his sister good morning.
 EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES
➢ Important points:
a. In such sentences, interjections (Hurray!, Bravo!, Alas! etc.) are removed
and are expressed through the reporting verb.
b. Exclamation mark(!) is replaced by full stop(.).
c. In such sentences ‘that’ is used as connective.
d. The Reported Speech is changed as per the rule of the Assertive
Sentences.
e. In such sentences, Reporting Verb “said” is changed as per the
expression of the interjection word as shown in the table below-
Indirect Speech
Interjection-words Expression
(change in reporting verb ‘said’)
Good gracious!
Good heaven! Surprise Exclaimed with surprise
Oh…!
Hurrah!
Joy or delight Exclaimed with joy/delight
Ha!
Alas!
Sorrow of grief Exclaimed with sorrow/grief
Ah!
Bravo!
Applause Exclaimed with applause
Well done!

Note:
1. In exclamatory sentences containing “What a” or “How”, express
Abundance(अधिकता).
2. While changing such sentences into indirect speech “very” or
“great” is used.
3. If a Noun comes after “What a” or “How”, then it is changed to
“great”.
4. If a Adjective comes after “What a” or “How”, then it is changed
to “very”.
Examples:
a. The child said, "How beautiful the flower is!"
The child exclaimed that the flower was very beautiful.
b. The master said, "What a lazy fellow I am!"
The master exclaimed that he was a very lazy fellow.
c. I said, "What a fool I am!"
I exclaimed that I was a great fool.
➢ Some Examples:
a. He said, "Hurrah! I have passed the examination."
He exclaimed with delight that he had passed the examination.
b. The old man said, "Good Heavens! The hut has caught fire."
The old man exclaimed with surprise that the hut had caught fire.
c. The student said, "Alas! My friend is dead."
The student exclaimed with sorrow that his friend was dead.
d. The soldiers said, "Bravo! We have won."
The soldiers exclaimed with applause that they had won.