DIRECT AND

INDIRECT
SPEECH
(04) Andika M. Zidane, (06) Annisa Zenith, (14) Ghania Khaisa N
(21) M. Arya Dwitama, (25) Nayyara Fatiha S, (28) Rafly Oktaviadi, (30) Rizky
Ramzi R
WHAT IS DIRECT SPEECH AND
INDIRECT SPEECH?
Both terms describe a way of recounting something that may have been said – but there
is a subtle difference between them.

Direct speech describes when something is being repeated exactly as it was – usually in
between a pair of inverted commas. For example: She told me, “I’ll come home by
10pm.”

Indirect speech will still share the same information – but instead of expressing
someone’s comments or speech by directly repeating them, it involves reporting or
describing what was said. An obvious difference is that with indirect speech, you won’t
use inverted commas. For example: She said to me that she would come home by 10pm.
 DIRECT TO INDIRECT SPEECH
EXAMPLES
DIRECT SPEECH
• ”I didn’t go to party”.
• ”Why are you going to school?”
• “I can speak perfect Spanish"
• “Sasha could swim when
• she was four”.
• “See you later”.
INDIRECT SPEECH
• Alex said that he hadn’t gone to the party
• Mary asked Alex why he was going to school.
• He said that he could speak perfect Spanish.
• Sasha said she could swim when she was four.
• He said he would see me later.
 DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
CONVERSION
With direct and indirect speech, there are three main things you need to be aware of when
converting one to the other:

• Changes in Tense
• Changes in Person and Pronouns
• Changes in Time Phrases
 CHANGES IN TENSE
When reporting speech, the tense usually changes. This is because when we use
indirect speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the
person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs, therefore, usually have to
be in the past too. It’s called BACKSHIFTING.
 CHANGING PRONOUNS
Pronouns in indirect speech also need to be changed from what they were in the indirect
speech, as well as of course adapting the first pronoun to fit the person who said the
statement.

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

• "I want to meet you later".
• "You have to come back in the afternoon"
• "We like it a lot"
• "I have been walking with my wife"
.
• He said he wanted to meet me later.
• Sheila told me I had to come back in the afternoon.
• They said they liked it a lot.
• He said he had been walking with his wife
 CHANGING TIME
PHRASES
You may also need to change phrases referring to time, though
this depends on the context and when you are reporting the
speech.

With these examples you have to assume the speech is being

reported at a time in the future so the phrases such as 'yesterday'
or 'tomorrow' would not makes sense any more in terms of the
reported speech.
 DIRECT AND INDIRECT OF
IMPERATIVE SENTENCE
To change such sentences into indirect speech, the word “ordered”, “requested”, “advised”,
“suggested”, “forbade”, or “not to do” is added to reporting verb depending upon nature of
imperative sentence in reported speech. It should be noted that we need to add the word "to" to
the sentence
DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH FOR
INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE
WE CAN USE DIFFERENT PATTERNS TO ASK QUESTIONS BY USING “IF” OR “WHETHER” FOR
YES/NO QUESTIONS AND “WHAT”, “WHO”, “WHEN”, “WHERE”, “WHY”, AND “HOW” FOR
EXPLANATION QUESTION
THANK YOU !!