B.A.

I SEM ENGLISH
GRAMMAR EXERCISES
 DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
 Study the sentences written below:
 1. He says, “ I am unwell.”

 2. He will say, “ I am unwell.”

 3. He said, “ I am unwell.”

All the three sentences written above are the examples of

Direct Speech. In the Direct Speech , we have two
parts; reporting speech, and the reported speech. In the
above three sentences, he says, he will say,
CONTINUED …
 and he said are said to be REPORTING SPEECH and
the sentence I am unwell which is enclosed within
double inverted commas in all the three sentences is said
to be REPORTED SPEECH.
 The verb in the reporting speech is said to be a reporting
verb and the verb of the reported speech is known as
reported verb.
CONTINUED …
 When we quote speaker’s actual words, this is called
DIRECT SPEECH.
 We may report what he said without quoting his exact
words. This is called INDIRECT ( or REPORTED)
SPEECH. The first three sentences written above are the
examples of the DIRECT SPEECH. We may change
them to Indirect speech without changing their meaning
as done below:
CONTINUED…
 1. He says that he is unwell.
 2. He will say that he is unwell.

 3. He said that he was unwell.

The basic rule to change a sentence from Direct speech to

Indirect Speech is:
RULE : If the reporting verb is in the present tense or in
the future tense the tense of the reported verb will not
be changed.( you can see this happen in sentence no. 1
and 2 above).
CONTINUED…
 And if the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tense
of the reported verb is changed to its corresponding
past except in cases where reported speech talks of a
universal truth or habitual action ( for example: the
teacher said, “ The sun rises in the east.” will be changed
to The teacher said that the sun rises in the east.)
CONTINUED…
 Help List one
 —Words indicating nearness are changed into words showing
distance:
 Here—there,
 tomorrow—the next day/the following day,
 this—that,
 yesterday—the previous day or the day
before,
 these —those,
 the next week—the following week,
 today—that day,
 now—then,
 tonight—that night
CONTINUED…
 Help list two
 —The following changes in the tense need to be
considered;
 Is/am—was, can—could,will—would,

 Are —were,shall—should,may—might

 Is (sleeping)—was(sleeping)

 Are (sleeping)—were(sleeping)

 Has/have killed—had killed

 Was/were laughing— had been laughing

 Did—had done
SOME EXAMPLES OF THE PREVIOUS
RULE
DIRECT SPEECH INDIRECT SPEECH

 I said, “My mother cooks  I said that my mother

well.” cooked well.
 She said, “I am reading a  She said that she was
novel now.” reading a novel then.
 He said, “I killed an ant.”  He said that he had killed

 We said, “They have an ant.

done their job.”  We said that they had
done their job.
CONTINUED…
Direct Speech Indirect Speech

 She said, “ We were all  She said that they had

laughing uncontrollably.” been all laughing
 He said, “I can do it.” uncontrollably.
 She said to me, “You may  He said that he could do

need help.” it.

 He said, “She will do this  She told me that I might

task quickly.’ need help.

 He said that she would do
that task quickly.
CONTINUED…
Direct speech Indirect Speech

 He said to me, “ I have  He reminded me that he

often told you not to play had often told me not to
with fire.” play with fire.
 “You have all done very  The teacher remarked that
badly!” remarked the they had all done very
teacher. badly.
 The teacher promised, “  The teacher promised that
If you will come before he would explain it they
school tomorrow, I will would come before
explain it.” school the next day.
CONTINUED…
Direct Speech Indirect Speech

 The Prince said, “It gives  The prince said that it

me great pleasure to be gave him great pleasure
here this evening.” to be there that evening.
 He said, “I shall go as  He said that he would go
soon as it is possible.” as soon as it was possible.
 He said, “ I do not wish  He said that he did not
to see any of you; go wish to see any of them
away.” and ordered them to go
away.
 QUESTIONS OR
INTERROGATIVE
SENTENCES
 Interrogative sentences are of three types as indicated
below:
 1. yes /No Questions (Those questions which can be
answered in yes or no are known as yes/no questions.)
 2. Wh Questions (Those questions which begin with Wh
words such as; Who, what, when ,where etc, how is also
treated as a wh question)
 3. Tag/Tail Questions ( when a tag is added with any
statement affirmative or negative sentences, it is said to
be a tag question. For example; He is a good boy, Isn’t
he?, or He plays football, Doesn’t he? Or She does not
sing,does she? Etc) Note: The first two types of questions
are relevant in the present context.
CONTINUED…
 Yes/No questions need if or whether words which act as
conjunction to join reporting speech and reported speech.
Whereas Wh questions need nothing as they themselves act as
conjunction in Indirect Speech.For example:
 He said to me, “Are you a student?” ( You can answer this
question in yes or in no ,hence, this is an yes/ no question
which will be changed to indirect speech as; He asked me if (or
Whether)I was a student. Here if or whether acts as a
conjunction and not as a question word.
 He said to me, “What are you doing?” can be changed to the
Indirect speech as ; He asked me what I was doing. Note that
wh word what itself functions as a conjunction here, no extra
word has been inserted to join the two sentences.
 HhehHer
EXERCISES ON INTERROGATIVE
SENTENCES
Direct Speech Indirect Speech

 “Where do you  The stranger asked where

live?”asked the stranger.
 He said, “Will you listen
to such a man?”
 “What do you want?” he
said to her.
 He said, “ How’s your
I lived.
 He asked them if they
would listen to such a
man.
 He asked her what she

father?” wanted.
 He asked how her/his
father was.
CONTINUED…
Direct Speech Indirect

 “Are you coming home  He asked if she/he was

with me?” he asked. going home with him
 “which way did she go?”  The young man asked
asked the young man. which way she had gone.
 “Have you anything to  The judge finally asked if
say on behalf of the he/she had anything to
prisoner?” said the judge say on behalf of the
finally. prisoner.