NANDA PUTRI AYU LESTARI (14615974) / 4SA02
Definition
of Indirect Speech
Indirect speech is also known as Reported Speech,
Indirect Narration or Indirect Discourse. In grammar, when you report someone
else’s statement in your own words without any change in the meaning of the
statement is called indirect speech. Quoting a person’s words without using his
own word and bringing about any change in the meaning of the statement is a
reported speech. Look at the following sentences:
Direct Speech: She says, “I am a little bit nervous.”
Indirect Speech: She says that she is a little bit
nervous.
In the first sentence, the reporter conveys the
message of the girl using her actual words i.e.,
“I am a little bit nervous.” In
the second sentence, the reporter conveys her message but in his own words
without any change in the meaning. Thus, both direct and indirect speeches are
two different ways of reporting a statement of person. In simple words, quoting
a person using your own words is called an indirect speech.
Key
Terminology
During the process, you will come across many
important terms that you need to know better so that to convert any direct
speech into indirect speech easily and without any hassle. Consider the
following sentences:
Direct Speech: She says, “I am a little bit
nervous.”
Indirect Speech: She says that she is a
little bit nervous.
Reporting Speech:
The first part in the direct speech is called
REPORTING SPEECH.
Reported Speech:
The second
part of the sentence, which is closed in inverted commas, is called REPORTED
SPEECH.
Reporting Verb:
Verb of the reporting speech is called
REPORTING VERB.
Reported Verb:
Verb of the reported speech is called
REPORTED VERB.
Basic
Rules
Before proceeding ahead, it is mandatory to
memorize these rules:
Changes in Person of Pronouns:
·
1st Person Pronouns in
Reported Speech are always changed according to the SUBJECT of the Reporting
Speech.
·
2nd Person Pronouns in
Reported Speech are always changed according to the OBJECT of the Reporting
Speech.
·
3rd Person Pronouns in
Reported Speech are not changed.
Changes in Verbs:
·
In case, the Reporting Speech is in PRESENT
TENSE or FUTURE TENSE, then no change is required to be made in the VERB of
Reported Speech. This verb could be in any tense i.e., Present, Past or Future.
For example:
Direct Speech: He says, “I am ill.”
Indirect Speech: He says that he is ill.
Direct Speech: She says, “She sang a song.”
Indirect Speech: She says that she sang a song.
Direct Speech: You say, “I shall visit
London.”
Indirect Speech: You say that you will visit London.
·
If Reporting Verb is in Past Tense, then
Reported Verb will be changed as per following criterion:
·
Present Indefinite Tense is changed into Past
Indefinite Tense. For example:
Direct Speech: They said, “They take exercise every
day.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they took exercise every
day.
·
Present Continuous is changed into Past
Continuous Tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They are taking exercise
every day.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they were taking exercise
every day.
·
Present Perfect is changed into Past Perfect
Tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They have taken exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had taken exercise.
·
Present Perfect Continuous Tense is changed
into Past Perfect Continuous Tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They have been taking exercise
since morning.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had been taking exercise
since morning.
·
Past Indefinite is changed into Past Perfect
Tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They took exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had taken exercise.
·
Past Continuous Tense is changed into Past
Perfect Continuous Tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They were taking exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had been taking exercise.
No changes are required to be made into Past
Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous Tenses.
Direct Speech: They said, “They had taken exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had taken exercise.
·
In Future Tense, while no changes are made
except SHALL and WILL are changed into WOULD.
Direct Speech: They said, “They will take exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they would take exercise.
Important
Words Changes
Words
|
Changed Into
|
Direct Speech
|
Indirect Speech
|
This
|
That
|
He says, “He wants to buy this book.”
|
He says that he wants to buy that book.
|
These
|
Those
|
He says, “He wants to buy these books.”
|
He says that he wants to buy those books.
|
Here
|
There
|
She says, “Everybody was here.”
|
She says that everybody was there.
|
Now
|
Then
|
They say, “It’s ten o’clock now.”
|
They say that it’s ten o’clock then.
|
Sir
|
Respectfully
|
They said, “Sir, the time is over.”
|
They said respectfully that the time was
over.
|
Madam
|
Respecfully
|
They said, "Madam, the time is
over."
|
They said respectfully that the time was
over.
|
Today
|
That Day
|
She said, “I am going to London today.”
|
She said that she was going to London that
day.
|
Yesterday
|
The Previous Day
|
She said, “I visited Oxford University
yesterday.”
|
She said that she had visited Oxford
University the previous day.
|
Tomorrow
|
Following Day or Next Day
|
She said, “I am going to London tomorrow.”
|
She said that she was going to London the
next day.
|
Tonight
|
That Night
|
She said, “I am going to see him tonight.”
|
She said that she was going to see him that
night.
|
Good Morning, Good Evening, Good Day
|
Greeted
|
She said, “Good morning, Sir David.”
|
She greeted Sir David.
|
The above-mentioned rules are mandatory for
converting a Direct Speech into an Indirect Speech. Hence, they should be
memorized thoroughly. The following examples cover all the afore-mentioned
rules. So, focus on every sentence to know how the above-mentioned rules have
been used here.
Examples
of Indirect Speech
Direct Speech
|
Indirect Speech
|
She says, “I eat an apple a day.”
|
She says that she eats an apple a day.
|
He will say, “My brother will help her.”
|
He will say that his brother will help her.
|
We said, “We go for a walk every day.”
|
We said that went for a walk every day.
|
You say, “I went to London yesterday.”
|
You say that you went to London the
previous day.
|
He said, “My father is playing cricket with
me.”
|
He said that his father was playing cricket
with him.
|
They said, “We have completed our
homework.”
|
They said that they had completed their
homework.
|
She said, “I have been waiting for him
since last morning.”
|
She said that she had been waiting for him
since last morning.
|
She said, “I bought a book.”
|
She said that she had bought a book.
|
They said, “We were celebrating Eid
yesterday.”
|
They said that they had been celebrating
Eid the previous day.
|
We said, “We had been waiting since
morning.”
|
We said that we had been waiting since
morning.
|
He said to me, “I will not give you any
medicine without prescription.”
|
He said to me that he would not give me any
medicine without prescription.
|
Rafiq said, “I shall leave for London
tomorrow.”
|
Rafiq said that he would leave for London
the next day.
|
She said, “I shall be visiting my college
tomorrow.”
|
She said that she would be visiting her
college the following day.
|
They said, “It will have been snowing since
morning.”
|
They said that it would have been snowing
since morning.
|
Assertive
Sentences
Those sentences, which make a statement, are
called assertive sentences. These sentences may be positive, negative, false or
true statements. To convert such like sentences into indirect narration, use
the rules as mentioned above except SAID is sometimes replaced with TOLD. Look
at the following examples:
Direct Speech: She says, “I am writing a
letter to my brother.”
Indirect Speech: She says that she is writing
a letter to her brother.
Direct Speech: She says, “I was not writing a
letter to my brother.”
Indirect Speech: She says that she was not
writing a letter to her brother.
Direct Speech: She said to me, “I am writing
a letter to my brother.”
Indirect Speech: She told me that she was
writing a letter to her brother.
Imperative
Sentences
Imperative sentences are those sentences, which give
an order or a direct command. These sentences may be in the shape of advice,
entreaty, request, or order. Mostly, it depends upon the forcefulness of the
speaker. Thus, full stop or sign of exclamation is used at the end of the
sentence. For example:
·
Shut the door!
·
Please shut the door.
·
Repair the door by tomorrow!
To convert such like sentences into indirect speech,
follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:
·
Reporting Verb is changed according to Reported Speech
into ORDER in case the sentence gives a direct command. For example:
Direct Speech: The teacher said to
me, “Shut the door.”
Indirect Speech: The teacher ordered me
to shut the door.
·
Reporting Verb is changed according to Reported Speech
into REQUEST in case the sentence makes a request. For example:
Direct Speech: He said to me, “Shut
the door.”
Indirect Speech: He requested me to
shut the door.
·
Reporting Verb is changed according to Reported Speech
into ADVISE in case the sentence gives an advice. For example:
Direct Speech: He said to me, “You
should work hard to pass the exam.”
Indirect Speech: He advised me that I
should work hard to pass the exam.
·
Reporting Verb is changed according to Reported Speech
into FORBADE in case the sentence prevents someone from doing something. For
example:
Direct Speech: He said to me, “Not to
smoke.”
Indirect
Speech: He forbade me to smoke.
Examples
Direct Speech
|
Indirect Speech
|
We said to him, “Mind your own business.”
|
We urged him to mind his own business.
|
She said to him, “Consult a doctor.”
|
She suggested him to consult a doctor.
|
He said to me, “Write it again.”
|
He asked me to write it again.
|
You said to your father, “Please grant him leave for
some time.”
|
You requested your father to grant him leave for
some time.
|
My mother said to me, “Never tell a lie.”
|
My mother forbade me to tell a lie.
|
Interrogative
Sentences
Those sentences, which ask questions, are called
interrogative sentences. Every interrogative sentence ends at a sign of
interrogation. For example:
·
Do you live here?
·
Have you ever watched Terminator III movie?
·
Is it raining?
To convert interrogative sentences into Indirect
Speech, follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:
·
Reporting Verb SAID To is changed
into ASKED.
·
If Reporting Speech is having Reporting Verb at it its
start, then IF is used in place of THAT.
·
If the Reporting Speech is having interrogative words
like who, when, how, why, when then neither IF is
used nor any other word is added.
·
Full Stop is placed at the end of the sentence instead
of mark of interrogation.
Examples:
Direct Speech
|
Indirect Speech
|
I said to her, “When do you do your homework?”
|
I asked her when she did her homework.
|
We said to him, “Are you ill?”
|
We asked him if he was ill.
|
You said to me, “Have you read the article?”
|
You asked me if I had read the article.
|
He said to her, “Will you go to the Peshawar Radio
Station?”
|
He asked her if she would go to the Peshawar Radio
Station.
|
She says, “Who is he?”
|
She says who he was.
|
Rashid says to me, “Why have you got late?”
|
Rashid says to me why I had got late.
|
Exclamatory
Sentences
Those sentences, which express our feelings and
emotions, are called exclamatory sentences. Mark of exclamation is used at the
end of exclamatory sentence. For example:
·
Hurray! We have won the match.
·
Alas! He failed in the test.
·
How beautiful that dog is!
·
What a marvelous personality you are!
To change exclamatory sentences into Indirect Speech,
follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:
·
In case, there is an interjection i.e., alas,
aha, hurray, aha etc in the Reported Speech, then they are omitted
along with sign of exclamation.
·
Reporting verb i.e., said is always
replaced with exclaimed with joy, exclaimed with sorrow, exclaimed
joyfully, exclaimed sorrowfully or exclaimed with great wonder or sorrow.
·
In case, there is what or how at
the beginning of the Reported Speech, then they are replaced with very or very
great.
·
In indirect sentence, the exclamatory sentence becomes
an assertive sentence.
Examples
Direct Speech
|
Indirect Speech
|
He said, “Hurray! I have won the match.”
|
He exclaimed with great joy that he had won the
match.
|
She said, “Alas! My brother failed in the test.”
|
She exclaimed with great sorrow that her brother had
failed in the test.
|
They said, “What a beautiful house this is!”
|
They exclaimed that that that house was very
beautiful.
|
I said, “How lucky I am!”
|
I said in great wonder that I was very lucky.
|
You said to him, “What a beautiful drama you
writing!
|
You said to him in great wonder that he was writing
a beautiful drama.
|
Optative
Sentences
Those sentences, which express hope, prayer, or wish,
are called optative sentences. Usually, there is a mark of exclamation at the
end of optative sentence. For example:
·
May you succeed in the test!
·
May you get well soon!
·
Would that I were rich!
To change optative sentences into indirect speech,
follow the following rules along with the above-mentioned rules:
·
In case, the Reported Speech starts with the
word may, then the Reporting Verb said is
replaced with the word prayed.
·
In case, the Reported Speech starts with the
word would, then the Reporting Verb said is
replaced with the word wished.
·
May is
changed in might.
·
Mark of exclamation is omitted.
·
In Indirect Speech, the optative sentences become
assertive sentences.
Examples
Direct Speech
|
Indirect Speech
|
He said to me, “May you live long!”
|
He prayed that I might live long.
|
My mother said to me, “May you succeed in the test!”
|
My mother prayed that I might succeed in the test.
|
She said, “Would that I were rich!”
|
She wished she had been rich.
|
I said to him, “Would that you were here on Sunday!”
|
I wished he had been there on Sunday.
|
You said to me, “ May you find your lost camera.”
|
You prayed that I might find my lost camera.
|
