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Grammar
Direct And Indirect Speech Complete Rules
Grammar
We often convey a message or give information about what someone said, thought or felt to somebody else. In order to do this you can use the grammar structure named
direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech. Indeed this structure can be a source of confusion for ESL learners because they mix it with active and passive
voice. Read the whole article to know about direct and indirect speech rules.
l He said that yesterday’s lesson was about direct and indirect speech.
Reporting Verb
The verb in the first part of sentence (i.e. say, said, tell, admit, complain, explain remind, reply think, hope, offer, refuse etc.) before the statement of a person in sentence is
called reporting verb.
If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting, and adverb of nearness should be put into those of distance.
Note: If something is said and reported at the same time, then the time expression can remain the same.
Rule 2. Tenses
A) If the reporting verb is in present or future (i.e say, says or will say) then don’t change the tense that you can find within the quotation marks.
B) If reporting verb is in the past tense. the tense of the verbs in the reported speech or indirect speech must be generally changed. This is because when we use reported
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.
Tense Change
As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense.
Present Simple › Past simple
l She said she had been teaching English for seven years.
Can › could
Must › had to
May › might
Note – There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to.
Rule 4.
If indirect speech the words within quotation marks talk of a universal truth or habitual action or when a sentence is made and reported at the same time and the fact is still
true then the tense inside the quotation marks is not changed at all.
Rule 5.
You can also use the present tense if you are talking about a future event.
Rule 6. (Pronouns)
Note: Sometimes we have to use a noun instead of a pronoun, otherwise the new sentence is confusing consider the examples below:
(If we only make mechanical changes, then the new sentence can have different meaning)
l Said I to my teacher,” won’t you help me to learn about direct and indirect speech complete rules?”
l I asked my teacher if he would not help me to learn about direct and indirect speech complete rules.
l “ How often do you go to the cinema?” Ali said to Ahmed,
l Ali asked Ahmed how often he went to the cinema.
l “Where have you been?” he said.
l He asked me where I had been.
l “What time did it start?” he said.
l He wanted to know what time it had started.
l “Why won’t he do it?” she said.
l She wondered why he wouldn’t do it.
In yes/no questions we use if or whether in questions. If is more common and whether is more formal.
In reported speech, the word that is often used, however it is optional. We recommend you no to use it because in some cases we don’t use ‘That’ in reported speech like:
question, command request and order, so its better not to use it.
In direct speech, various punctuation conventions are used to separate the quoted words from the rest of the text: this allows a reader to follow what’s going on. Here are the
basic rules:
A)We use inverted commas (also called quotation marks, quotes or speech marks) to indicate direct speech. Double quotes (“) are preferred in American English, while single
quotes (‘) are more common in British English:
B) Every time a new speakers says something, you should start a new paragraph:
C) There should be a comma, full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark at the end of a piece of speech. This is placed inside the closing inverted comma or commas.
D) If the direct speech is broken up by information about who is speaking, you need a comma (or a question mark or exclamation mark) to end the first piece of speech and a
full stop or another comma before the second piece (before the inverted comma or commas):
Conclusion:
I hope that the points that I have mentioned above about direct and indirect speech may prove beneficial for people learning English. All you need to do is to understand the
crucial rules of direct and indirect speech, and don’t mix it with passive and active voice.
If you would like to know more about direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech, check out more in the given links below.
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BISMO
I’m an instructor who teaches ESL. I would like to write and share my experience through this website and help people learn English as a second language.
16 Comments
1.
abdullah
hello! I’m Abdullah and I want to ask a question related to indirect and direct speech.what would be the indirect sentence of this this speech:
“I fell fed up” says trevor
Jalali
Shazia
Helo ,,pls let me know about one thing…if there is no object in reporting speech and “you” is used in reporting speech ,,in which pronoun v have to
change “you”,,???
2.
Raza ClouÐy
March 7, 2017
Jalali
March 7, 2017
3.
Akssa
Jalali
4.
ahmed rajput
5.
Sarita Ilwadia
6.
A.B
7.
Moueez Raza
very helpful understanding direct and indirect speech thank you very soooooo muuuuccccchhhh
May 4, 2018
BISMO
May 4, 2018
8.
Huzifa
BISMO
Welcome dear.
9.
Shazia
Helo ,,pls let me know about one thing…if there is no object in reporting speech and “you” is used in reporting speech ,,in which pronoun v have to change “you”,,???
10.
M. Zaheer
November 4, 2018
Leave a Reply
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