English Chapter – 12 : Direct Indirect Speech

Introduction: Direct Indirect Speech

The act of communicating or expressing thoughts through spoken words is called speech
Speech can be categorized into Direct and Indirect Speech.
When the exact words spoken by a speaker are quoted then it is called direct speech. The spoken words are placed between double quotes (“”).

For Example:

Radha said, “There is a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata”. In this sentence, Radha told the listener about a beautiful park in Kolkata. This is an example of Direct Speech because the words are kept exactly the same as spoken by Radha.
Now the same sentence can be spoken by a third person as- Radha told that there was a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata. This is an example of Indirect Speech. In Indirect Speech, the speech is quoted by a reporter in their own words (without using the exact words spoken by the speaker) without using double quotes.

Reporting Verb & Reported Speech

In a sentence, the verb before the actual words spoken by a speaker is called reporting verb.

For Example:

he said, she said, they said, she says, etc.
Rina said, “I am going to meet my friend”.
Shikhar said, “Ram is a brilliant student”.
Shan said, “I am having lunch”.

The part of a sentence that is enclosed within inverted commas is called Reported Speech.

For Example:

Rina said, “I am going to meet my friend”.
Shikhar said, “Ram is a brilliant student”.
Shan said, “I am having lunch”.

Rules for converting Direct to Indirect Speech

Let us consider the following sentence

Radha said, “There is a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata”.
This is an example of direct speech. Now the sentence when written in indirect speech will be as follows: Radha told that there was a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata.
Let us now look upon the rules we need to keep in mind while converting a sentence in direct speech to a sentence in indirect speech.

The Rules for converting Direct to Indirect Speech are as follows:

Remove the inverted commas or quotation marks from the words spoken by the speaker in an indirect speech. Eg.

For Example:

Radha said, “There is a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata”. (Direct Speech)
Radha told that there was a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata. (Indirect Speech)

Use the conjunction “that” between the reporting verb and reporting speech in an indirect speech.

For Example:

Radha said, “There is a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata”. (Direct Speech)
Radha told that there was a beautiful eco-tourism park in Kolkata. (Indirect Speech)

Changing the tense of the reported speech.
Changing the Pronoun of reported speech.
Changing the time.

Changing tense

The tense is changed while conversion in following manner:
Present simple tense to Past simple.
Present Continuous tense to Past continuous
Present Perfect tense to Pas perfect
Present Perfect Continuous to Past perfect continuous
Past simple to Past Perfect
Past Continuous to Past Perfect Continuous
Past Perfect to Past Perfect
Future simple, will to would
Future Continuous, will be to would be
Future Perfect, will have to would have.

For Example:

Shan said, “I love to visit new places”. (Present simple)
Shan said that he loved to visit new places. (Past Simple).
Shan said, “I am having lunch”. (Present continuous)
Shan said that he was having lunch. (Past continuous)
He said, “Virat arrived on Tuesday”. (Simple Past)
He said that Virat had arrived on Tuesday. (Past Perfect)
Shan said, “I will be Paris on Sunday”. (Future)
Shan said that he would be in Paris on Sunday. (Present Conditional)

Changing Pronoun

The Pronoun/subject/object of the reported verb determines the change in Pronoun of the reported speech. The subject or object of the first sentence also determines the change in the possessive Pronouns.

For Example:

She said to me, “I love your new dress”. (Direct speech)
She told me that she loved my new dress. (Indirect speech)
She said, “I have done my assignments”. (Direct speech)
She said that she had done her assignments. (Indirect speech)

Change in Time

The time in the sentences of direct speech is changed when converted from direct to indirect speech. While converting a sentence from direct to indirect speech, time is changed in following ways:
·Now – Then
·Tomorrow – The next day
·Today – That day
·Yesterday – The previous day

For Example:

She said, “I need to meet you now”. (Direct speech)
She said that she needed to meet me then. (Indirect speech)
Varun said, “I bought a new phone yesterday”. (Direct speech)
Varun said that he had bought a new phone the previous day. (Indirect speech)
Shruti said, “I am going to Delhi today”. (Direct speech)
Shruti told me that she was going to Delhi that day. (Indirect speech)
Ami said, “I am having exams tomorrow”. (Direct speech)
Ami said that she was having exams the next day. (Indirect speech)

Direct to Indirect speech (Interrogative Sentence)

An interrogative sentence has a question.

Rules for converting an interrogative sentence to Indirect speech are as follows:

Remove the comas and inverted commas.
Do not use that in the sentence of indirect speech
Remove the question mark in the sentence of Indirect speech.
Change the words like ‘say’ or ‘tell’ to ‘ask’ or ‘inquire’.
If the sentence of Direct speech has question that can be answered by saying yes or no then it uses “if” or “whether” in its Indirect speech.

For Example:

She said to me, “Do you like coffee?” (Direct speech)
She asked me if I liked coffee. (Indirect speech)

If the sentence of Direct speech has question that cannot be answered by saying yes or no then it does not uses “if” or “whether” in its Indirect speech.

She said to me, “Where did you this dress from?” (Direct speech)
She asked me where I bought this dress from. (Indirect speech)

Direct to Indirect (Imperative Sentence)

An imperative sentence has a command, order, request or suggestion. To convert an imperative sentence to indirect speech the verb (said/told) of reporting verb is replaced by some specific verbs like requested, ordered, advised, suggested, etc.

For Example:

Rayna said to me, “Please help me to complete my homework.” (Direct speech).
Rayna requested me to help her with her homework. (Indirect speech)
Doctor said to him, “Drink plenty of water”. (Direct speech)
Doctor advised him to drink plenty of water. (Indirect speech)

Direct to Indirect (Exclamatory Sentence)

Exclamatory sentences express state of joy, sorrow or wonder. To convert an exclamatory sentence to indirect speech, specific words (exclaimed with joy, exclaimed with sorrow, exclaimed with wonder) are added to the sentence.

For Example:

Ravi said, “Alas! We lost the game” (Direct speech)
Ravi exclaimed with sorrow that they had lost the game. (Indirect speech)
Danish surprisingly said, “How brilliant Isha is!” (Direct speech)
Danish exclaimed with wonder that how brilliant Isha was. (Indirect speech)

Indirect to Direct Speech

Rules to convert the indirect speech to direct speech are as follows:
Make use of the reporting verb, “say” or “said to” in their correct tense.
Remove the conjuctions “that, to, if or whether etc”.
Insert a comma before the statement.
Insert quotation marks, question mark, exclamation and fullstop at their appropriate position.
Write the first word of the statement with capital letter.
Change the tense of reporting verb from past to present.
Convert the past perfect either into past tense or present perfect.