Direct and indirect speech

What is Direct Speech?

l

Consider the following sentence:

Rama said : ' A fine lesson will be taught to the wicked Ravana.'
The given sentence is in direct speech.
Here the exact words of the speaker have been put within quotation marks.
There is a colon after 'said'.
The first word inside the quotation marks starts with a capital letter.
What is an indirect speech then?

Let's consider the indirect speech of the sentence under

consideration ,
Rama said (that) a fine lesson would be taught to the wicked Ravana.
In Indirect speech

The quotation marks as well as the colon after said are removed.

The conjunction that

introduces to us the words (not exact)
spoken by the speaker. However the latest TREND is to drop 'that'
RULES FOR CHANGING DIRECT INTO INDIRECT SPEECH
n Get one thing straight-you do not have to learn the rules by heart.
Simply understand what they ask you to do and apply the same in converting
a sentence from direct to indirect
n RULE ONE:-If in direct speech you find say/says or will say then DO
NOT CHANGE THE TENSE that you can find within the quotation marks
EXAMPLES-RULE ONE
n I say ' I am elated
n I say I am elated
n
n

He says, I was a fool then

He says he was a fool then.

n
n

She says, I will be more experienced then

She says she will be more experienced then

n
n

I will say, He loves cricket

I will say he loves cricket

n
n

She will say, He was in the land of nod then

She will say he was in the land of nod then.

n
n

They will say, We will achieve greatness

They will say we will achieve greatness.

RULE TWO

If in direct speech the

words within the quotation marks talk of
a UNIVERSAL truth or habitual action then RULE ONE is followed or in
other words the tense inside the quotation marks is not changed at all.. For
e.g.
The teacher said, The sun rises in the east
The teacher said the sun rises in the east
RULE THREE
*
If there is 'said' in the direct speech then the tense of the words inside
quotation marks is changed to the past tense.
* I said, I am suffering from a fit of ennui
* I said I was suffering from a fit of ennui.
Help List one
o Words INDICATING
distance
o Here-there
o This-that
o These-those
o Today-that day
o Tonight-that night

nearness are changed into words showing

tomorrow-the next/following day
yesterday-the previous day
the next week-the following week
now-then

Help List Two

o The following changes in the tense need to be considered
o Is/am-was
o Are-were
o Is (sleeping)-was (sleeping)
o Are (sleeping)-were (sleeping)
o Has/have killed-had killed
o Was/were laughing-had been laughing
o Can-could; will-would; shall-should; may-might
o Did-had done
Rule 3 --Some examples

I said, My mother cooks well

I said my mother cooked well.
She said, I am reading a whodunit now
She said she was reading a whodunit then.
He said, I killed an ant

He said he had killed an ant.

We said , They have done their JOB
We said they had done their JOB

n She said, We were all laughing uncontrollably

She said they had been all laughing uncontrollably.
He said, I can do it
He said he could do it.
She said to me, You may need help
She told me I might need help.
He said , She will do this task quickly
He said she would do that task quickly.
PRACTICE IS THE KEY
DO PRACTISE AS MANY EXAMPLES AS POSSIBLE.
ONLY THEN WILL YOU BE ABLE TO USE THIS IMPORTANT AND USEFUL
LANGUAGE ITEM WITH CONFIDENCE.

English exercise "Direct and indirect speech"

1. I said,' This man is a real nincompoop'. I said that .
2. She said to me,' You are singing very melodiously'. She told me that .
3. You said,' I killed a rat rather wickedly'. You said that .
4. He said,' I have done amazingly well today'. He said that .
5. We said,' We were watching a truly absorbing movie'. We said that .
6. She said,' I may badly need some medical help soon'. She said that .
7. You said to me,' You can do this ridiculously easy task'. You told me that .
8. I said,' I shall certainly take care of all eventualities'. I said that .
9. He said,' I will teach him a lesson to remember me by'. He said that .
10. They said,' We have put up an extraordinary performance indeed' . They said
that
.

1. I said,' This man is a real

nincompoop'. I said that [No
answer] that man was a real
nincompoop.
2. She said to me,' You are
singing very melodiously'. She
told me that [No answer] I was
singing very melodiously.
3. You said,' I killed a rat
rather wickedly'. You said that [No answer] you had killed a rat rather wickedly.
4. He said,' I have done amazingly well today'. He said that [No answer] he had done
amazingly well that day.
5. We said,' We were watching a truly absorbing movie'. We said that [No answer]
we had been watching a truly absorbing movie.
6. She said,' I may badly need some medical help soon'. She said that [No answer]
she might badly need some medical help soon .
7. You said to me,' You can do this ridiculously easy task'. You told me that [No
answer] I could do that ridiculously easy task.
8. I said,' I shall certainly take care of all eventualities'. I said that [No answer] I
should certainly take care of all eventualities.
9. He said,' I will teach him a lesson to remember me by'. He said that [No answer]
he would teach him a lesson to remember him by.
10. They said,' We have put up an extraordinary performance indeed' . They said
that [No answer] they had put up an extraordinary performance indeed.