Direct
and Indirect Speech
We often have to give information
about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or
quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech.
Direct Speech / Quoted Speech
Saying exactly what someone has said
is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)
Here what a person says appears
within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.
For example:
She said, "Today's lesson is on
presentations."
Some people introduce a direct quote
with a colon, and not a comma.
For example:
She said: "Today's lesson is on
presentations."
When you lead with the quote, you
use a comma.
For example:
"Today's lesson is on
presentations," she said.
We use the same rules to report what
people have written or thought. (Some people use italics.)
For example:
"I can do this," he
thought. / I can do this, he thought.
or
"I can do this," he wrote.
Indirect Speech / Reported Speech
Indirect speech (sometimes called
reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said
and it doesn't have to be word for word.
When reporting speech the tense
usually changes. 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.
For example:
Direct
speech / Quoted speech
|
Indirect
speech / Reported speech
|
"I'm going to the
cinema," he said.
|
He said he was going to the
cinema.
|
"We could go to the
cinema," he thought.
|
He thought we could go to the
cinema.
|
Tense change
As a rule when you report something
someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the
tense on the right):
Direct
speech
|
|
Indirect
speech
|
Present simple
She said, "It's cold."
|
›
|
Past simple
She said it was cold.
|
Present continuous
She said, "I'm teaching English online."
|
›
|
Past continuous
She said she was teaching English online.
|
Present perfect simple
She said, "I've been on the web since 1999."
|
›
|
Past perfect simple
She said she had been on the web since 1999.
|
Present perfect continuous
She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years."
|
›
|
Past perfect continuous
She said she had been teaching English for seven years.
|
Past simple
She said, "I taught online yesterday."
|
›
|
Past perfect
She said she had taught online yesterday.
|
Past continuous
She said, "I was teaching earlier."
|
›
|
Past perfect continuous
She said she had been teaching earlier.
|
Past perfect
She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived."
|
›
|
Past perfect
NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
|
Past perfect continuous
She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes."
|
›
|
Past perfect continuous
NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five minutes.
|
Many modal verb forms also change:
Direct
speech
|
|
Indirect
speech
|
will
She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow."
|
›
|
would
She said she would teach English online tomorrow.
|
can
She said, "I can teach English online."
|
›
|
could
She said she could teach English online.
|
must
She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online."
|
›
|
had to
She said she had to have a computer to teach English online.
|
shall
She said, "What shall we learn today?"
|
›
|
should
She asked what we should learn today.
|
may
She said, "May I open a new browser?"
|
›
|
might
She asked if she might open a new browser.
|
!Note - There is no change to;
could, would, should, might and ought to.
Direct
speech
|
Indirect
speech
|
"I might go to the
cinema," he said.
|
He said he might go to the cinema.
|
You can use the present tense in
reported speech if you want to say that something is still true, i.e. my name
has always been and will always be Lynne so:-
Direct
speech
|
Indirect
speech
|
"My name is Lynne," she said.
|
She said her name was Lynne.
or
She said her name is Lynne.
|
You can also use the present tense
if you are talking about a future event.
Direct
speech (exact quote)
|
Indirect
speech (not exact)
|
"Next week's lesson is on
reported speech," she
said.
|
She said next week's lesson will
be on reported speech.
|
Time change
If the reported sentence contains an
expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting.
For example we need to change words
like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the
time and place of reporting.
Now
|
+
24 hours - Indirect speech
|
"Today's lesson is on
presentations."
|
She said yesterday's lesson was on
presentations.
or
She said yesterday's lesson would
be on presentations.
|
Expressions
of time if reported on a different day
|
this (evening)
|
›
|
that (evening)
|
today
|
›
|
yesterday ...
|
these (days)
|
›
|
those (days)
|
now
|
›
|
then
|
(a week) ago
|
›
|
(a week) before
|
last weekend
|
›
|
the weekend before last / the
previous weekend
|
here
|
›
|
there
|
next (week)
|
›
|
the following (week)
|
tomorrow
|
›
|
the next/following day
|
In addition if you report something
that someone said in a different place to where you heard it you must change
the place (here) to the place (there).
For example:-
At
work
|
At
home
|
"How long have you worked
here?"
|
She asked me how long I'd worked
there.
|
Pronoun change
In reported speech, the pronoun
often changes.
For example:
Me
|
You
|
"I teach English
online."
|
Direct Speech
She said, "I teach
English online."
"I teach English
online," she said.
Reported Speech
She told me she teaches
English online.
or
She told me she taught
English online.
|
Reporting Verbs
Said, told and asked are the most common verbs used in indirect
speech.
We use asked to report
questions:-
For example: I asked Lynne
what time the lesson started.
We use told with an
object.
For example: Lynne told me
she felt tired.
!Note - Here me is the object.
We usually use said
without an object.
For example: Lynne said she
was going to teach online.
If said is used with an object we
must include to ;
For example: Lynne said to
me that she'd never been to China.
!Note - We usually use told.
For example: Lynne told me
(that) she'd never been to China.
There are many other verbs we can
use apart from said, told and asked.
These include:-
accused, admitted, advised,
alleged, agreed, apologised, begged, boasted, complained, denied, explained,
implied, invited, offered, ordered, promised, replied, suggested etc.
|
Using them properly can make what
you say much more interesting and informative.
For example:
He asked me to come to the party:-
He invited me to the party.
|
He begged me to come to the party.
|
He ordered me to come to the
party.
|
He advised me to come to the
party.
|
He suggested I should come to the
party.
|
Use of 'That' in reported speech
In reported speech, the word that
is often used.
For example: He told me that
he lived in Greenwich.
However, that is optional.
For example: He told me he lived in
Greenwich.
!Note - That is never used in questions, instead we often use if.
For example: He asked me if I would
come to the party.
"I didn't notice that the comma
was inside the quotation marks," Lynne said, "but Hekner did."
No one has ever set the rules of English language
in stone. It's a flexible language, and the rules that exist have arisen
through usage, and they can change in exactly the same way, so maybe it doesn't
matter, but it's best to be consistent. (Thanks to Hekner and Clare Pearson for
their contribution.)
Big Thanks to :
http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html