Reported Speech (Indirect Speech)
Definition: Reported speech is a grammatical component that is used to report what has been said by the first
person to the second person. It is done by a third person or sometimes involves the 2nd person.
Rules for conversion of direct speech into reported speech/Indirect speech.
• If the reporting verb is in past tense then the reported speech will be in past tense, exception rule
applies.
• Remove the comma after the reporting verb and replace with connectors in reported speech.
• Remove the inverted commas and change the first person in the reported speech to third
person/Second person.
• If the reporting verb is said—change it to ‘exclaimed’ for exclamatory sentences, ‘asked’ for
interrogative sentences and ‘told’ followed by an object (if present) for imperative sentences.
• Connectors:
o Declarative-that
Reporting
Mommy said, “I like to dance.” verb
Mommy said that she liked to dance.
o Imperative: to
Mommy said, ‘Get my coat.’
Mommy told me to get her coat.
o Exclamatory: that
Mommy said, “She is so pretty!”
Mommy exclaimed that she was very pretty.
o Interrogative- if the direct speech question starts with a helping verb, e.g.: Are you coming
with us? Then the connector in reported speech is: if/whether.
If the direct speech interrogative sentence starts with a questioning word e.g.:
who/which/where/how etc- Eg: Where are you going? Then the connector is the
questioning word itself.
V. V. IMP: In both cases the position of the verb and pronoun/noun/subject will be
interchanged.
Mommy said, “where are you going?” QW+ HV+ Pronoun+ Verb
Mommy asked where I was going. QW+ Pronoun+ HV+ Verb
Mommy said, “Are you coming with us?” HV+Pronoun+Verb+Predicate
Mommy asked if I was going with them. Pronoun+HV+Verb+Predicate
• If the reporting verb is in present or future tense, the tense of the reported speech will remain same as
the direct speech.
Rohan says, “I like to play cricket.”
Rohan says that he likes to play cricket.
Mother will say, “It is just the same.”
Mother will say that it is just the same.
• Exception rules applies to quotes, proverbs, universal truth and a daily statement. We do not change
the tense of these statements while changing them into reported speech.
TENSE CHANGES
• Simple Present changes to Simple past
• Present continuous changes to past continuous
• Present perfect changes to past perfect.
• Present perfect continuous changes to past perfect continuous.
• Simple Past changes to past perfect
• Past continuous to past perfect continuous.
• Words changes:
o Now-then
o Today-that day
o Yesterday-last day/previous day
o Tomorrow-the next day
o So much- very much
o Here-there
o Tonight-that night
o last night-the night before/ the previous night
o this week-that week
o last month-the month before/ the previous month
o next year-the following year
o two minutes ago-two minutes before
o this-that
o in one hour-one hour later
o What a – It is/was