Direct and Indirect

Speech
Created by Hasanudin, [Link].
 Outline
Definition of Narration

Direct Speech

Indirect Speech (Statement)

Exercise

Indirect Speech (Question)

Specific Cases

Exercise
Definition of Narration

Narration is the art of reporting and repeating

the words of a speaker.

There are two main ways:

by repeating the words spoken (Direct speech)

by reporting the words spoken (Indirect

speech)
For Example:

• Mr. David, who is your teacher, says to you, “I

want to meet your parents.”

• Suppose, you meet your friend, Mr. John, in a

market. Mr. John says to you, “I bought a book
for you.”
 Direct Speech
Direct speech is when we
Let’s go to the report the exact words that
cinema.
somebody says.

Notice how to put punctuation

marks.

He said, “Let’s go to
the cinema.”
Comma

Inverted commas
 Indirect Speech
(Statement)

Indirect or reported speech is usually to talk

about the past or the actual words of the speaker
are changed.

John said, “I often come here.” (direct speech)

John said (that) he often came here. (indirect speech)

 Indirect Speech
What has changed?

John said (that) he often came here.

• The pronoun has changed to indicate the person

who spoke (I —> he).

• The verb of the original sentence has changed its

tense (come —> came)

• The two parts (reporting verb and reported speech)

can be connected with ‘that’ or without ‘that’.
 Indirect Speech
Tense Changes

The tense of the original sentence changes as follows:

Verb ‘to be’ & Modal Verbs

am / is — was might — might

are — were could — could (no change)

was / were — had been shall — should

can — could should — should (no change)

must — must (no change) or had to ought to — ought to (no change)

may — might
 Indirect Speech
Simple Tenses

do / does — did

did — had done

will do — would do

Perfect Tenses

have / has done — had done

had done — had done

will have done — would have done

 Indirect Speech
Continuous Tenses

am / is / are doing — was / were doing

have / has been doing — had been doing

was / were doing — had been doing

had been doing — had been doing (no change)

will be doing — would be doing

will have been doing — would have been doing

Others

Used to — used to (no change)

 Indirect Speech
Time Markers that change

Time markers sometimes need to change, to keep the sense of

the sentence (e.g.):

She said: “I will call you tomorrow.”

Rafi told her: “I handed in the report yesterday.”

We told him: “We’re coming back next week.”

He said: “We didn’t visit Lisbon last year.”

They said: “We must leave now.”

Other Words that change

• ‘this’ and ‘these’ change to ‘that’ and ‘

e.g. She said: “This is the last bus.”

They told us: “We’ve choosen these books.”

• ‘here’ changes to ‘there’ (if the location has changed)

e.g. We’ve been living here for twenty years.

• ‘would like’ changes to ‘want’

She said: “I’d like to be a singer.”

He said: “I’d like some rice, please.”

 Exercise

Put the following sentences into Indirect speech.

e.g. He said, “I haven’t found my book yet.”

He said that he hadn’t found his book yet.

1. They said, “We aren’t ready.”

They said (that) they weren’t ready.

2. He told me, “I can call you back tomorrow.”

He told me (that) he could call me back the next day.

3. We said, “We’ll stay here for a while.”

We said (that) we could stay there for a while.

4. Andre said, “I couldn’t buy the new game.”

He said (that) he hadn’t be able to buy the new game.

5. Jane said, “I may not be able to join you.”

She said (that) she might not be able to join us.

6. They told me, “We posted the letter yesterday.”

They told me (that) we had posted the letter the day before.

7. He said, “I used to play volleyball at school.”

He said (that) he used to play volleyball at school.

8. I told them, “If you go this way, you’ll get lost.”

I told them (that) if they went that way, they’d get lost.

9. She said, “I am going to cancel the contract.”

She said (that) she was going to cancel the contract.

[Link] told us, “I’d like to take up swimming.”

He told us (that) I wanted to take up swimming.

 Indirect Speech
(Question)

The most common reporting verb for questions

is ‘ask’. You have a choice to specify the person
or not. If you specify the person, do not use ‘to’:

He asked …

He asked me … (NOT: He asked to me)

 Indirect Speech

What changes?

Question form Statement form

He asked me, “When can I call you back?”

He asked me when he could me back.

 Indirect Speech

When you have a yes/no (closed) question, you

need to connect two parts (reporting verb and
reported question) with the word ‘if’.

They asked us, “Are you French?”

They asked us if we were French.

 Indirect Speech

We sometimes ask an indirect question to be

more polite or formal. We formulate these
questions with expressions such as:

Could you tell me … / Would you mind telling me …

May I ask …

I was wondering …
 Specific Cases
When we report a sentence that has a specific function (inviting, apologising, making a
request, etc.), it is better to use a specific verb.

e.g.

She said, “Why don’t we write a letter?” (a suggestion / a recommendation)

She suggested / recommended writing a letter.

I said to her, “Would you like to dance?” (an invitation)

I invited her to dance.

She said to them, “Shall I drive you home?” (an offer)

She offered to drive them home.

We said to him, “Sorry for the inconvinience.” (an apology)

We apologised to him for the inconvinience.

 Exercise

Put the following questions, or sentences with a

specific function, into Indirect Speech.

e.g.

He asked, “Has anyone seen Jim?”

He asked if anyone had seen Jim.

1. I asked James, “How long do you have to wait?”

I asked James how long he had to wait.

2. She asked her husband, “Are you working tomorrow?”

She asked her husband if he was working the next day.

3. He asked his boss, “Will I be getting a raise next year?”

He asked his boss if he would be getting a raise the following year.

4. He asked, “Why is everyone laughing?”

He asked why everyone was laughing.

5. Jill asked Peter, “What are you doing this afternoon?”

Jill asked Peter what he was doing that afternoon.

6. The children asked, “Can we go home now?”

The children asked if they could go home then.

7. He said to me, “Why don’t we take a break?” (a suggestion)

He suggested taking a break.

8. She said to them, “Would you like to join me for a walk?” (an
invitation)

She invited them to join her for walk.

9. She said to me, “Shall I drive you home?” (an offer)

She offered to drive me home.

10. Jane said to Paul, “Could you turn the T.V. down please?” (a request)

Jane asked Paul to turn the T.V. down.

#thankyou