4 Lesson Direct and Indirect Speech

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DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use:

1. Direct or quoted speech = repeating the words spoken

2. Indirect or reported speech = reporting the words spoken

 

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."

Examples

  • She says "What time will you be home?"
  • She said "What time will you be home?" and I said "I don't know!"
  • "There's a fly in my soup!" screamed Simone.
  • John said, "There's an elephant outside the window."

    INDIRECT SPEECH

    REPORTED SPEECH

    Reported speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs like 'say','tell', 'ask', and we may use the word 'that' to introduce the reported words. Inverted commas are not used.

    Direct-Indirect speech

    * 'That' may be omitted:

    Example:

  • She told him that she was happy = She told him she was happy.

    TENSE CHANGES WHEN USING REPORTED SPEECH

    Normally, the tense in reported speech is one tense back in time from the tense in direct speech:

    She said, "I am tired."  = She said that she was tired.

    The changes are shown below:

    Direct-Indirect changes

     

    Modal verb forms also sometimes change:

    Direct-Indirect modal verbs

    There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to.

    Direct-Indirect no changes

     

     

    QUESTION: Identify which statements are: Direct speech or Indirect speech:

    1. He told me his father was in hospital.

    2. She said "I am busy; I can't help you"

    3. He said he would tell Jim he had seen me.

    4. You said you had been playing tennis a lot recently.

    5. They said "we are crazy"