Which of the following is not an attribute of direct speech?
Which of the following is not an attribute of indirect speech?
Which of the following is not the correct shift in tense from direct speech to indirect speech?
Change the sentences including direct speech below to indirect speech.
The direct speech always contains quotation marks, and by extension the quotation marks are followed by capital letters. However, indirect speech does not contain quotation marks.
The quotation and question marks must be removed from the direct speech. The pronouns must change, and agree with their antecedents. Also, backshift must be applied to the verbs. For example, He said, " I finished my homework." will change to He said he finished his homework.
This is an example of indirect speech:
Maria told me that every night she had dreams about strange creatures that sang to her.
When writers write about phrases or sentences a source has said, they can use either direct speech or indirect speech. Direct speech is used to repeat what someone else has said, and indirect speech is used to report on what someone else has said.
The following sections cover topics such as direct and indirect speech, direct speech examples, and reported speech examples.
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What is direct speech? Direct speech, sometimes called quoted speech, is the speech that is repeated verbatim or quoted from the original source. Direct speech is always placed inside quotations. Direct speech can be a statement, a question, or a request.
The table below shows examples of direct speech. Direct speech is placed in quotations.
| Examples of Direct Speech |
|---|
| Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." |
| Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." |
Both these examples are examples of direct speech. The sentences are placed between two quotations.
Indirect speech, also referred to as reported speech, is the interpretation or modification of the words of the original source. Since indirect speech reports on the words of another source, it cannot be a question; it is always a statement. Moreover, there are no quotation marks around an indirect statement.
The following table shows reported speech examples. The direct speech examples in the previous section are presented in indirect speech examples.
| Reported Speech Examples |
|---|
| Martin Luther King, Jr. said their lives began to end the day they became silent about things that mattered. |
| Martin Luther King, Jr. once said injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere. |
In these two examples, there are no quotations. The capital letter I in Injustice is replaced with lower case letter i: injustice in the indirect speech.
When converting direct speech to an indirect statement, writers must remember a few points. The first point is that while direct speech is a repetition of what the original source has said, indirect speech is a modification of what the original source has said. Therefore, the first step in rendering direct speech to indirect speech is to remove the quotation marks. Since there are no quotation marks in indirect speech, only the first letter of the sentence must be written in capital letter.
Next, the pronouns must agree with the antecedents in the indirect speech.
The following sections detail how tenses change in direct and indirect speech, and how questions and requests in direct speech change to statements in indirect speech.
When converting direct speech to indirect speech, writers must use a verb tense that is further back in the tense. This is called backshift. For example, if the verb in the direct speech is play, after applying backshift, it will change to played in the indirect speech.
The following table shows verbs in the direct speech, and their backshift in the indirect speech.
| Direct Speech Verb Examples | Indirect Speech Verb Examples (Backshift) |
|---|---|
| work/works: simple present | worked: simple past |
| can: present | could: past |
| is/are working | was/ were working |
| was/were working | had been working |
| worked: simple past | had worked: past perfect |
| had worked: past perfect | had worked: past perfect (No backshift is possible in this case.) |
Indirect speech is also called indirect statement; therefore, indirect speech cannot be in the form of a question. Writers need to have the following points in mind when rendering direct questions to indirect statements.
1. An indirect statement needs to contain a verb such as to ask, to inquire, or to question. The use of such verbs shows that the direct speech had been in the form of a question.
2. Quotation marks must be removed.
3. For yes/no questions if must be inserted in the indirect speech.
4. For other kinds of questions, the question word should stay; however, the order of the sentence must become subject verb object.
5. Backshift must be applied to the verb to adjust the verb tense in the indirect speech.
6. The question mark must be removed.
The table below shows examples of direct questions, indirect statements, and explanations.
| Direct Question | Indirect Statement | Explanations |
|---|---|---|
| The clerk said, "How many packages do you have?" | The clerk inquired how many packages we had. | How many packages do you have? is not a yes/no question; therefore, the question words, how many, stay in place. The verb do (used for questions) is removed. There are no quotation or question marks in the indirect statement. The indirect speech contains the verb inquired to show that the direct speech was a question. |
| Jason said, "Are tomatoes fruits?" | Jason asked if tomatoes were fruits. | This is a yes/no question. So, if is inserted in the sentence. The word order after if is subject (tomatoes) verb (were) object (fruits). There are no quotation or question marks in the indirect statement. The indirect speech contains the verb asked. |
An example of indirect speech: Jason asked if tomatoes were fruits.
When converting a direct request to an indirect request, writers need to pay attention if the request is a request with an indicator such as please, or if it is a command or order. If the request contains a word such as please, the backshift verb in the indirect speech can be a verb such as asked. If the request is a command or an order, then the backshift verb can be a verb such as told or ordered. Also, writers need to change the pronouns accordingly. For example, your must change to my or our.
The following table shows examples of direct and indirect requests. Explanations are also provided.
| Direct Requests | Indirect Requests and Explanations |
|---|---|
| "Stop using your phone at the dinner table." | She told me to stop using my phone at the dinner table. There are no quotation marks in the indirect speech; stop is written in lower case. Since stop is a command, the verb used in the indirect speech is told. Your is replaced by my. Backshift has been applied to the verb i.e., told. |
| "Please buy some fruits on your way home." | She asked me to buy some fruits on my way home. There are no quotation marks in the indirect speech. The word please is removed from the indirect speech; it is replaced by asked in the indirect speech. The pronoun your is changed to my. Backshift has been applied to the verb i.e., asked. |
An example of indirect request: She asked me to buy some fruits on my way home.
When writers repeat words or phrases directly from a source, they are using direct speech . When writers modify or report on words or phrases of a source, they are using indirect speech. While there are quotation and question marks in the direct speech, indirect speech does not have any quotation or question marks.
For yes/no questions, the word "if" must be inserted in the indirect speech. However, for other questions, the question word stays in place. The verb tense is further back in the indirect speech; backshift must be applied to the verbs when converting direct speech to indirect speech. For example, "want" in direct speech will become "wanted" in indirect speech.
Spoken and written communication is like one big game of telephone. Sometimes we hear the original tale, and other times we hear a retelling of the story. In this lesson, we're going to explore what that means by studying the difference between direct and indirect speech and learning proper grammar techniques for both.
Direct speech, also known as quoted speech, consists of words or phrases that are taken directly from the source. These words are quoted or written exactly as the words were originally spoken.
With regard to direct speech, there is no interpretation or annotation; the words are taken directly from one source and repeated to another. In other words, we take the words directly from the speaker and repeat them exactly as they were originally stated.
Here are some examples of direct speech:
In these examples, the direct speech is shown in quotations, which signifies that the speech is taken directly from the source with no alterations.
Indirect speech, also known as reported speech, is when words or phrases are reported in our own words. The original words are modified and/or interpreted as opposed to being quoted.
When talking about indirect speech, we use words that refer to something that has already happened. To do so, we are speaking in the past tense and are summarizing, modifying, or synthesizing what has already been said.
Here are some examples of indirect speech:
When we use direct speech, we are repeating what was said. When we use indirect speech, we're reporting what was said. Let's now look at some specific examples to learn how to change speech from direct to indirect. These examples will also reinforce the difference between direct and indirect speech.
1. Changing From Present Tense to Past Tense
When converting speech from direct to indirect, you must change the present tense verbs to the past tense and remove any quotation marks or commas.
| Direct Speech (Present Tense) | Indirect Speech (Past Tense) |
|---|---|
| Jenn says, ''I love watching TV.'' | Jenn said she loved watching TV. |
2. Changing From Simple Past Tense to Past Perfect Tense
What if the direct speech is already written in the past tense? If the sentence is written in simple past tense, you just remove the punctuation and change the verb to past perfect to make it indirect speech.
| Direct Speech (Simple Past Tense) | Indirect Speech (Past Perfect Tense) |
|---|---|
| Lana said, ''I saw him at the mall.'' | Lana said she had seen him at the mall. |
3. Changing Speech in the Form of a Question
What if direct speech is in the form of a question? For example: ''Do you want to go on a trip to Europe?'' To make a direct question indirect, follow the same tense change rules as before, add ''asked me'' to signify reporting a question, and keep the question word.
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| ''Do you want to go on a trip to Europe?'' | She asked me if I wanted to go on a trip to Europe. |
Do you see the changes? The sentence was changed to past tense, and the word ''want'' was changed to wanted to signify what was asked in the original question. Let's try one more example.
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| Lisa asked, ''What did you eat for lunch?'' | Lisa asked me what I ate for lunch. |
To change this question to indirect speech, we changed the verb to past tense and kept the question word.
4. Direct and Indirect Reported Requests
We have talked about reported statements and questions, but what if someone has a request? For example: ''Please don't click your pen during the exam.'' To change this direct request to indirect speech, we use the phrase ''asked me'' and then fill in the request.
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| ''Please don't click your pen during the exam.'' | He asked me not to click my pen during the exam. |
Here's another example:
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| ''Johnny, go to the store and get milk.'' | She told Johnny to go to the store and get milk. |
In this case, we used the phrase ''told Johnny to'' and completed filling in the original request.
Whether you are repeating or reporting what someone has said, there are grammatical rules for both. First, ask yourself if you are repeating what someone has said, which is considered direct speech, or if you are reporting what someone has said, which is indirect speech. When converting from direct to indirect speech, you must change the tense and remove quotation marks. For example:
