Direct speech is exact words spoken by speaker. Direct speech can be written in quotation marks. Indirect speech is what we convey the speaker words in our own words. In Indirect speech quotation marks replaced by conjunction that.
Example:
Direct Speech: Naveen said “I am watching movie”
Indirect speech: Naveen said that he was watching movie.
Direct and Indirect speech rules:
(1) If the reporting verb of direct speech is in past tense then the verb inside the quotation is also changed to past when changing a sentence from direct to indirect speech
Direct Speech: Naveen said “I am safe”
Indirect speech: Naveen said that he was safe.
(2)In indirect speech, tenses do not change if the sentence talk about habitual action or universal truth.
Direct Speech: Naveen said “The sun rises in the east”
Indirect speech: Naveen said that the sun rises in the east.
(3)If the reporting verb is in present/future tense, then the tense remains the same as in direct speech.
- Present Perfect Changes to Past Perfect.
- Present Continuous Changes to Past Continuous
- Present Perfect Changes to Past Perfect
- Simple Present Changes to Simple Past
- Simple Past Changes to Past Perfect
- Past Continuous Changes to Past Perfect Continuous
- Future Changes to Present Conditional
- Future Continuous Changes to Conditional Continuous
(4)Direct to Indirect speech Conversion Interrogative sentences
If a sentence starts with a question word like what, when, and why in direct speech, the question word itself acts as the joining class.
Example:
Direct speech: “Where do you live ?” Asked the boy.
Indirect Speech: The boy enquired where I lived.
(5)Direct to Indirect Speech Conversion Change in Modals
Modal verbs are those verbs that are preceded by another verb, which is the main verb. Can, May, and Must are some examples of Modals. Modals that won’t change are Could, would, should, ought to, might. While changing direct to indirect speech, the Modals change as below:
Can become could
May becomes Might
Must becomes had to (or) would have to
There are modals that do not change – Could, Would, Should, Might, Ought to
(6) While converting direct speech to Indirect speech, there are certain words to be noted that cannot be used as such in indirect speech. These words get modified into new words which are enlisted below:
Now becomes Then
Ago becomes before
Thus becomes So
Today becomes That day
Tomorrow becomes the next day
Yesterday becomes the day before
This becomes that
These become those
Come becomes go
Hence becomes thence
Next week or next month becomes the following week or month.
(7)The first person in Direct speech changes as per the subject of the speech.
(8)The second person of Direct speech changes as per the object of the indirect speech.
(9) If the third person is mentioned in the Direct speech, it does not change in reported speech.
(10) Request, Command, Wish, and Exclamation. The imperative words in direct speech change into Infinitives in indirect speech.
Examples:
Direct: He said to her ‘Please stop it’.
Indirect: He requested her to stop that
Some more Rules of converting Indirect Speech into Direct Speech
- Use the reporting verb such as (say, said to) in its correct tense.
- Put a comma before the statement and the first letter of the statement should be in capital letter.
- Insert question mark, quotation marks, exclamation mark and full stop, based on the mood of the sentence.
- Remove the conjunctions like (that, to, if or whether) wherever necessary.
- Where the reporting verb is in past tense in indirect, change it to present tense in the direct speech.
- Change the past perfect tense either into present perfect tense or past tense, as necessary.
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