English Grammar, First Year Classes & Topics

Direct & Indirect Speech

Direct & Indirect Speech.

In direct speech we repeat the speaker’sexact words. The words repeated are put between inverted commas.

e.g.: He says, “I’ll never get married”.

In indirect speech we report the speaker’sspeech without using his exact words without changing the exact meaning.

e.g.: He says that he will never getmarried.

Remember when the reporting verb is inpresent or present perfect tense with a modal auxiliary, we report directspeech without any change.

The changes are listed below: using theverb “wait”

Direct Speech                                                             IndirectSpeech

Wait (SimplePresent)                                                     waited(simplepast)

Is/am/are waiting(PresentContinuous)                          was/werewaiting(PastContinuous)

Has/have waited (Present Perfect)                                had waited (PastPerfect)

Has/have been waiting (Present PerfectContinuous)    had been waiting (PastPerfect Conti)

Waited (Simple Past)                                                                   hadwaited (Past Perfect)

Shall/will wait                                                                                  wouldwait

Words indicating nearness in time andplace will change into words indicating distance. The changes are:

Direct Speech                                                             IndirectSpeech

This/these                                                                                       that/those

Here                                                                                                  there

Now                                                                                                   then

Today/tonight                                                                                 thatday/ that night

Last week                                                                                        theprevious week

Tomorrow                                                                                        thenext day

Next week                                                                                        thefollowing week

Yesterday                                                                                        theday before

Ago                                                                                                    before.