Direct and Indirect Speech Rules with Examples
Hello friends! Today, we are going to study about Direct and Indirect Speech Rules with Examples — a special topic of English Grammar. This is an important chapter in terms of competitive examinations.
Speaking or understanding English without its proper knowledge is a very difficult task. Today, we are trying to explain the type of speech and its rules of change with examples etc. So let’s start:
What is Speech – Direct and Indirect
To understand this topic, we divide it into three Simple parts :
- Change the Pronoun of Reported Speech.
- Change the Tense of Reported Speech and
- Change the Certain Words of Reported Speech.
Let’s read the following paragraph carefully to understand it :
Pooja, Anjali and Deepika are three friends. One day Pooja meets Anjali and asks her where she is going. Anjali replies “I am going to college” then Pooja meets Deepika, who asks her what Anjali told her.
Now Pooja can tell Deepika about what Anjali has told in two ways :
| Direct Speech : | Anjali said to me, “I am going to college” |
| Indirect Speech : | Anjali told me that she was going to college. |
This example makes clear that One can tell a statement what is said by any person in two different ways :
- Say the words of any person without changing his/her words. This type of statement is called a direct speech.
- Say the words of any person in your own words without repeating his/her words. Thus, This type of statement is called a Indirect speech.
Thus you find that there are two forms of speech :
- Direct speech
- Indirect speech
How to understand Direct and Indirect Speech
To understand Direct and Indirect Speech carefully, read the following sentences :
| Reporting Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|
| He says, | “I am intelligent.” |
| He says to me, | “You are a good boy.” |
| He says to her, | “I love You.” |
On reading these sentences you found that each sentence has two parts :
Reporting Speech :
The part of the sentence that is written outside the inverted commas. This part consists of the subject and the verb. The verb used in reporting speech is called reporting verb. At the end of this part of the sentence, there is a Semi colon.
| Part of Sentence | Reporting clause / speech |
|---|---|
| First Part : | He says, |
| He says to me, | |
| He says to her, |
Reported speech :
The part of the sentence that is written inside the inverted commas and starts with the capital letter. that is called Reported speech.
| Part of Sentence | Reported speech |
|---|---|
| Second Part : | “I am intelligent.” |
| “You are a good boy.” | |
| “I love You.” |
Basic Rules of Direct and Indirect Speech
Before understanding the rules of Direct and Indirect speech, carefully observe the examples given below :
| Sr. | Direct speech | Indirect speech |
|---|---|---|
| 01. | Ram says to me, “I am singing a song.” | Ram tells me that he is singing a song. |
| 02. | Ram says to me, “You are a good boy.” | Ram tells me that I am a good boy. |
| 03. | He said to me, “I am singing a song.” | He told me that he was singing a song. |
| 04. | He said to me, “You are a good boy.” | He told me that I was a good boy. |
After reading the above sentences, you saw that these sentences are in both direct and indirect forms. Also you found that when the direct speech has been changed to indirect speech then the Tense and pronoun of the reported speech has also changed.
Now it is worth noting here that on the basis of which rules, they have been changed. So let’s study these basic rules in detail :
- The semicolon at the end of the reporting speech (the first part of the sentence to be written outside the inverted commas) is removed when making direct to indirect.
- And the inverted commas of reported speech (the second part of the sentence to be written in inverted commas) are also removed.
- Now reporting speech and reported speech (both parts of a sentence) are added with the help of a Conjunction. And the first capital letter of reported speech is written in small letter.
- Now the Pronouns, Tense and Some Certain words used in reported speech are also changed with the help of certain rules. What are these rules? So let us know which rules are kept in mind while changing the direct speech to indirect speech :
Rules of change of Direct and Indirect speech
Friends! To understand, we divide these rules into four groups, which are as follows :
- Rules of Change in Pronouns.
- Rules of Change in Tense.
- Rules of Change in Certain Words.
- Rules of Sentence Connectives or conjunction.
1. Rules of Change in Pronouns :
Friends! As we told you earlier, there are three types of people involved in expressing what someone says :
- The speaker
- The Hearer
- The Reporter
When we change a direct sentence into indirect, that is why the pronoun of reported speech changes. These changes are made according to the pronoun used in the reporting speech.
You have to keep in mind three simple rules:
| 01. | The First Person Pronoun of Reported Speech changes according to Subject of the Reporting Verb. |
| 02. | The Second Person Pronoun of Reported Speech changes according to Object of the Reporting Verb. |
| 03. | There is no change in the Third Person Pronoun of Reported Speech. |
If you want to learn this rule easily then you can use this short trick. With this trick, you can remember the order of changing the pronoun correctly.
* SON | 123
| S — Subject | O — Object | N — No Change |
| 1 — First Person | 2 — Second Person | 3 — Third Person |
Types of Persons :
If you do not know how many types of persons are there, then you can understand it from the table given below :
| First Person | Subject | Object |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | I | Me |
| Plural | We | Us |
| Second Person | Subject | Object |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | You | You |
| Plural | You | You |
| Third Person | Subject | Object |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | He | Him |
| ” “ | She | Her |
| ” “ | It | It |
| Plural | They | Them |
Let us understand by some examples :
| Sr. | Direct speech | Indirect speech |
|---|---|---|
| 01. | He says to me, “I am reading a book.” | He tells me that he is reading a book. |
| 02. | I said to her, “You are trying to sing a song.” | I told her that she was trying to sing a song. |
| 03. | You said to me, “She will not play football.” | You told me that she would not play football. |
| 04. | You said to us, ” We have washed the clothes.” | You told us that You had washed the clothes. |
- We saw that “I” is a First Person Pronoun used as a subject in Reported Speech in the first sentence that will be changed according to the Subject (which is Third Person Pronoun – “He”) of the Reporting Verb.
- In the second sentence, “You” is a Second Person Pronoun used as a subject in Reported Speech that will be changed according to the Object (which is Third Person Pronoun – “Her”) of the Reporting Verb.
- There will be no change in Third Person Pronoun of Reported Speech in the third sentence.
- In the fourth sentence, “We” is a First Person Pronoun (Plural) used as a subject in Reported Speech that will be changed according to the Subject (which is Second Person Pronoun – “You”) of the Reporting Verb.
2. Rules of Change in Tenses :
Friends! When we change the direct voice to indirect, the tense changes along with pronoun. For this, keep the following rules in mind :
- If the verb of reporting verb is in present or future tense, then there is no change in reported speech, that is, the tense of reported speech will remain the same, but do not forget to change the pronoun, like :
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| He says, ” I am ready.” | He says that he is ready. |
| She will say, “I do not play cricket.” | She will say that she does not play cricket.” |
- The tense of reported speech changes if the verb of the reporting verb is in the past. You can understand this change by remembering the table given below :
| Direct Speech to | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| Present Indefinite Tense | Past Indefinite Tense |
| Present Continuous Tense | Past Continuous Tense |
| Present Perfect Tense | Past Perfect Tense |
| Present Perfect Continuous Tense | Past Perfect Continuous Tense |
| Direct Speech to | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| Past Indefinite Tense | Past Perfect Tense |
| Past Continuous Tense | Past Perfect Continuous Tense |
| Past Perfect Tense | No change |
| Past Perfect Continuous Tense | No change |
| Direct Speech to | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| Can | Could |
| May | Might |
| Will | Would |
| Shall | Should |
| Must | No Change |
| Need not | No Change |
Exception :
- Friends! Remember that if there is a universal truth, habitual fact or a saying in reported speech then there is no change in it, even if the reporting verb is in the past. like :
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| He said to me, “Honesty is the best policy.” | He told me that honesty is the best policy. |
| You said to me, “The Sun rises in the East.” | You told me that the sun rises in the East. |
3. Rules of Change in certain words :
When a direct speech is changed to an indirect speech, some of the words used in the reported speech also change, which is as follows :
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| here | there |
| hereby | thereby |
| come | go |
| now | then |
| this | that |
| these | those |
| thus | so |
| ago | before |
| today | that day |
| tonight | that night |
| yesterday | the previous day |
| tomorrow | the next day |
| last day / night / week / month / year | the previous day / night / week / month / year |
| next day / night / week / month / year | the following day / night / week / month / year |
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| She said to me, “I will reach here yesterday.” | She told me that she would reach there the previous day. |
| I said to her, ” I like you just now.” | I told her that I liked you just then. |
4. Rules of Sentence Connectives or conjunction :
Friends! A Sentence Connective or conjunction is also used to connect reporting speech and reported speech which we are briefly telling you through the following table :
| Sentence | Conjunction |
|---|---|
| Assertive | that |
| Interrogative | if or whether |
| Imperative | to |
| Optative | that |
| Exclamatory | that |
Friends! Today we are only able to give you short information about these sentences. In next chapter, we will try to understand it better because this topic gets bigger. that’s it for today.
Please, understand and learn it properly, so that you do not have any difficulty in understanding the next part of this chapter. So stay with us.
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