Direct and Indirect Speech

Ok, first let me explain the meaning of the sentence and the sentence directly and indirectly. We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or indirect speech.

Direct Speech or Quoted speech

Saying exactly what someone has said is called Direct Speech. Here what a person says appears with quotation marks ( “….” ) and should be words for word.

Ex : She said, “ Today’s lesson is on presentations.” → this sentences using quotation mark

Indirect Speech or Reported Speech

Indirect speech sometime called reported speech doesn’t use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn’t have to be word for word.

When reporting, speech the tenses usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past ( because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

Ex : Direct Speech : “ I’m going to the cinema”, he said.

Indirect Speech : He said that he was going to the cinema. → there is the addition of the word “THAT” in sentence.

The difference is only in the direct line there are quotation marks,while the indirect sentence there is no quotation marks.

TENSES CHANGES

As a rule when you report something, someone has said you go back a tense (the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right).

DIRECT SPEECH INDIRECT SPEECH

1. PRESENT TENSE PAST TENSE

She said, “It is cold.” ↔ She said it was cold.

2. PRESENT CONTINUOUS PAST CONTINUOUS

She said, “I am teaching English online.” ↔ She said she was teaching English

online.

3. PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

She said, “I have been teaching English for ↔ She said she had been teaching English

seven years.” for seven years.

4. PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

She said, “I have been on the web since 1999.”↔She said she had been on the web since

1999.

5. PAST SIMPLE PAST PERFECT

She said, “I thought online yesterday.” ↔ She said she had taught online

yesterday.

6. PAST CONTINUOUS PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

She said, “I was teaching earlier.” ↔ She said she had been teaching earlier.

7. PAST PERFECT PAST PEFECT

She said, “The lesson had already started ↔ She said lesson had already started when

when he arrived.” he arrived. (NO CHANGE)

8. PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

She said, “I would already been teaching for ↔She said I would already been teaching five minutes. for five minutes. (NO CHANGE

MODAL

Modal verb forms also sometimes change.

DIRECT SPEECH INDIRECT SPEECH

1. WILL WOULD

She said, “I will teach English online ↔ She said she would teach English

tomorrow. online tomorrow.

2. CAN COULD

She said, “I can teach English online.” ↔ She said she could teach English online.

3. MUST HAD TO

She said, “I must have a computer teach ↔ She said she had to have a computer English online.” teach English online.

4. SHALL SHOULD

She said, “What shall we learn today?” ↔ She asked what we should learn

today.

5. MAY MIGHT

He told me, “You may leave us now” ↔ He told me that I might leave them

then.

NOTE : There is no change to could, would, should, might & ough to.

TIME CHANGE

If the reported sentences contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting.

For example we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of reporting.

Expression of time if reported on a different day

· This ↔ That

· Today ↔ Yesterday

· These ↔ Those

· Now ↔ Then

· A week ago ↔ A week before

· Last weekend ↔ The weekend before last/

The previous weekend

· Here ↔ There

· Next week ↔ The following week

· Tomorrow ↔ The next

Akan tetapi kalau this,here,now dan sebagainya menunjuk pada benda.tempat atau waktu tertentu merupakan yang sekarang bagi si pembacanya pada waktu memberitakan, maka tiada perubahan kata sifat atau kata keterangan yang dilakukan dalam reported speech .

Ex :

Direct : Andi said, “ This is my pen.”

Indirect : Andi said that this was his pen.