|
Indirect speech, also called reported speech or indirect discourse, is a means of expressing the content of statements, questions or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct speech.
For example, He said "I'm coming" is direct speech,
whereas "He said he was coming" is indirect speech. Note that in the above sentence 'said' is called the Reporting verb.
Rules for Changing the Tenses:
(a) If the Reporting Verb is in the Present or Future Tense, the Tense of the Verb in the Reported Speech remains unchanged.
For example: She says," It is cold outside." (Direct)
She says that it is cold outside. (Indirect)
(b) If the Reporting Verb is in the Past Tense,the Verb in the Reported Speech is changed to any of the four forms of the Past Tense.
(i) The Present Tense must be changed to its Past form. In other words, we should change "shall" into "should or would";"come" into "came", etc.
Note: Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous remain unchanged.
For example: 1.They said, "Sharon had come." (Direct)
They said that Sharon had come. (Indirect)
2. I said, "Raven had been going there." (Direct)
I said that Raven had been going there.
(ii)The Past Indefinite Tense is often changed to the Past perfect.
For example: He said,"Victor wrote a letter." (Direct)
He said that Victor had written a letter. (Indirect)
(iii) The Past continuous tense must be changed to the past perfect continuous.
For example: They said, "He was running fast." (Direct)
They said that he had been running fast. (Indirect)
(c) If the reported speech expresses a universal truth or a habitual fact, the tense of the verb in the reported speech much not be changed even if the reporting verb is in the past tense.
For example: He said, " Two and three are five." (Direct)
He said that two and three are five. ( Indirect)
Object of the reporting verb.
For example: 1. He said to me, "You are a promising young boy."(Direct)
He told me that I was a promising young boy.(Indirect)
2. I told him, "You look tired." (Direct)
I told him that he looked tired. (Indirect) (d) Pronouns of the third person in the Direct speech remain unchanged in the Indirect speech.
For example: He said,"She is doing well." (Direct)
He said that she is doing well. (Indirect)
Note:
- A pronoun in the first person is changed according to the subject of the reporting verb.
- A pronoun in the second person is changed according to the object of the reporting verb.
- Third person pronouns no change.
(e) If the speech reporting verb is in the past, the words expressing the nearness are changed into words expressing into words expressing distance, as: "This" changes into "that"; "here" changes into "there"; "today" changes into "that day"; etc.
For example: 1.He said, "They came here yesterday." (Direct)
He said that they had come there the previous day. (Indirect)
2. Riya said to me,"I met your brother two days ago." (Direct)
Riya told me that she had met my brother two days before. (Indirect)
3. John said to me, "I will go there tomorrow." (Direct)
John told me that he would go there the next day. (Indirect)
Change of assertive sentences:
The reporting verb "say" or "said" is changed into "tell" or "told" if the object is given. If no object is there, "say" or "said" should not be changed.
Connect the reported speech to the principal clause by the conjunction that.
For example: 1. The teacher said to us, "I have brought your report cards."(Direct)
The teacher told us that she had brought our report cards.(Indirect)
2. She said, "I am reading a poem."(Direct)
She said that she was reading a poem. (Indirect) Change of Interrogative sentences:
Questions are of two kinds:
(1) Those which are introduced by the 'wh' question words, as who, which, when, why, etc.
(2)Those which are introduced by the finite verb or its auxiliary like is, are, am, was, do, did, can, may, will, shall, has, have, etc.
The answer to all questions of the second kind is necessarily 'yes' or 'no'.
General rules in converting an interrogative sentence into the indirect form, following changes are made:
- Change the reporting verb 'say' or 'tell' into 'ask' or 'inquire'.
- Use the word if or whether, if the question begins with an auxiliary.
- No conjunction is used when the question is introduced by an interrogative word.
- The interrogative form is changed into a statement.
- Observe the same rules regarding change of tense and persons as given above.
For example: 1. I said to Mandy, "Do you know this boy?" (Direct)
I asked Mandy if she knew that boy.(Indirect)
2. I said,"What does it mean?" (Direct)
I demanded what it meant. (Indirect)
REMEMBER: Use a full stop (.) with a question in the Indirect form of narration. Change of Imperative sentences:
- Change the reporting verb into advised, ordered, requested or commanded or into their present or future forms according to the sense.
- Mention the object after the 'verb', in case there is an object.
- Use the 'infinitive form' (to+verb) of the verb of the reported speech.
- In case a sentence in the reported speech is in the negative, use not + to + verb after the verb replacing the reporting verb.
For example: 1. Ricky said to his servant, "Get me a glass of water." (Direct)
Ricky ordered his servant to get him a glass of water. (Indirect)
2. The Principal said to the students, "Work hard for a good future." (Direct)
The Principal advised the students to work hard for a good future. (Indirect)
Optative
Change of Optative and Exclamatory sentences
- Change it into assertive sentence and replace the sign of exclamation by a full stop.
- Change the reporting verb into wish or pray or some other verb having similar meaning.
- Observe the rules for the change of the person of pronouns and the tense of the verb.
- Use of the conjunction 'that' to introduce reported speech.
For example: 1. We said,"May God be kind to everyone!" (Direct)
We prayed that God be kind to everyone. (Indirect)
2. The boy said,"How tough the paper is!" (Direct)
The boy exclaimed that the paper was very tough. (Indirect)
In reporting an exclamatory sentence indirectly:
- Change it into an assertive sentence and replace the sign of exclamation by a full stop.
- Change the reporting verb into exclaim, applaud, or some other word having a similar meaning.
- All interjections and interjectional phrases are omitted.
- Use the conjunction 'that' to introduce the reported speech.
For example: 1. The old man said, "Alas! I am ruined." (Direct)
The old man exclaimed with sorrow that he was ruined. (Indirect)
2. They cried out, "Bravo! A good performance." (Direct)
They applauded him saying that it was a good performance. (Indirect)
3. He said to Rahul, "Good morning! How are you?" (Direct)
He wished Rahul good morning and asked him how he was. (Indirect) |
