My English exam is tomorrow. Tell me every rule of direct and indirect speech and every changes from tense to tense and word to word.
Answers
the reporting verb is in the past tense, all present tenses inside the quotation marks will change into their corresponding past tenses in indirect speech. Study the example sentences given below.
Direct: She said, ‘I don’t want to come with you.’
Indirect: She said that she didn’t want to come with me.
Direct: He said, ‘I am writing a letter.’
Indirect: He said that he was writing a letter.
When the reporting verb is in the past tense, past tenses inside the quotation marks will change into their corresponding past tenses.
The simple past will change into the past perfect.
The past continuous will change into the past perfect continuous.
The past perfect and past perfect continuous tenses will remain unchanged.
Direct: He said, ‘Burglars broke into my house last night.’
Indirect: He said that burglars had broken into his house the previous night.
Direct: She said to me, ‘I was waiting for my sister.’
Indirect: She told me that she had been waiting for her sister.
Note that sometimes we do not change a simple past tense into past perfect tense in the indirect speech.
Direct: He said, ‘I lived many years in the US.’
Indirect: He said that he lived many years in the US. OR He said that he had lived many years in the US.
Note that the past perfect tense is used to lay stress on the completion of one past action before another past action.
When the reporting verb is in the past tense, shall will change into should in indirect speech. Similarly, will will change into would, can into could and may into might.
Direct: She said, ‘I will work hard.’
Indirect: She said that she would work hard.
Direct: He said, ‘They will be arriving here by the next train.’
Indirect: He said that they would be arriving there by the next train.
Direct: Alice said, ‘I will have finished the work by now.’
Indirect: Alice said that she would have finished the work by then.
I only know this much.
Sorry!!!
All the best for ur exam.
Hope it helps u.
You should apply past tense such as can-could ,are-if,you-he