Question

rules of indirect speech with examples​

Answer 1

Direct Speech refers to a dialogue being told directly to a second person.

Indirect/Reported Speech refers to a dialogue being told to a third person/reporting what happened to a third person.

Example: She said,"This is a fun game." (Direct)

                She said that that was a fun game. (Indirect)

In the above example, when writing in indirect/reported form, the sentence changes according to its tense. Also, modifications regarding certain words like 'this' changes to 'that', 'tomorrow' changes to 'the next day', 'will' changes to 'would', 'can' changes to 'could' and many other words have to be made. Also, if the sentence contains an interrogation, then 'said' changes to 'asked'. Punctuation marks other than a full stop (.) cannot be used in indirect/reported speech.

A few more examples:

Nessa said to me,"What are you doing?" (Direct)

Nessa asked me what I was doing. (Indirect)

Hayes said,"I am reading a book." (Direct)

Hayes said that he was reading a book. (Indirect)

Amanda asked,"When will you be back?" (Direct)

Amanda asked when I would be back. (Indirect)

Answer 2

$\textbf{\underline{\underline{Reported \:Speech \:(Narration)}}}$

The words spoken by a person can be reported in the following two ways :-


1. $\bf {Direct \:Speech :}$ In this speech we quote the words actually used by a speaker.

He said, "I must go home at once".


2. $\bf {Indirect \:Speech :}$ In this speech we report the speaker's word in the form of a narrative instead of his actual words. It is also known as $\bf {reported \:speech}$.

He said that he had to go home at once.



$\bf\underline{Important \:rules \:of \:reported \:speech :-}$


▪The tense of reported part doesn't change if reporting verb is in present or future tense.

$\bf {Direct -}$ Ram says to me, "I shall join you tomorrow".

$\bf {Indirect -}$ Ram tells me that he will join me tomorrow.


▪The pronoun of first person (I, my, me), change into the person and gender of the subject of the reporting verb.

$\bf {Direct -}$ He said, "I am a brave boy".

$\bf {Indirect -}$ He said that he was a brave boy.


▪The pronoun of second person (you, your, yours), change into the person and gender of the object of reporting verb.

$\bf {Direct -}$ He said to me, "you are an intelligent student".

$\bf {Indirect -}$ He told me that I was an intelligent student.


▪Pronouns of third person do not change.


▪The tense of reported part doesn't change even if reporting verb is in past in the following conditions :-


1. Universal truth

2. Historical past

3. Time clause