Direct Speech / Quoted Speech
Direct or quoted speech is a sentence (or several sentences) that reports speech or thought in its original form, as phrased by the first speaker.[1] It is usually enclosed in quotation marks. The cited speaker is either mentioned in the inquit (Latin "he says") or implied.[edit] Examples
- He said, "It's raining".
- "It's raining," he thought.
- "It's cold outside," he said, "and it's starting to rain".
- "How is the weather?" — "It's cold outside." — "Yes, and it's starting to rain.
Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.
For example:
She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."
or
"Today's lesson is on presentations," she said.
Indirect Speech / Reported Speech
Indirect speech (sometimes 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 tense 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
. Indirect Speech (also referred to as 'reported speech') refers to a sentence reporting what someone has said. It is almost always used in spoken English.
- If the reporting verb (i.e. said) is in the past, the reported clause will be in a past form. This form is usually one step back into the past from the original.
For example:
- He said the test was difficult.
- She said she watched TV every day.
- Jack said he came to school every day.
- If simple present, present perfect or the future is used in the reporting verb (i.e. says) the tense is retained.
When changing from direct speech to indirect speech, it is often necessary to change the pronouns to match the subject of the sentence.
For example:
- She said, "I want to bring my children." BECOMES She said she wanted to bring her children.
- Jack said, "My wife went with me to the show." BECOMES Jack said his wife had gone with him to the show.
For example:
- She said, "I want to bring my children tomorrow." BECOMES She said she wanted to bring her children the next day.
- Jack said, "My wife went with me to the show yesterday." BECOMES Jack said his wife had gone with him to the show the day before.
When reporting questions, it is especially important to pay attention to sentence order. When reporting yes/ no questions connect the reported question using 'if'. When reporting questions using question words (why, where, when, etc.) use the question word.
For example:
- She asked, "Do you want to come with me?" BECOMES She asked me if I wanted to come with her.
- Dave asked, "Where did you go last weekend?" BECOMES Dave asked me where I had gone the previous weekend.
- He asked, "Why are you studying English?" BECOMES She asked me why I was studying English.
For example:
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Direct speech
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Indirect speech
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"I'm going to
the cinema", he said.
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He said he was going
to the cinema.
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Let’s say you and your friend, Rebecca, are eating dinner at a
restaurant on Saturday night. Rebecca tells you all about her boyfriend
Joshua. She tells you what Joshua told her on Friday. She can say
it in two ways.
The
first way is called “quoted speech.” Quoted speech is EXACTLY what the
person said. Here is an example:
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According
to the above sentence, Joshua said EXACTLY those words.
The
other way of repeating what a person says is called “reported speech.”
Reported speech is NOT EXACTLY what the person said. It is like a summary
or paraphrase of what the speaker said. Take a look at the following
example:
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Here is another example:
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How are quoted speech and reported
speech different? There are 5 things that are different:
- Quoted speech has quotation marks; reported speech does not use quotation marks.
- In reported speech, the pronoun often changes. For example, in the above sentence with quoted speech the pronoun I is used, whereas the sentence with reported speech uses the pronoun he.
- In reported speech, the word that is often used after said, but that is optional.
- Quoted speech is exactly what the person said.
- The verb in reported speech is changed to the past; some modal verbs do not change. There are rules to follow when changing the verb. Please see the chart below.
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