Direct and Indirect Speech
ICSE Class 6 · English · Chapter 9
What this chapter covers
- Direct and reported speech
- Changes in pronouns
- Changes in tense
- Changes in time and place words
- Reporting statements
- Reporting questions and commands
Key definitions
Direct speech is the exact words of a speaker, written inside inverted commas.
Indirect speech is a way of reporting what someone said in our own words, without inverted commas.
Reported speech is another name for indirect speech.
A reporting verb is the verb that tells us that someone spoke, such as said, told, asked or ordered.
The reported words are the words that were actually spoken, the part that is passed on.
A backshift is the change of a verb one step further into the past when words are reported after a past reporting verb.
A statement is a sentence that gives information or tells a fact, and it ends with a full stop.
A question is a sentence that asks for information and ends with a question mark.
A command is a sentence that tells someone to do something.
A request is a polite way of asking someone to do something.
Key points
- Direct speech gives a speaker's exact words inside inverted commas.
- Indirect, or reported, speech gives the meaning in your own words, without inverted commas.
- Pronouns change: first person matches the speaker, second person matches the listener, third person usually stays.
- After a past reporting verb, the tense moves one step back: is to was, will to would, can to could.
- The tense does not change after a present reporting verb, or for a fact that is always true.
- Time and place words change: now to then, today to that day, tomorrow to the next day, here to there.
- Statements use said that or told + listener + that.
- Yes-or-no questions use asked if or asked whether; question-word questions keep the question word.
- Reported questions take statement word order and end with a full stop.
- Commands use told, ordered or requested with to + verb; negative commands use not to.