Direct and Indirect Speech
ICSE Class 8 · English · Chapter 5
What this chapter covers
- Two ways to tell what someone said
- Rules of reported speech
- Reporting statements
- Reporting questions
- Reporting commands and requests
- Reporting exclamations and wishes
- Reporting mixed sentences
- Reported to direct speech
- Common mistakes to avoid
Key points
- Direct speech gives the speaker's exact words inside quotation marks; indirect speech reports their meaning in your own sentence.
- When the reporting verb is in the past, tenses move one step back: present to past, past to past perfect, will to would, can to could.
- Tenses do not change when the reporting verb is in the present or future, or when the words state a universal truth.
- First person pronouns follow the speaker, second person pronouns follow the listener, and third person pronouns usually stay the same.
- Words of nearness change to words of distance: now to then, today to that day, here to there, this to that.
- Statements use said or told with that; told always needs a listener.
- Questions use asked; yes or no questions take if or whether, and wh-questions keep the question word; word order returns to subject before verb and the question mark goes.
- Commands and requests use ordered, advised, requested or begged with a to-infinitive; negatives take not to.
- Exclamations use exclaimed with the feeling, and interjections are dropped; wishes and greetings use wished, blessed, thanked or bade.
- In a mixed sentence each part gets its own reporting verb, joined by and, but or and added that.
- To turn indirect speech back into direct speech, reverse each change and restore the correct punctuation.
Questions answered
Change into indirect speech: Aditi said, "I have finished my homework."
Aditi said that she had finished her homework.
Change into indirect speech: Mr Kapoor said to the peon, "Bring me a glass of water."
Mr Kapoor ordered the peon to bring him a glass of water.
Change into indirect speech: The stranger said to me, "Where is the post office?"
The stranger asked me where the post office was.
Change into indirect speech: Sonal said to her friend, "Are you coming to the party tomorrow?"
Sonal asked her friend if she was coming to the party the next day.
Change into indirect speech: The teacher said, "The earth moves round the sun." Why does the tense not change?
The teacher said that the earth moves round the sun. The tense does not change because the sentence states a universal truth.
Change into indirect speech: Mother said to Raju, "Don't touch the hot iron."
Mother warned Raju not to touch the hot iron.
Change into indirect speech: "What a lovely garden this is!" said the visitor.
The visitor exclaimed that that was a very lovely garden.
Change into indirect speech: Karan said to me, "I am hungry. Can we eat now?"
Karan told me that he was hungry and asked if we could eat then.