If in direct speech the verb must means an obligation or command, then in the subordinate clause in indirect speech must does NOT change and looks like must. We leave some verbs in their original form. We change modal verbs as well as main verbs when moving from direct to indirect speech.īut we do not change all modal verbs. Modal verbsįor modals, we use several important rules. Note: Remember that in this case we also change the adverbs of place and time and demonstrative pronouns, if they are in direct speech. She said to me … changes to She told me that … In this case, tell is used without the preposition to. If in direct speech after the verb to say there is a prepositional object, then in order to translate such a sentence into indirect speech, we change the verb to say to tell. Note: We may not use the conjunction that after verbs such as: We put the conjunction “ that” in front of indirect speech. If in direct speech in the main sentence the predicate is in Past Simple, then in indirect speech we use the agreement rules. If we said “ yesterday“, it would change the meaning of what we want to tell. Mom said that we went to visit Uncle John the day before yesterday. Now imagine that we are retelling this the next day. Mom says, “We went to visit Uncle John yesterday.” Because we retell Mom’s words on another day.
In these examples, we have replaced the adverb tomorrow with the next day. Mom said that the next day we would go to Uncle John’s. Mom says, “ Tomorrow we will go to Uncle John’s.” We change adverbs only if, when translating from direct speech into indirect speech adverbs cannot express the same meaning as in direct speech. You can see how adverbs look in direct speech and how adverbs look in indirect speech in this table:īut we don’t always change adverbs this way. When we translate adverbs from direct speech to indirect, adverbs change their form. Indirect Speech: I said that I would do that. Note: If in direct speech the speaker tells his own words, then we do not change personal and possessive pronouns. Indirect Speech: Tom said that he was deeply disturbed. Indirect Speech: He said that he couldn’t stay.ĭirect Speech: Tom says, “ I am deeply disturbed” When translating direct speech into indirect speech, we change personal and possessive pronouns to third-person pronouns.ĭirect Speech: He says, “ I couldn’t stay” We retell Jessica’s words: She said that she was from the future. When we translate direct speech into indirect speech, we remove quotes and commas. Direct speech (what the speaker says) is in quotation marks. In direct speech, we use a comma to separate the speaker from what he is saying. Let’s take a look at these rules and formulas in order. To translate direct speech into indirect speech, we use certain rules that you should know. I retell: He said that he hated me but he needed my help.
He says: I hate you but I need your help. Therefore, in indirect speech, we change “I” to the third person. We cannot say “I am a good boy” because those are not our words. John will say it on his behalf: I am a good boy.īut when we retell the words of John (indirect speech), we cannot speak on his behalf. John will not talk about himself: John is a good boy. That is, the speaker speaks from his person. In direct speech, the speaker most often speaks in the first person. Comma and quotation marks in indirect speech. Because now it is WE are retelling the meaning of what the other person (John) said. In indirect speech, we do not use the separating comma and quotation marks. The Quotes and the comma that stood after the name John, separating the speaker from his direct speech, disappeared from this sentence. Earlier, when John said this, the sentence looked like this:īut after WE retell John’s words, in the indirect speech, this sentence looks like this: Pay attention to what this sentence looks like. Indirect speech is when we tell the MEANING of what someone else said. We are NOT repeating what someone else said. Indirect speech differs from direct speech in that we DO NOT tell exactly what another person said. Indirect Speech = Reported Speech indirect speech and reported speech mean the same.ĭirect speech in English is a type of speech when we retell someone’s speech as it was. Note: Indirect speech in different textbooks can be called differently: Indirect Speech or Reported Speech. Two ways you can say what someone else has said before. In English, there are two ways how we can tell what another person said.
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