REPORTED SPEECH

There are five kinds of sentences:

[a]Assertive Sentence - A simple statement with or without ‘not’
[b]Interrogative Sentence – Asking Questions
[c]Imperative Sentence – Order, Request, Advice
[d]Exclamatory Sentence – Expresses joy, sorrow, Surprise etc
[e]Optative Sentence – Expresses good wishes, blessings, prayer,
curse etc
GENERAL RULES:
[a]Remove the inverted commas from the reported speech and add
connector ‘that’, ‘if’ or ‘whether’ as per the sentence after the
reporting verb.

[b]If the reporting verb is in the present or future tense, the tense of
the reported speech does not change.

[c]The tense of the universal truth, historical truth, habitual action,

scientific fact and any proverb do not undergo any change.

CHANGE IN THE REPORTING VERB:

DIRECT SPEECH INDIRECT SPEECH
1. Say, Says No change
2. Say to, Says to Tell, Tells
3. Said No change
4. Said to Told

CHANGE IN THE TENSES:

DIRECT SPEECH {changes to} INDIRECT SPEECH
1. Present Indefinite Past Indefinite
2. Present Continuous Past Continuous
3. Present Perfect Past Perfect
4. Present Perfect Cont. Past Perfect Cont.
5. Past Indefinite Past Perfect
 6. Past Continuous Past Perfect Cont.
7. Past Perfect No change
8. Past Perfect Cont. No change
9. Future Tense Only the helping verbs are
changed

CHANGE IN THE HELPING VERBS:

DIRECT SPEECH INDIRECT SPEECH

1. Is, am was
2. Are were
3. Do not, does not did not
4. Was, were had been
5. Has, have had
6. Did, did not had, had not
7. Shall should/would
8. Will would
9. Can could
10. May might

CHANGE IN THE WORDS SHOWING NEARNESS:

DIRECT SPEECH INDIRECT SPEECH

1. This that
2. These those
3. Here there
4. Come go
5. Thus so
6. Ago before
7. Just, now then
8. Today that day
9. Tonight that night
10. Tomorrow the following/next day
11. Tomorrow night the following/next night
 12. Yesterday the previous day
13. Yester-night the previous night

CHANGE IN PRONOUNS:

1. The first person pronoun {I, We} changes according to the

subject.
2. The second person pronoun {You, Your} changes according to
the object.
3. The third person pronoun {He, she, it, they} do not undergo any
change.
For example:
▪ Direct speech: He said, “I don’t want to shock people”
▪ Reported speech: He said that he didn’t want to shock people.
▪ Direct speech: They said, “we‘ll look after Liam.”
▪ Reported speech: They said that they would look after Liam.
▪ Direct speech: I said, “I do my homework.”
▪ Reported speech: I said that I did my homework.
▪ Direct speech: We said, “We buy our clothes.”
▪ Reported speech: We said that we bought our clothes.
▪ Direct speech: He said to her, “you are hardworking.”
▪ Reported speech: He told her that she was hardworking.
▪ Direct speech: He said to me, “you are a generous person”
▪ Reported speech: He told me that I was a generous person.
▪ Direct speech: They said, “She does not have the necessary
qualifications.”
▪ Reported speech: They said that she did not have the necessary
qualifications.
▪ Direct speech: She said, “It is raining.“
▪ Reported speech: She said that it was raining.

RULES TO CHANGE THE INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES:

 1. The reporting verb is changed to ‘asked’ or ‘enquired’.
2. If the reported speech begins with ‘WH’ family i.e. any
interrogative word then no connector follows the reporting verb.
3. If the reported speech begins with any helping verb the connector
‘if’ or ‘whether’ follows the reporting verb.
4. The sentence is always changed into simple statement and the
question mark is removed.
Examples:
1 He said to me, “What are you doing?”
He asked me what I was doing.
2 He said to them, “Will you listen to such a man?”
He asked them if they would listen to such a man.
3 The angry mother said, “Do you think you know better than your
father?”
The angry mother asked if he thought he knew better than his
father.
4 He asked, “Are you coming home with me?”
He asked if I was going home with him.
RULES TO CHANGE THE IMPERATIVE SENTENCES:

1. The reporting verb is changed according to the emotion of the

sentence as ordered, advised or requested.
2. ‘To’ is placed before the verb of the reported speech.
3. If ‘Let’ in the reported speech is used for proposal or suggestion
then ‘Let’ is removed, connector ‘that’ follows the reporting verb and
‘should’ is used before the verb of the reported speech.
Examples:
1 The judge said, “Call the first witness.”
The judge ordered to call the first witness.
2 He said to me, “Please wait here till I return.”
He requested me to wait there till he returned.
3 He shouted, “Let me go.”
He shouted to let him go.
4 He said to me, “Let us go for a walk.”
 He suggested me that we should go for a walk.

RULES TO CHANGE THE EXCLAMATORY AND OPTATIVE

SENTENCES:
1. The reporting verb is changed according to the emotion of the
sentence as exclaimed with joy, surprise, and sorrow, wished, blessed,
prayed, cursed etc.
2. The connector ‘that’ follows the reporting verb.
3. The exclamatory words like alas, bravo, oh, ah etc. and the
exclamation mark are removed.
4. The sentence is changed into a simple statement.
Examples:
1 He said, “Alas! I am undone.”
He exclaimed with sorrow that he was undone.
2 Alice said, “How clever I am!”
Alice exclaimed that she was very clever.
3 Alice said, What a beautiful dress it is!
Alice exclaimed with joy that it is a beautiful dress.
4He said, “Bravo! You have done well.”
He applauded that he had done well.
5 She said to me, “May you prosper a lot in life.”
She wished me that I might prosper a lot in life.

Complete the sentences in reported speech. Note whether the sentence is a

request, a statement or a question.
1. He said, "I like this song."
→ He said that he lik
2. "Where is your sister?" she asked me.
→ She asked me w here m
3. "I don't speak Italian," she said.
→ She said that she
4. "Say hello to Jim," they said.
→ They asked me
5. "The film began at seven o'clock," he said.
→ He said that the f
6. "Don't play on the grass, boys," she said.
→ She told the boys
7. "Where have you spent your money?" she asked him.
→ She asked him
8. "I never make mistakes," he said.
→ He said
9. "Does she know Robert?" he wanted to know.
→ He wanted to know
10. "Don't try this at home," the stuntman told the audience.
→ The stuntman advised the audience
Complete the sentences in reported speech.

1. John said, "I love this town."

John said
2. "Do you like soccer ?" He asked me.
He asked me
3. "I can't drive a lorry," he said.
He said
4. "Be nice to your brother," he said.
He asked me
5. "Don't be nasty," he said.
He urged me
6. "Don't waste your money" she said.
She told the boys
7. "What have you decided to do?" she asked him.
She asked him
8. "I always wake up early," he said.
He said
9. "You should revise your lessons," he said.
He advised the students
10. "Where were you yesterday?" he asked me.
He wanted to know……………………………..