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Unit 3: Functional English Grammar: Direct and Indirect Speech (Reported Speech)

EXAMPLES Notes
Direct Indirect
1. I said to her, “I shall see you here I told her that I should see her there the
tomorrow.” next day.
2. She said to him, “I bought these books She told him that she had bought those books
yesterday.” the previous day.
3. You said to them, “Now I shall tell you You told them that then you would tell them
another story.” another story.
4. He said to me, “I saw your brother two He told me that he had seen my brother
years ago.” two years before.
5. I said to you, “I intend to start business I told you that I intended to start business
next year.” the following year.
Words showing nearness in Direct Speech do not undergo any change when they refer to the objects
present at the time of reporting, or to the place or time at which the speech is reported ; as—
1. Direct : She says, “I shall settle accounts just now.”
Indirect : She says that she will settle accounts just now.
2. Direct : He said, “This is the house where my father lives.”
Indirect : He said that this was (is) the house where his father lived.
(the house where he was standing)
Mark the Sense in the following sentence

Direct : I said to her yesterday, “I shall wait for you here tomorrow.”
Indirect : I told her yesterday that I should wait for her here today.”
Note. Words showing remoteness do not change into words showing nearness.
Self-Assessment
2. Change the following sentences into Indirect Form of Speech:
(i) He said, “I am feeling out of sorts to-day.”
(ii) I said to him, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”
(iii) You said to me, “I shall not appear in the examination this year.”
(iv) They said, “We shall not play the match tomorrow.”
(v) He said, “This is the play that these people want to stage here to-night.”
3.3.5 Conversion of Assertive Sentences

(A)
(From Direct Speech into Indirect Speech)
Rules
1. The Reporting Verb generally changes into tell. But in order to give clarity of meaning ‘answer,
reply, inform, remark’ etc. may also be used instead of say and tell.
2. If the Reporting Verb has no object, it does not change.
3. The Conjunction ‘that’ introduces the Reported Speech.
4. All Nouns in the Vocative case in the Reported Speech become objects of the Reporting Verb.
5. The Inverted Commas and the Comma after the reporting Verb are removed.

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