Reported Speech
Reported Speech
Reported Speech
Introduction
There two ways to convey a message of a person, or the words spoken by
a person to other person.
Direct speech
Indirect speech
Suppose your friend whose name is John tells you in school, I will give
you a pen. You come to home and you want to tell your brother what
your friend told you. There are two ways to tell him.
Direct speech: John said, I will give you a pen.
Indirect Speech: John said that he would give me a pen.
In direct speech the original words of person are narrated (no change
is made) and are enclosed in quotation mark. While in indirect
speech some changes are made in original words of the person
because these words have been uttered in past so the tense will
change accordingly and pronoun may also be changed accordingly.
In indirect speech the statement of the person is not enclosed in
quotation marks, the word that may be used before the statement
to show that it is indirect speech.
Indirect speech is also called reported speech because reported
speech refers to the second part of indirect speech in which
something has been told by a person.
Reporting verb
The verb first part of sentence (i.e. he said, she said, he says, they said,
she says,) before the statement of a person in sentence is called reporting
verb.
Examples:
In all of the following example the reporting verb is said.
o He said, I work in a factory
(Direct speech)
o He said that he worked in a factory.
(Indirect speech)
o They said, we are going to cinema
(Direct speech)
o They said that they were going to cinema.
(Indirect speech)
Reported Speech
The second part of indirect speech in which something has been told by a
person (which is enclosed in quotation marks in direct speech) is called
reported speech. For example, a sentence of indirect speech is, He said
that he worked in a factory. In this sentence the second part he worked
in a factory is called reported speech and that is why the indirect speech
as a whole can also be called reported speech.