Bravehearts
Direct and indirect speech
Learn the difference between direct and indirect speech.
Two ways to report what someone said:
- direct speech: their exact words, in quotation marks
- indirect (reported) speech: retold in your own sentence
From the comic: Rani Abbakka said, "I will make them pay for this." Reported: Rani said that she would make them pay for that.
Three things change: time, person and place.
1. Time (tense): verbs step back once, because you're reporting later:
| Direct | Reported |
|---|---|
| present (I enjoy) | past (she enjoyed) |
| past (we won) | past perfect (they had won) |
| present perfect (have made) | past perfect (had made) |
| present continuous (is going) | past continuous (was going) |
| will / can / may | would / could / might |
Already past perfect? It can't go back further, so it stays.
2. Person (pronouns): change to fit the reporter: I → he/she; we → they; my → his/her; our → their; me → him/her; us → them; mine → his/hers.
3. Place and time words:
| Direct | Reported |
|---|---|
| now | then |
| ago | before |
| today | that day |
| tomorrow | the following day |
| yesterday | the previous day |
| next week | the following week |
| here | there |
| this / these | that / those |
The reporting verb can show what kind of speech it was: "The teacher said, 'Please turn off the lights'" → "The teacher requested us to turn off the lights." (Others: advised, instructed, remarked, told.)
More examples:
- "I enjoy reading historical novels," said Smitha. → Smitha shared that she enjoyed reading historical novels.
- The captain said to the coach, "Our team won the championship last year." → The captain told the coach that their team had won the championship the previous year.
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