Direct and indirect speech
A) Rani said, `` Vena is a good girl’’.
B) Rani said that Vena was a good girl.
These two sentences demonstrate the two ways which we may report the words of a speaker. In the first sentence, we give the exact spoken by the speaker. This is called direct speech or narration.
In the second sentence, we do not give the exact words spoken by the speaker but only the substance of what he said. This is called indirect speech or narration.
In the first sentence, the verb said is called the reporting verb, and the words vena is a good girl are called the reported speech.
From sentence 1, we learn that in direct speech:
1) The exact words of the speaker are put within inverted commas( ``’’ )
2) The first word of the reported speech beings with a capital letter.
3) A comma is placed to separate the reporting verb from reported speech.
From sentence 2, we learn that in indirect speech:
1) The reported speech is not placed within inverted commas.
2) No comma is placed after the reporting verb
3) The reported speech is introduced by the conjunction `that’
4) The verb `is’ is changed into `was’
Riles for changing direct speech into indirect speech
Study carefully the rules that are used to change the direct speech into indirect:
A) If the reporting verb is in the present tense or the future tense, the tense of the verb in the reported speech remains unchanged.
Direct: Rani says, ``Tea is ready’.
Indirect: Rani says that tea is ready.
If the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verb in the reported speech also changes into corresponding past tense:
The simple present tense changes into the simple past:
Direct: Anil said ``Ram wants a new pen’’.
Indirect: Anil said that Ram wanted a new pen.
If the reported speech contains some universal, historical or habitual truth, then tense in the reported speech is not changed:
Direct: he said, `` the earth moves round the sun’’.
Indirect speech: he said that the earth moves round the sun.
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