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For Example:: She Said, "Today's Lesson Is On Presentations." "Today's Lesson Is On Presentations", She Said

The document discusses direct and indirect speech. Direct speech uses quotation marks to report what someone said word for word. Indirect speech does not use quotation marks and the tense usually changes. When changing from direct to indirect speech, the tense moves back by one (e.g. from present to past). Pronouns and other context references like time and place expressions may also need to change to fit the context. Verbs like "said", "told", and "asked" are commonly used in indirect speech.

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78 views

For Example:: She Said, "Today's Lesson Is On Presentations." "Today's Lesson Is On Presentations", She Said

The document discusses direct and indirect speech. Direct speech uses quotation marks to report what someone said word for word. Indirect speech does not use quotation marks and the tense usually changes. When changing from direct to indirect speech, the tense moves back by one (e.g. from present to past). Pronouns and other context references like time and place expressions may also need to change to fit the context. Verbs like "said", "told", and "asked" are commonly used in indirect speech.

Uploaded by

Wallace Santos
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech) Here what

a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

For example:

She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."


or

"Today's lesson is on presentations", she said.

For example: "I'm going to the cinema", he said.He said he was going to the cinema.

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word. When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right):
Direct speech Indirect speech
Past simple She said it was cold. Past continuous She said she was teaching English online.
Past perfect simple She said she had been on the web since 1999.

Present simple She said, "It's cold." Present continuous She said, "I'm teaching English online."
Present perfect simple She said, "I've been on the web since 1999."

Direct speech
Present perfect continuous She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years." Past simple She said, "I taught online yesterday." Past continuous She said, "I was teaching earlier." Past perfect She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived." Past perfect continuous She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes."

Indirect speech
Past perfect continuous She said she had been teaching English for seven years. Past perfect She said she had taught online yesterday Past perfect continuous She said she had been teaching earlier. Past perfect NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived. Past perfect continuous NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five minutes.

Direct speech
will She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow."

Indirect speech
would She said she would teach English online tomorrow.

can She said, "I can teach English online."


must She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online." shall She said, "What shall we learn today?" may She said, "May I open a new browser?"

could She said she could teach English online.


had to She said she had to have a computer to teach English online. should She asked what we should learn today. might She asked if she might open a new browser.

Direct speech

Indirect speech

"I might go to the cinema", he said. He said he might go to the cinema. You can use the present tense in reported speech if you want to say that something is still true i.e. my name has always been and will always be Lynne so:
Direct speech Indirect speech

"My name is Lynne", she said.

She said her name was Lynne. or She said her name is Lynne.

Direct speech (exact quote)

Indirect speech (not exact)

"Next week's lesson is on reported speech", she said.

She said next week's lesson will be on reported speech.

Time change If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting. For example: we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of reporting. Now + 24 hours - Indirect speech

"Today's lesson is on presentations." She said yesterday's lesson was on presentations. or She said yesterday's lesson would be on presentations.

this (evening) today


these (days) now (a week) ago last weekend here

that (evening) yesterday ...


those (days) then (a week) before the weekend before last / the previous weekend there the following (week) the next/following day

next (week)
tomorrow

At work

At home She asked me how long I'd worked there.

"How long have you worked here?"

Pronoun change
In reported speech, the pronoun often changes.

For example:
Me

You
Direct Speech She said, "I teach English online." "I teach English online", she said.

"I teach English online."

She said she teaches English online. She said she taught English online.

Reported Speech

Said, told and asked are the most common


verbs used in indirect speech. We use asked to report questions:

I asked Lynne what time the lesson started.

We use told with an object.

Lynne told me she felt tired.

!Note - Here me is the object.

Lynne said she was going to teach online.

We usually use said without an object. If said is used with an object we must include to ;

Lynne said to me that she'd never been to China. !Note - We usually use told. Lynne told me (that) she'd never been to China.

There are many other verbs we can use apart from said, told and asked.

accused, admitted, advised, alleged, agreed, apologised, begged, boasted, complained, denied, explained, implied, invited, offered, ordered, promised, replied, suggested and thought. Using them properly can make what you say much more interesting and informative.

He invited me to the party. He begged me to come to the party. He ordered me to come to the party. He advised me to come to the party. He suggested I should come to the party.

He told me that he lived in Greenwich.

In reported speech, the word that is often used.

He told me he lived in Greenwich.

However, that is optional.

!Note - That is never used in questions,


instead we often use if.

He asked me if I would come to the party.

I'm British, so I only tend to place the comma inside quotation marks when it's part of the sentence being quoted. "I didn't notice that the comma was inside the quotation marks," Lynne said, "but Hekner did." That said, I read so much American literature, that even I tuck them away sometimes. Really, no one has set in stone what the rules of the English language are. It's a diverse language, and the rules that exist have arisen through usage, and they can change in exactly the same way, so maybe it doesn't matter, but it's best to be consistent. (Thanks Hekner.)

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