Direct and indirect

speech
direct speech reports someone’s ording
w

indirect speech reports n i n g

someone’s m ea
 forms of speech
quotations
quotations
quotations usually
usually involve
involve two
two clauses
clauses

clause 1 clause 2

whose saying the saying

(=reporting clause)

e John said I’m going direct

g home
John said that he was going indirect
home
except free direct speech
except
(1 clause)
 direct speech:
reporting someone’s
wording
The two clauses – who said + what they said –
can occur in any order, i.e.
‘What’s going on?’ Ali
demanded.
what was who said
said
Ali demanded, ‘What’s going
on?’

who said and… what was

said
Subject and verb order in the reporting
clause can be reversed IF the reporting
clause comes last

‘What’s going on?’ Ali

demanded. S V

‘What’s going on?’ demanded Ali .

V S
 punctuation
punctuation in
in direct
direct speech
speech
‘I am going home,’ said John, ‘Are you coming?’

pu n
ctua
mar tion
co ks a
mm re
be plac
or fore a insid ed
th e
e q afte qu o the
tatio
u r
wo o t mar n
rd ed ks
s;
 words within words

aa quote
quote within
within aa quote
quote isis enclosed
enclosed inin
quotation
quotation marks
marks that
that are
are not
not the
the same
same
as
as those
those already
already inin use
use

e.g. “What did Ma say?” asked Mei.

“Ma said ‘Come home’,” Ali
replied.
 indirect speech:
reporting someone’s
meaning
John said (that) he was going home.

warning

The two clauses

– who said + what they said –
cannot occur in any order;
the reporting clause (i.e. the one that
identifies who said) must come first.
 grammatical features of
indirect speech
When we say something we identify
persons, things, places and times with
reference to the speech situation.
e.g. Sue said, “I stayed here last year”

I stayed here
last year
Sue Ai Lee
When we report the meaning of the
saying through indirect speech, we
must transform all references to the
speech situation - time, place and
persons.
e.g. Sue said she had stayed there the year
before
transforming references to
persons

people refer to themselves using the

personal pronoun (I/me). This 1st
person pronoun has to be
transformed into a 3rd person
pronoun (he/she)
 pronouns (personal and demonstrative)
in indirect speech

e.g. John said,

“I am
coming.”
John said he was
coming
“I know this trick
of yours,”
said Alice

Alice said she knew that trick of his.

 time and place in indirect
speech
direct indirect

tomorrow becomes the following day

yesterday the day before
(the previous day)
today/tonight that day/night
here there
 time and place in indirect
speech

e.g.
John said,
“I can walk here
tonight.”

John said he could walk there that night.

 tense/modality in indirect
speech
direct indirect

present tense becomes past tense

present past continuous
continuous
present past perfect
perfect
can could
shall/will should/would
may/might might
 tense / modality in indirect
speech
John said, “I
am John said he was coming
coming.”

John said, “We

left yesterday.” John said they had
left the day before.

John said, “We

must go John said they had to
tomorrow.” go the next day.
 reported questions in
indirect speech
in
in most
most question
question forms
forms the
the order
order of
of
Subject
Subject and
and auxiliary
auxiliary verb
verb is:
is: auxiliary
auxiliary
followed
followed by
by Subject,
Subject, e.g.
e.g.
“When will he be coming?” she asked
Aux S

When aa question
When question isis reported
reported indirectly
indirectly then
then
the order
the order is
is Subject
Subject followed
followed by
by auxiliary,
auxiliary, e.g.
e.g.

She asked when he would be

coming S Aux
 reported commands
“Help yourselves,” he said

Help yourselves He told (invited) them

to help themselves

He told (invited) us to
help ourselves
 free direct speech ech
pe
‘Coming out tonight?’ cts
i re ing id)
e d rt s a
‘No, I’ve got to work.’ re rep whoo
f
in he e ( rs
t us ea
cla app
dis
a literary device

free indirect speech

She wouldn’t go out
tonight, she thought.
She had work to do.
 free indirect speech has
features of both direct
& indirect speech

She wouldn’t go out tonight,

she thought. She had work to
do.
r ti n g
r e p o o me s
th e n c a i n
se ca ote; c o nt to
cl a u e q u u o t e ce s
t h e q er e n
after th
i x ed r e f
a n d
m p l a ce
,
time ns.
e r s o
p
 Active and passive
1.The boy chased the girl. 2. The girl was chased by the boy.

the do-er of the action – the chaser – is the boy

in clause 1 the –er role is expressed by

a noun phrase – The boy

in clause 2 the –er role is expressed

by a prepositional phrase – by the
boy

clause 1 is in the active;

clause 2 is in the
 why use the
passive?
to speak impersonally, without assigning someone
or something the responsibility for the event.

e.g. The girl was chased.

The window was smashed.

This makes our message seem detached

and objective
Making the active sentence
passive
active
subject verb object
The boy saw the girl (didn’t
he?)

The girl was seen by the boy (wasn’t

she?)
subject verb object

passive
 warning

not all verbs can be expressed as

either active or passive. Some verbs
can only be expressed as active, i.e.
most intransitive verbs, e.g.

The ship sailed at

midnight
 common errors

• inverting subject and auxiliary

in reported questions, e.g.

When will they be

coming?

She asked when would they be

coming.
She asked when they would be
coming.
• Dad, today the teacher asked me
if I had any brothers or sisters.
• That’s nice of her to take an
interest in you. What did she say
when you told her you are an
only child?
• She said, “Thank goodness.”
 At a restaurant
• Waiter, what are these coins doing
in my soup?

• Well, sir, you said you would stop

coming to this restaurant unless
there was some change in the
meals.
• What kind of ants can be found in houses?
• OccupANTS
• A teacher asked his class to
write an essay about a football
match. A minute later all the
students were writing except
for one child.
• The teacher looked at her
paper.
• It said, “The game was
cancelled because of rain.”
• Why are you putting a bandage on
your pay cheque?
• Because my salary has just been cut.
 Task a)
Lin said she did not know why she had
been so honoured, although she said
that she had been wearing all her
badges from when she was in the air
force. She described how, when they
had got on the plane, the crew had
taken her on first, carrying her on with a
lift. She recalled that when she first
boarded, she and the pilot had been the
only people sitting in the plane.
 Changing from direct to
indirect speech
• make incomplete/unpunctuated sentences
into complete/punctuated sentences.
• Omit filler words such as really and er.
• Use a range of verbs to precede or follow.
what was spoken, e.g. described, recalled.
• Change from first person to third person.
• Change from present to past, past to past
perfect
 text in direct speech vs
text in indirect speech
• Direct: • Indirect:
• informal • formal
• immediate • removed
• creates sense of • less sense of
character character
• sometimes • easier to follow
difficult to follow
 Task b)
1. No one wants to take the blame for losing the
file
2. The play is considered an object in its own
right, distinct from its author
3. There is no single subject for this statement
4. He was not injured deliberately, or by an
animate agent, so there is no clear subject
5. Someone must have broken the window, but
the structure suggests that no one wants to
take responsibility for it, or the agent is not
known
6. Who conducted the research is not
considered relevant.
7. The passive is used to sound factual.
8. This is reporting a scientific fact, with
no need to know who did the heating.
 changing from
passive to active
Regrettably,
Regrettably
(I regret that)
, your file
I lost your file.
has been
lost.
you will be paid I will pay you
$5000 so that it $5000 so that
can be you can replace
replaced. it.

Macbeth Shakespeare
was written wrote
in 1606. Macbeth in
1606.
“The pilot must have seen the badges on my
jacket,” said Lin.

Lin surmised/speculated that the pilot had

seen the badges on her jacket.

Lin claimed that the pilot had almost certainly

seen the badges on her jacket.
certainty (opinion)
must;
surmise; speculate
“I’m in a wheelchair so I must be lifted into
the plane,” explained Lin.

Lin explained that, because she was in a

wheelchair, she had to be lifted into the
plane.
Lin explained that, because she was in a wheelchair,
she must be lifted into the plane
0bligation;
must;
have to
 “I’m in a wheelchair so I must be lifted into
the plane,” explained Lin.
Lin explained that, because she is in a wheelchair,
she must be lifted into the plane.
0bligation;
must;
have to

Lin explained that, because she is in a wheelchair,

she has to be lifted into the plane.