GRAMMAR SECTION

NARRATION : REPORTED SPEECH

Reporting the words of a speaker in your own words is called reported speech.

There are two ways of presenting the words of a speaker:

1.) DIRECT SPEECH (exact words of a speaker)

2.) INDIRECT SPEECH (speaker's words in our own ways)

TYPES OF REPORTED SPEECH

REPORTED SPEECH

TYPE 4
TYPE 1 TYPE 2 TYPE 4
Command & Request
Assertive/ Interrogative Exclamatory
 Order
Statement/  Yes-No Type  Command
Declarative  Wh-Type  Request

IMPORTANT BASIC RULES OF CHANGING REPORTED SPEECH:

 Remove inverted codes (“ ”).
 Replace the comma (,) with a linking word like – that/if/whether/question words/to .
 Change the Tense, Pronouns and other specific words of the Reported Speech accordingly.
 All the Reported Speech must be converted into in ‘Statements (Assertive Sentences)’.

CHANGE OF “TENSES” IN THE REPORTED SPEECH:

*If the Reporting Verb is in the Past Tense (said), the tense of Reported Speech will be change in the

following way:

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

 Simple Present: Simple Past:

is/am/are was/were

do/does did

Present Continuous: Past Continuous:

is/am/are + V1ing was/were +V1ing

Present Perfect: Past Perfect:

has/have + V3 had +V3

Present Perfect Continuous: Past Perfect Continuous:

has/ have been + V1ing had +V1ing

Simple Past: Past Perfect:

V2 / was / were /did had been +V3

Past Continuous: Past Perfect Continuous:

was / were + V1ing had been + V1ing

Past Perfect: (No Change)

had + Verb3

Past Perfect Continuous: (No Change)

had been + V1ing

will/shall would/should

may / can/ must might / could /have to

SOME EXCEPTIONS for NO CHANGE in the TENSE of REPORTED

SPEECH:
If the Reporting Verb is in the ‘Present Tense (say/tell/ask)’ Or ‘Future Tense
(will say/tell/ask)’, the tense of Reporting Verb will not change.

 He says, “I am very tired.”

 He says that he is very tired.
 I ask him, “What is your name?”
 I ask him what his name is.
 Ritu will tell her teacher, “My parents will come tomorrow.”
 Ritu will tell her teacher that her parents will come the next day.
In case of Universal Truth / Habitual Action / Fact / Popular saying there is no change
in the Tense of Reported Speech.

 The teacher said to the students, "The Earth is round." (Universal Truth)
  The teacher told the students that the Earth is round.

-> Sachin said to me, “Raghu exercises daily.” (Habitual Action)

-> Sachin told me that Raghu exercises daily.

-: He said to the children, “Honesty is the best policy." (Popular saying)

-: He told the children that honesty is the best policy.

 The teacher said to Richa, "The Red Fort is made up of sand stone.” (Fact)
 The teacher said to Richa that the Red Fort is made up of sand stone.”

CHANGE OF “PRONOUNS” IN THE REPORTED SPEECH:

The Pronouns of Reported Speech are changed according to ‘S O N’ formula, i.e.,

Person Pronouns in Reported Speech Conversion in Indirect Speech

will be according to the
I Person I, me, my, mine, we, us, ours ‘Subject (Speaker)’ of the
Reporting Verb.
II Person You, your ‘Object (Listener)’ of the
Reporting Verb.
III Person He , his, him, She , her, It, its, ‘Not’ change in the pronouns
they , them, theirs

CHANGE OF “SPECIFIC WORDS” IN THE REPORTED SPEECH:

There are some changes in Reported Speech in terms of person, places and time.

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

Now Then
This/These That /Those
Here There
Ago Before
Today That day
Yesterday / Last night /year The previous day /night / year
Tomorrow / next week / year The following day / week / year

Example: He said, “I am reading a book now.”

He said that he was reading a book then.
TYPE 1 : ASSERTIVE SENTENCES/ STATEMENTS:
Steps to be kept in mind for changing Direct Speech into Indirect Speech:

STEP 1: The reporting verb is changed as under,

 We ‘say’ something but we ‘tell’ somebody.

 Says /says to ………….. says
 Said to …………………….. told/asserted/stated/informed
 Said ………………………… said.

STEP 2: Inverted commas (“”) are dropped and ‘that’ conjunction is used.

STEP 3: Change of Pronouns, Tenses and Specific Words will be done accordingly.

Example:

TYPE 2: INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES:

If the Reported Speech is a question, the following changes are made-

STEP 1:

*Says /says to …………..asks/enquires

*Said to ……………………..asked/enquired

STEP 2: To convert Interrogative Reported Speech into Statement (Assertive Sentence), the places of
helping verb and subject will be interchanged.

STEP 4: Do not use that conjunction.

STEP 5: Use full stop (.) in place of question mark (?).

STEP 6: In YES-NO ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS ( start with a helping-verb - is, am, are, do, does, was,
were, did, has, have, will, can....etc.) If / whether conjunction is used in place of that .

Example:
My mother said to me, "Are you happy?"

My mother asked me whether I was happy.

STEP 7: In Wh-TYPE QUESTIONS (who, where, what, when, how, which.......etc.), the same question
word(now will function as a relative pronoun) is used as a linking word.

Example:
The teacher said to me,"What are you writing?"

The teacher asked me what I was writing.

 TYPE 3: IMPERATIVE (COMMAND / REQUEST/ORDER) SENTENCES:
If a Reported Speech is a command /request /order, the imperative mood will be changed into infinitive
along with the following changes -

STEP 1: Replace said to with ordered /commanded/ suggested/advised/warned/ requested

/encouraged /forbid (forbade) etc.

STEP 2: Do not use that conjunction.

STEP 3: To convert the Imperative Reported Speech into Statement, put ‘to’ before the main
verb of Reported Speech .

STEP 4: ‘Do not’ is changed into ‘not to’.

STEP 5: Words like ‘please’ or ‘kindly’ are removed in Indirect Speech.

Example:
* Ben said to Tom,” Please give me a chance.”

*Ben requested Tom to give him a chance.

*The teacher said," Students, do not make noise in the class.”

*The teacher ordered the students not to make noise in the class.

* He said to me, “Don’t tease animal.”

* He advised me not to tease animals.

*She said to her friends, “Let us go for a picnic.”

* She proposed /suggested to her friends that they should go for a picnic.

TYPE 4: Exclamatory Sentences:

If a Reported Speech is an exclamation, the following changes are made-

STEP 1: Reporting Verb said to is change into exclaimed/ wished/ prayed/cried etc. (words like
with joy/with sorrow/with happiness/with regret etc. can also be used.)

STEP 2: Use that conjunction as a linking word.

STEP 3: The Exclamatory Sentence of Reported Speech will be converted into Statement.
Exclamation mark (!) will be replaced by full stop (.) at the end of a sentence.
STEP 4: Words like ‘What’ or ‘How’ will be replaced with 'very / so' in Indirect Speech.

STEP 5: Interjection words like Bravo!, Wow!, Alas!, Hurray! etc. will be removed in Indirect
Speech and their mood and expression will be added to exclaimed with…...

Example: * The captain said, "Bravo! We have won the match."

 The captain exclaimed with joy that they had won the match.

 He said, “Good-bye friend.”

 He bade good-bye to his friend.

 The old man said to him, “May you live long.”

 The old man blessed him to live long.