The City School
Academic Year 2020-21
Class 7
Term 2
Subject: English
Topic: Grammar:
Worksheet # 7A
Student’s Name: ___________________ Date: ___________
Lesson Objectives:
By the end of the activity sheet the students will be able to:
Identify direct and reported speech
Compare both types of speech
Change direct sentences into reported speech
Watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdt9apUpqg
Definition:
Indirect speech is also known as reported speech, indirect narration, or indirect discourse. In
grammar, when you report someone else’s statement in your own words without any change
in the meaning of the statement, it is called indirect speech.
Examples:
Direct Speech: She says, “I am a little bit nervous.”
Indirect Speech: She says that she is a little bit nervous.
POINTS TO REMEMBER!
Reporting Speech: The first part in the direct speech is called
reporting speech.
Reported Speech: The second part of the sentence, which is closed in inverted commas
or quotation marks, is called reported speech.
Reporting Verb: The verb of the reporting speech is called the reporting verb.
Reported Verb: The verb of the reported speech is called the reported verb.
Basic Rules
1. Changes in Person of Pronouns:
1st Person pronouns in reported speech are always changed according to the subject of
the reporting speech.
2nd Person pronouns in reported speech are always changed
according to the object of the reporting speech.
3rd Person pronouns in reported speech are not changed.
2. Changes in Verbs:
If the reporting speech is in present tense or future tense, then no change is required to
be made in the verb of reported speech. This verb could be in any tense i.e., present,
past, or future. For example:
Direct Speech: She says, “She sang a song.”
Indirect Speech: She says that she sang a song.
If the reporting verb is in past tense, then reported verb will be changed as per the
following criterion:
Present indefinite tense is changed into past indefinite tense. For example:
Direct Speech: They said, “They take exercise every day.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they took exercise every day.
Present continuous is changed into past continuous tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They are taking exercise every day.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they were taking exercise every day.
Present perfect is changed into the past perfect tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They have taken exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had taken exercise.
Present perfect continuous tense is changed into past perfect continuous tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They have been taking exercise since morning.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had been taking exercise since morning.
Past indefinite is changed into past perfect tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They took exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had taken exercise.
Past continuous tense is changed into past perfect continuous tense.
Direct Speech: They said, “They were taking exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had been taking exercise.
No changes are required to be made into past perfect and past perfect continuous
tenses.
Direct Speech: They said, “They had taken exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they had taken exercise.
In Future Tense, while no changes are made except shall and will are changed
into would.
Direct Speech: They said, “They will take exercise.”
Indirect Speech: They said that they would take exercise.
3. Using ‘say’ or ‘tell’
As an alternative to using ‘say’ we can also use ‘tell’ (‘told’ in the past) in reported speech,
but in this case you need to add the object pronoun. For
example:
He told me he was going to call Alan.
They told her they would arrive a little late.
You told us you’d already finished the order.
4. Changing Time Expressions
Sometimes it’s necessary to change the time expressions when you report speech, especially
when you are speaking about the past and the time reference no longer applies. For example:
Direct speech: “I’m seeing my brother tomorrow.”
Indirect speech: She said she was seeing her brother the following day.
Here are some other examples:
Direct speech: “I had a headache yesterday.”
Indirect speech: You said you’d had a headache the day before yesterday.
Direct speech: “It’s been raining since this afternoon.”
Indirect speech: He said it’d been raining since that afternoon.
Direct speech: “I haven’t seen them since last week.”
Indirect speech: She said she hadn’t seen them since the previous week.
5. Reporting Questions
When you report a question you need to change the interrogative form into an affirmative
sentence, putting the verb tense one step back, as with normal reported speech.
There are two types of questions that we can report – questions that have a yes/no response,
and questions that begin with a question word like ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who’ etc. When we
report a yes/no question, we use ‘if’. For example:
Direct speech: “Do they live here?”
Indirect speech: You asked me if they lived here.
As you can see, in the reported version of the question, ‘do’ is eliminated because it is no
longer a question, and the verb ‘live’ becomes ‘lived’.
For questions starting with question words like ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘who’, etc., we
report the question using the question word but change the interrogative form to the
affirmative form. For example:
Direct speech: “Where do they live?”
Indirect speech: You asked me where they lived.
Direct speech: “When are you leaving?”
Indirect speech: He asked us when we were leaving.
Direct speech: “How will they get here?”
Indirect speech: She asked me how they would
get here.
When we report a question we normally use the verb ‘ask’. As with the verb ‘to tell’, the
verb ‘to ask’ is normally followed by an object pronoun, though it is possible to omit it.
6. Reporting Orders and Requests
When you give someone an order, you use the imperative form, which means using just the
verb without a subject. For example:
“Call me back later.”
“Have a seat.”
“Don’t do that!”
To report an order we use ‘tell’ and the infinitive of the verb. For example:
You told me to call you back later.
He told me to have a seat.
She told us not to do that.
When you make a request, you normally use words like ‘can’, ‘could’, or ‘will’. For
example:
“Could you call me back later?”
“Will you have a seat?”
“Can you not do that please?”
To report a request, we use the verb ‘to ask’ and the infinitive form of the verb. For example:
You asked me to call you back later.
He asked me to have a seat.
She asked us not to do that.
Q. Change the following sentences from direct to indirect and vice versa.
1. Taimur said to Marium, "She works in an office."
_____________________________________________________________________
2. Jahangir told me, “I am going to clean the room."
_____________________________________________________________________
3. Sara said to her friend, "They like the song."
______________________________________________________________________
4. Dad complained, "I need new shoes."
______________________________________________________________________
5. Khan said to Jan, "He can speak Persian."
______________________________________________________________________
6. Teacher informed the Vice Principal, "Rania has never been late."
_______________________________________________________________________
7. The passengers complained that the train didn't arrive on time.
_______________________________________________________________________
8. The girl argued that you can’t sit on the chair, it is freshly painted.
______________________________________________________________________
9. Nida said that Zara doesn’t eat meat.
_______________________________________________________________________
10. Hannah says Alisha and Neha will travel to Makkah.
__________________________________________________________________________ .
