DIRECT & INDIRECT SPEECHES
Direct Speech
When we want to describe what someone said, one option is to
use direct speech. We use direct speech when we simply repeat what
someone says, putting the phrase between speech marks:
• Paul came in and said, “I’m really hungry.”
It is very common to see direct speech used in books or in a
newspaper article. For example:
• The local MP said, “We plan to make this city a safer place for
everyone.”
As you can see, with direct speech it is common to use the verb ‘to
say’ (‘said’ in the past). But you can also find other verbs used to
indicate direct speech such as ‘ask’, ‘reply’, and ‘shout’. For example:
• When Mrs Diaz opened the door, I asked, “Have you seen Lee?”
• She replied, “No, I haven’t seen him since lunchtime.”
• The boss was angry and shouted, “Why isn’t he here? He hasn’t
finished that report yet!”
Indirect Speech
When we want to report what someone said without speech marks
and without necessarily using exactly the same words, we can use
indirect speech (also called reported speech). For example:
• Direct speech: “We’re quite cold in here.”
• Indirect speech: They say (that) they’re cold.
When we report what someone says in the present simple, as in the
above sentence, we normally don’t change the tense, we simply
change the subject. However, when we report things in the past, we
usually change the tense by moving it one step back. For example, in
the following sentence the present simple becomes the past simple in
indirect speech:
• Direct speech: “I have a new car.”
• Indirect speech: He said he had a new car.
All the other tenses follow a similar change in indirect speech. Here is
an example for all the main tenses:
The same rule of moving the tenses one step back also applies to
modal verbs. For example:
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.
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.
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.
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.
