DIRECT SPEECH V.

REPORTED OR INDIRECT SPEECH

When someone says, said or has said something, we can report it either directly or
indirectly. When we report it directly, we call it direct speech; if we transform what
someone said to report it indirectly, we call it indirect or reported speech.

Direct speech:

He said, “ I’ve lost my umbrella”

Comma or colon Inverted commas

Indirect or reported speech:

He said (that) he had lost his umbrella

No comma can only be omitted after tell and say

Introductory verbs: say and tell

Though there are many verbs used to introduce both a direct or a reported speech clause,
most often used ones are say and tell. There are some differences in use between the two of
them:

Say

- Direct:
“I’ve lost my umbrella”, he/ Tom said
, said Tom
, he/Tom said to me

- Indirect:
He said that he had lost his umbrella
(He said to me that he had lost his umbrella)

Tell

- Direct:
“I’ve lost my umbrella”, he told me

- Indirect:
 He told me that he had lost his umbrella
He told me how/about ....

REPORTED SPEECH

We can either tranform statements, questions, commands, requests, or advice into reported
speech:

He announced, “there will be no classes tomorrow”

He announced that there would be no classes next day

He asked, “can we stay a bit longer today?”

He asked if we could stay a bit longer that day

He shouted, “Stop complaining all the time”

He ordered us to stop complaining all the time

He requested, “could you please open the window?”

He kindly requested us to open the window

He said, “you should stop smoking”

He advised me to stop smoking

In all of them, we have to make a few changes:

- Changes in pronouns, adverbs and demostratives (see chart):

He said, “I will stay here”

He said that he would stay there

- Changes in verbal tenses:

- When the introductory verb is in the Present, Present Perfect or Future, there are no
verbal changes in the reported clause:

He says, “I will come”

He says that he will come

- When the introductory verb is in the past:

- there are normally some tense changes in the reported clause (see chart)

He said, “I will come”

He said he would come
 - Past simple and continuous tenses sometimes remain unchanged
- Past perfect simple and continuous remain unchanged
- Shall becomes would
- The modals should, could, would, might and ought to remain unchanged
- Subjunctive after wish, ‘d rather/ sooner, it’s time remain unchanged
- Conditionals 2 and 3 remain unchanged

- Changes in structure:

- Statements: When we report a statement, we normally use a “that clause”, but

depending on the reporting verbs used other sturctures are also possible.

Verb + that Say, complain He complained that we were

Verb + infinitive
Verb + gerund
Verb + that + subjunctive
Verb + how, ...
too many
Agree, refuse, offer, promise He refused to do the work
Accuse of, admit, apologise for He apologised for being late
suggest He suggested that we should
go
Explain, describe, show He explained how to do it

- Questions:

- When we report a question, we use an affirmative structure:

He asked, “Can I come with you?”

He asked if he could come with us

- When we report a yes/no question, we introduce it with if or whether:

We asked whether we should stay or leave

- When we report an information question, we use the question word:

She asked me what the meaning of that word was

- To report a question, we use verbs such as: inquire, wonder, want to know, ... but
only ask can take an indirect object

- Commands, requests and advice:

- These are normally reported with an introductory verb, an object sometimes, and an
infinitive structure.

Advise, ask, beg, command, Infinitive They advised to be quiet

encourage, forbid, implore, Not + infinitive They forbade to step on the
invite, order, recommend, Object + infinitive grass
remind, request, tell, urge, Object + not + infinitive He asked me to go
want, ... He begged me not to leave

- Sometimes a gerund or a subjunctive is used:

He suggested that we should go

This implied our comitting to the plan

- Exclamations:

- Sentences or exclamations such as:

“Uf”, he said
“We have reached the summit!”

can be reported with sentences such as:

He gave an exclamation of relief

He exclaimed that they had arrived.
He said that they had arrived with an exclamation of relief