Reported Speech

Direct Speech

Direct speech provides the exact words that someone says, has said or will say in speech or writing.

In print

Direct speech is indicated by being enclosed in what is known as quotation marks:

            

            reporting     reported clause (direct speech)

            clause 

            Sheba said, ‘They are making a lot of noise.’

                                 {Sheba said}

               ‘They are,’ {she said     }, ‘making a lot of noise.’

                                 {said Sheba}  

                                                                   {Sabitha complained.

               ‘They are making a lot of noise,’ {she complained.

                                                                   {complained Sabitha.

Here ‘said’ and ‘complained’ are the reporting verbs.

As you can see, from the examples, the reporting clause may occur before, within or after the direct speech. The subject-verb inversion, as you can see in the second and third example, is most common when the verb is said and the subject is not a pronoun. If the subject is a pronoun, the inversion (said she) is unusual. 

If the reported clause has several sentences, it is usually positioned within in the first sentence.

In fiction, reporting clauses are often omitted when there is no doubt about the identity of the speakers; quotation marks are sometimes omitted, too. These two are regularly omitted in written plays, in formal meetings, and in some types of headlines.

punctuation

Punctuation marks help us see a sentence as direct speech:

        · Quotation marks are informally known as ‘quotes’ or ‘inverted commas’ <esp

               BrE>

           These are used at the beginning and the end of direct speech.

           These marks may be single  ( ‘…’) or double ( “…”).

           The second of these are more usual in manuscripts, typed material and in

             American writing; the first of these are more usual in British printing. But the 

             ultimate choice lies with the printing houses.

         · When there is a quotation within a quotation, if single quotation marks are used

            for the first quotation, then double quotation marks are used for the second or vice

            versa:

                     ‘Have you read the article “Within the Circle”?’ he asked. <esp BrE)

                     “Have you red the article ‘Within the Circle’?” he asked.  <esp AmE)

           · Other marks of punctuation like commas and full stops (period) cooccur with

            quotation marks; AmE always puts a period or a comma inside the closing

            quotation marks while BrE, outside the quotation marks:

                      I enjoyed the article “Within the Circle.”  (AmE)

                          I enjoyed the article ‘Within the Circle’.   (BrE)

                     While I was reading the article “Within the Circle,” my wife was cooking.

                     While I was reading the article ‘Within the Circle’, my wife was cooking.

Note: In some writing, a quotation extending over more than one paragraph will have

          opening quotation marks, single or double as the case may be, at the beginning of each

          new paragraph and the closing marks will occur only at the end of entire quotation.

            Note also the use of commas and period in writing a direct speech:

                  Sunitha said, ‘My father’s on the phone.’    

                  ‘My mother is on the phone,’ said Sunitha.    

                  ‘My mother,’ said Sunitha, ‘is on the phone.’

Indirect speech

What A says to B or what A says to himself/herself is direct speech; A is the reporter and what he/she says is the reporting clause.

When B says to C what A said to him/her it’s indirect speech; B is the reporter and what he/she says is the reporting clause. A’s direct speech can also be put into indirect speech.

          Reporting        Reported clause

            clause             

          He said, ‘I’m learning French.’              ¬ direct speech

          He said (that) he was learning French.  ¬ indirect speech

           She said, ‘I’ll have nothing to do with you* anymore.’         ¬ direct speech

           She said (that) she would have nothing with him* anymore. ¬indirect speech

          I wondered, ‘Should I approach her for help?’ ¬ direct speech

           I wondered if I should approach her for help.   ¬ indirect speech

           ‘Will he do,’ I thought, ‘what I say?’        ¬ direct speech

           I asked myself if he would do what I said. ¬ indirect speech

Note: *The ‘you’ is converted as ‘him’ but it could be converted to ‘her’, ‘them, ‘me’ or ‘us’, depending on

            who ‘you’ refers to in the speaking context.

Changes for conversion

Reporting a direct speech as indirect speech may involve changes in tense, pronoun, time, place, demonstratives. I used ‘may’ because changes depend on the tense of the reporting verb, the person reporting and the person to whom the report is made. 

Tense forms

When the time of direct speech and that of the indirect speech are different, that is, when the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verbs in the quotation are said to be ‘more past’ (because we are not talking at the same time as the speaker was) then there is a need to change the tense forms of verbs (this change is known as backshift, and the resulting changes in verb forms is known as sequence of tenses).    

               direct speech                                              indirect (reported) speech

                   present simple                                            past simple

               ‘I like chocolates.’                                       He said (that) he liked chocolates.             

                   present progressive                                    past progressive

               ‘It’s raining.’                                                 He said (that) it was raining.

                   past  simple                                                past / past perfect 

               ‘He didn’t recognize me.’             She said (that) he didn’t / hadn’t recognized her.

                   present perfect                                            past perfect     

     ‘You haven’t done your homework.’         She told me (that) I hadn’t done my homework.

                   past progressive                                   past progressive or past perfect progressive

                ‘I was reading a book.’                             She said (that) she was reading / had been

                                                                                                   reading a book.   

                   past perfect                                                 past perfect

        ‘I hadn’t seen her before that day.’      She said (that) she hadn’t seen her before that day.

                   shall/will                                                       should/would

                 ‘We’ll be late.’                                           I told them (that) we would be late.

                   can/ may                                                      could/ might

                 ‘I know you can sing.’                            He told her (that) he knew she could sing.’ 

                 ‘he* may arrive late.’                              He said (that) Mr Gopi* might arrive late.

                   would/could/might/                                        would/could/might/ ought/should 

                   ought/should 

                 ‘she could be right.’                                         They said (that) she could be right.

                   must                                                                        must/ had to

                 ‘I must go.’                                         She said (that) she must go. (or she had to go)

                   have to                                                                            had to

                 ‘I have to leave.’                                               They said (that) they had to leave.  

      

             * The ‘he’ in the direct speech has to be distinguished from the reporter who is a also

                in this instance is a ‘he’ , and so ‘he’ is changed to the person being talked about.       

     

Personal pronouns

 When we report a direct speech of one to another, pronoun shift (changes in pronouns) depends on who is reporting to whom and about whom:

                            ‘I was too busy to join you last night.’

                   Bopanna told me (that) he was too busy to join me last night.

                   Bopanna told them (that) he was too busy to join them last night.

                   Bopanna told Sangeetha (that) he was too busy to join her last night.

                   Bopanna told you (that) he was too busy to join you last night.

                   Sherina told Sherif (that) she was too busy to join him last night.

You can see, can’t you, the changes that have occurred in the pronouns? In the last but one sentence, however, there is no change in the ‘you’ pronoun because both of them  refer to the same person.       

                                   

Others

This includes time, place and demonstratives; these change in indirect speech

                          {this         }        {that

                          {these      }        {those

                          {here        }        {there

             from     {now         }  to  {then

                          {ago          }       {before

                          {today       }       {that day

                          {tomorrow}       {the next day

                          {yesterday}       {the previous day/the day before     

     

                   direct                                                                  indirect

‘I saw the strange man here in this room today.’    He saw the strange man there in that room

                                                                                 that day.   

‘I spoke to them yesterday.’                                 He spoke to them the day before. 

‘I will teach the same lesson tomorrow that       He would teach the same lesson the next day

  I taught two days ago.’                                          he had taught two days before.       

‘I’ll do it here and now.’                                        He said he’d do it there and then.          

Changing the content

The content of a direct speech is a statement, a yes-no question, a wh-question, a directive, or an exclamative.

Let’s see each of them in detail:

Changes in a statement from direct to indirect 

    1. ‘The train will arrive on time.’

                               1                     4  

        My husband said the train would arrive on time.   (say=tell somebody something)

                               1      3                    4     

        My husband said that the train would arrive on time.

                               1      2       3                      4

        My husband said to me that the train would arrive on time.

                               1    2                     4

        My husband told me the train would arrive on time.  (tell=give information)

                               1    2     3                     4 

        My husband told me that the train would arrive on time.

               4     4            4     4     4     4    

    2. ‘If you insist that I resign you’ll regret that decision.’

                         1          2             3       4      4            4     4      4

        Sharma warned his lady boss that if she insisted that he resign* she would regret that

        decision. 

          * The verb ‘insist’ is said to be in subjunctive mood (that is, it carries a sense of

            ‘obligation’, and the verb in the clause following the verb doesn’t undergo any

             change. A few other common verbs in the subjunctive are: suggest, request, order,

             recommend, wish. ‘should’ is used in BrE but not in AmE in the ‘that’ clause

             following these verbs. 

          1. is the reporting verb.

          2. is the object to whom the report is made.

          3. ‘that’ connects the reporting verb with the reported clause.

               Its use is optional in informal speech, as you can see in the above examples.

          4. indicates the changes (see 1.19-1.21) that occur when a direct speech is reported.    

Yes-no questions

     1. ‘Is Murugan your brother?’

                  1      2      3                        4              4

         He asked (me) if (whether) Murugan was my brother. (‘Ask’ = pose a question to get

                                                                                                                       information)

                     1        2     3                         4               4

         They asked (you) if (whether) Murugan was your brother.

     2. ‘Divya, is Murugan your brother?’

              1        2              3                    4              4

         I asked Divya* if (whether) Murugan was her brother. 

                            1               2      3               4               4

         I wanted to know from Divya* if Murugan was her brother.

       

     3. ‘Will it rain?’

                1                 3                4

         I wondered if (whether) it would rain.          

   

1.      is the reporting verb: ask is the most usual reporting verb for yes-no questions. The

object may or may not follow it (see the above examples).  ‘wanted to know (from + object)’ can also be used.

            ‘Wonder’ is used when the yes-no question is not posed to anybody in particular (see

             3 above). 

            ‘Say’ or ‘tell + object’ cannot be used to report questions.        

         2. is the object (person) to whom the question is posed.

    

             *Sometimes, it happens, as in the case of sentence 2, that the person to whom the

              question is addressed is part of the direct speech. You need to take out that name and

              use it as object of the reporting verb.

2.      ‘if’ or ‘whether’ is used to connect the reporting verb with questions without ‘wh’

words.

3.      are the changes (see 1.19-1.21) that take place when a direct yes-no question is

reported.

4.      The question becomes a statement in reported speech; this means that in the reported

clause the subject comes first and the verb comes next. 

         6. No question marks should be used in the reported speech.

Wh-questions

    1. ‘What’s your name?’

                  1      2        3     4             4

        She asked (me) what my name was.    (‘Ask’ = pose a question to get information)

              1        2            3     4             4    

        I asked (Shalini) what her name was.

   2. ‘Shankar, Why did you come here?’

                1        2          3     4        4           4

       He asked Shankar why he had come there.

             

    3. ‘Where does she live?’

                              1               3                4

         They wanted to know where she lived. 

    4. ‘Who could’ve stolen the money?’

                    1           3

          I wondered who could have stolen the money.   

           

1.      is the reporting verb: ask is the most usual reporting verb for wh-questions. The object

may or may not follow it (see the above examples).  ‘wanted to know (from + object)’ can also be used.

            ‘Wonder’ is used when the wh-question is not posed to anybody in particular (see 4

             above). 

            ‘Say’ or ‘tell + object’ cannot be used to report questions.        

         2. is the object (person) to whom the question is posed.

             *Sometimes, it happens, as in the case of sentence 2, that the person to whom the

               question is addressed is part of the direct speech. You need to take out that name

               and use it as object of the reporting verb.

         3. Wh-words are used to connect the reporting verb with questions.

         4. are the changes (see 1.19-1.21) that take place when a direct wh-question is reported.

         5. The question becomes a statement in reported speech; this means that in the reported

             clause the subject comes first and the verb comes next. But this does not happen

             when a direct speech has ‘who’ (see 4) for the simple reason the question is about the

             doer (subject).

          6. No question marks should be used in the reported speech.

Directives

A directive can be any of these: order, request, plea, advice, suggestion, instruction, permission, offer, wish, invitation, warning, or prohibition

      1. ‘Play the veena, please.’

                           1               2    3         4

          She asked/requested me to play the veena.  (‘ask’ = make a request)

                            1           3                   4

            She requested that I play/should play the veena.

      2. ‘Give me a ring as soon as my daughter arrives there.’

                 1    2   3                        4

          He told us to give him a ring as soon as his daughter arrived there. (tell=order) advise

              (Note the pronoun and tense changes in 4, which is the reported clause.)

                             1           3

          She suggested (that) we give/should* give her a ring as soon as her daughter

             arrived there.

            With ‘suggest’ and other similar verbs (see 4 and 5 below), the object of the reporting

             verb is placed as part of the reported speech.

    

             * see example 2 in section 1.25.  Remember ‘suggest’ is not followed by a to-

                infinitive:  

                   She suggested to give a ring as soon as her daughter arrived there. (x)

          

      3. ‘Sit down.’

                              1                    2   3      4

           She ordered/ snapped at me to sit down.

      4. ‘Tidy up the room at once.’

              1         2     3          4

          I told my son to tidy up the room.

                1         3                               4

          I insisted that my son tidy/should tidy up the room at once. 

         ‘Insist’ is a more forceful verb than ‘tell’ in expressing a directive.

      5. ‘Don’t open the door.’

                       1         2     4   3          4

          He told/asked me not to open the door.

                       1                      3                  4

          He suggested/insisted that I not/should not open the door.

                          1          2     4  3         4

          He whispered to me not to open the door.

1.is the reporting verb. Ask, request, order, tell, or other verbs appropriate to the kind of

    message given by direct speech can be used; see the examples 2,3,4 above. 

2. is the object to whom the directive is given.

3. ‘(not) to’ links the reporting verb and the directive. That is the link for verbs in the

    subjunctive.

4. Generally speaking, the direct speech is repeated in the indirect speech. Changes in the

    pronouns and the verb in the reported speech may be necessary (see example 2 above.)