Difference between direct and indirect speech. Explain the rules of change of speech

Direct and Indirect Speech

We can narrate something said by someone else in two ways, either we repeat his/ her words or we convey the same meaning in our own words. The former mode of communication is called direct speech and the later is known as indirect speech.

Direct Speech:

He said, “ I am very angry”.

(Indirect Speech)

He said that he was very angry.

In the case of direct speech, every sentence has two parts;

i.        Reporting speech           ii.       Reported Speech

The words given outside the inverted commas form the reporting speech and the words within the inverted commas form the reported speech.

Rules for change of speech.

The conversion from direct to indirect speech is according to the following rules.

Change of verb:

       i.            The verb in the reported speech is changed keeping in view the tense in the reporting speech. If the reporting speech uses present or future tense, the verb in the reported speech remains unchanged.

     ii.            If the verb in the reporting speech is in the Past tense, the verb in the reported speech will also be changed into past tense.

She says “ I am late”.

She says that she is late.

Changes of Reported verbs:

The reported verbs always follow the reporting verb. According to the rule of sequence of tenses the following changes in a reporting verb my take place.

Change of Pronouns:

The pronouns are changed in the following manner.

i.                   The pronouns of the first person (I, me, my, mine, we , our, us etc…) in the reported speech are changed to correspond with the subject of the reporting speech.

ii.                 The pronouns of the second person in the reported speech are changed to correspond with the object or addresses of the reporting speech.

iii.              The pronouns of the third person in the reported speech remains uncharged.

iv.              There is no change in the pronouns of the reporting speech.