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A. Introducing Direct and Indirect Speech
1. What is Direct Speech?
Consider the following sentence: Rama said: “A fine lesson will be taught to the
wicked Ravana.”
The given sentence is in direct speech.

Here the exact words of the speaker have been put within quotation marks.
There is a colon after 'said'.
The first word inside the quotation marks starts with a capital letter.
2. What is an indirect speech then?
Let's consider the indirect speech of the sentence under consideration, Rama said
(that) a fine lesson would be taught to the wicked Ravana.
In Indirect speech:
• The quotation marks as well as the colon after said are removed.
• The conjunction “that” introduces to us the words (not exact) spoken by the
speaker. However the latest trend is to drop 'that'

B. Rules for Changing Direct into Indirect Speech.
1. If in direct speech you find say/says or will say then DO NOT CHANGE THE TENSE
that you can find within the quotation marks.
Examples :

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

He says that he is a student.
He says: “I am a student.”
I will say: “I will love her very much.” I will say (that) I will love her very
much.”

2. If in direct speech the words within the quotation marks talk of a universal truth or
habitual action then RULE ONE is followed or in other words the tense inside the
quotation marks is not changed at all.
Examples :

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

The teacher said: “the sun rises in The teacher said (that) the sun rises in
the east.” the east.

3. If there is 'said' in the direct speech, then the tense of the words inside quotation
marks is changed to the past tense.
Examples :

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

She said (that) she was typing the
She said: “I am typing the letter.”
letter.

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English For Brighter Future, For Tenth Grade Of SMA Negeri 1 Anjongan By Ajerin Karim, S. Pd