Page 13 - E-Modul News Item Text

Activity 3.
Study the explanation of news item language features below.
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: “I am a student.” He says that he is 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 east.” The teacher said (that) the sun rises in 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: “I am typing the letter.” She said (that) she was typing the letter.

4. The changes to be considered when reporting the speech.
1. Pronoun 2. Tenses 3. Adverb of Time/Place/Demonstratives.
Tenses/Modals Adverb of Time/Place/Demonstratives

Direct Speech Indirect Speech Direct Speech Indirect Speech
Am/is was Now Then
Are were Tomorrow The following day
Do/want/know did/wanted/knew Yesterday The day before
did had done Next week The following week
have/has had Tonight/Today That night/That day
Can could Here There
Will would This That
May Might These Those
English For Brighter Future, For Tenth Grade Of SMA Negeri 1 Anjongan By Ajerin Karim, S. Pd
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