Basic English Grammar

Direct And Indirect Speech With Exercises And Examples

Direct And Indirect Speech
Written by Muhammad maaz

Direct And Indirect Speech Examples

Here in this lesson, you are going to learn Direct And Indirect Speech With Exercises And Examples. This lesson is helpful for your English grammar. So you will learn what is direct and indirect speech with many examples. Direct and indirect and is very important for English grammar. If you want to speak English you must need to improve your English grammar. So this lesson will help you to improve your English grammar. If you want to learn direct and indirect speech with examples, you are on the right page. Just scroll down and start to learn this lesson with us.

Definition Of Direct And Indirect Speech

Here in this section, you will learn the definitions of Direct And Indirect Speech with examples

Direct Speech:

Definition:

Here are two ways of making a report, if it consists of the actual words of the speaker, it is in the DIRECT SPEECH but if does not consist of the actual words of the speaker, and only conveys the full sense of what he said, it is in the INDIRECT SPEECH.

 Examples:

1. The doctor said to me, “I am too busy to test your eyes just now.”(Direct Speech)

2. The doctor said to me that he was too busy to test my eyes just then. (Indirect Speech).

For More Interesting English Grammar Lessons Click On  The Below Link:

 Basic English Grammar Lessons

The Reporting & the Reported Speech Rules

Here in this section, you are going to learn about Reporting and Reported Speech with Rules and examples 

The first sentence given above consists of two parts:(1) the part enclosed within inverted commas, and (2) the part not closed within inverted commas. The former is called the Reported speech and the latter is called Reporting speech.

Rules:

1. The comma between the “Reporting Speech” and the “Reported Speech”, as well as the “ inverted commas” has completely disappeared.

2. The Pronouns “I” and “you’re” in the Reported Speech have been changed into “he” and “my”.

3. The verb “am” in the Reported Speech has been changed into “was”.

4. The Adverb “now” in the Reported Speech has been changed into “then”.

Direct And Indirect Speech

Change In The Persons Of Pronouns 

Here you will learn about the change in the persons of Pronouns.

The person of a Pronoun in the Reported Speech is changed as illustrated above when a sentence is changed from Direct to Indirect Speech. The way in which these changes take place may well be grasped. By comparing the sentences given below:

Direct Speech With Examples In Pronouns;

  •  She says to me, “ I love my son.”
  • They say to us, “We like our house.”
  •  You say to them, “You praise your friends.”
  •  They say to me, “You are our neighbor”
  • We say to her, “You know him”.

Indirect Speech With Examples In Pronouns;

  • She says to me that she loves her son.
  • They say to us that they like their house.
  • You say to them that they praise their friends.
  • They say to me that I am their neighbor.
  • We say to her that she knows him.

You can see that in changing a sentence from Direct to the Indirect Speech

1. All Pronouns of the first person are changed according to the SUBJECT of the Reporting verbs.

2. All Pronouns of the Second Person are changed according to

3. All Pronouns of the Third Person remain unchanged.

Change In The Tenses Of Verbs

Here you will learn about the change in the tenses of verbs.

The tenses of the verbs in the Reported Speech are changed, as illustrated above when a sentence is changed from Direct into indirect Speech. The way in which these changes take place may well be grasped.

Direct Indirect With Examples

Direct Speech With Examples:

  • He says to us, “You are late.”
  • You say to them, “We  played tennis.”
  • They say to me, “We will not come.”
  • She will say to us, “You are rich.”
  • He will say, “I went home’.
  • I shall say, “I shall not come.”
  • She said to me, “I ate rice.”
  • I said to him. “I write a letter.”
  • The old man said, “God os one”
  • He said to me, “Money makes the mare go.”

Indirect Speech With Examples:

  • He says to us that we are late.
  • You say to them you played tennis.
  • They say to me we will not come.
  • She will say to us that you are rich.
  • He will say that I went home.
  • I shall say that I shall not come.
  • She said to me that I wrote a letter.
  • She said to me that she ate rice.
  • I said to him that I wrote a letter.
  • The old man said that God is one.
  • He said to me that money makes the mare go.

You can see that in changing a sentence from Direct to the Indirect Speech

1. The verb in the Reported Speech is not changed, if the verb in the Reporting Speech is in the Present Tense. (Examples 1-3) or in the Future Tense. (Examples 4-6)

2. The verb in the Reported Speech is changed into Past Tense if the verb in the Reporting Speech is in the Past Tense.

3. The verb in the Reported Speech is not changed, (even when the Reporting Speech Verb is in the Past Tense) if the Reported Speech contains a “Universal Truth”.

Change In Other Words

Some other words in the Reported Speech are also changed, as illustrated above when a sentence is changed from Direct into indirect Speech. The way in which these changes take place may well be grasped by comparing the sentences follow:

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

Direct Speech With Examples:

  • She said to me, “ I like this book.”
  • I said to him, “These books are mine.”
  • He said to her, “ I live here.”
  • I said to him, “It is four now.”
  • She said, “My father will come today.”

Indirect Speech With Examples:

  • I said to him that those books were mine.
  • He said to her that he lived there.
  • I said to him that it was four then.
  • She said that her father would come that day.
  • I said that I would not sleep that night.

You can see that in changing a sentence from Direct to the Indirect Speech

1.“This “ is changed  into “that”; “these” into “those”; “here” into “there”; “now” into “then”; “today” into “that day”; “tonight” into “that night”; ‘yesterday” into “ the previous day”; “tomorrow” into “the next day”; “sir” or “madam” into “respectfully” and “Good morning” or “Good evening” into “greeted”

2. The nominative of addresses “comes after  “said to, “it becomes the Object of the Reporting Verb.

3. Words like,” well” “all right”, “yes” and “no” are omitted.

Assertive Sentences With Examples

Here in this section, you are going to learn assertive sentences in Direct and Indirect Speech.

Direct Speech With Examples:

  • I said to him, ” I do my duty.”
  • I said to him, ” I am doing my duty now.”
  • I said to him, ” I have done my duty.”
  • I said to him, ” I have been doing my duty here.”
  • I said to him, “I did my duty sir.”
  • I said to him. ” I was doing my duty yesterday.”
  • I said to him, “I had done my duty.”
  • I said to him, ” I had been my duty,”
  • I said to him, ” I shall do my duty.”
  • I said to him, ” You will play cricket tomorrow.”

Indirect Speech With Examples:

  • I said to him that I did my duty.
  • I said to him that I was doing my duty then.
  • I said to him I had done my duty.
  • I said to him that I had been doing my duty there.
  • I said to him respectfully that I had done my duty sir.
  • I said to him that I had been doing my duty the previous day.
  • I said to him that I had done my duty.
  • I said to him that I had been doing my duty.
  • I said to him that  I would do my duty.
  • I said to him that he would play the cricket next day.

Indirect And Indirect Exercise

Direct And Indirect Speech Pdf

Here in the last section of this article, you can download the PDF of this article. Just scroll down click on the below button and download this PDF in a folder. This pdf will help you to revise this topic later.

Exercise-1

  1. She said to me, “ I like this book.”
  2. I said to him, “These books are mine.”
  3. He said to her, “ I live here.”
  4. I said to him, “It is four now.”
  5. She said, “My father will come today.”
  6. He says to us, “You are late.”
  7. You say to them, “We  played tennis.”
  8. They say to me, “We will not come.”
  9. She will say to us, “You are rich.”
  10. He will say, “I went home’.
  11. I shall say, “I shall not come.”
  12. She said to me, “I ate rice.”
  13. I said to him. “I write a letter.”
  14. The old man said, “God os one”
  15. He said to me, “Money makes the mare go.”

Answers:

  • She says to me that she loves her son.
  • They say to us that they like their house.
  • You say to them that they praise their friends.
  • They say to me that I am their neighbor.
  • We say to her that she knows him
  • He says to us that we are late.
  • You say to them you played tennis.
  • They say to me we will not come.
  • She will say to us that you are rich.
  • He will say that I went home.
  • I shall say that I shall not come.
  • She said to me that I wrote a letter.
  • She said to me that she ate rice.
  • I said to him that I wrote a letter.
  • The old man said that God is one.
  • He said to me that money makes the mare go.

    Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home2/seekhlei/public_html/wp-content/themes/voice/core/helpers.php on line 2595

About the author

Muhammad maaz

Leave a Comment