Direct and Indirect Narration

Direct speech and indirect speech are two ways to convey what someone has said, but they differ in how the information is presented.

Level: Intermediate to Advance

What are direct and indirect speeches?

Objectives: By the end of the lesson, you will have 

  • learnt the difference between direct & indirect speeches.

Read the following sentences:

  1. The man says, "I sell ice-creams."
  2. The man says that he sells ice-cream.

In the sentence ‘1’ the speech of the man is quoted in the exact words of the speaker. 

The speech quoted in the exact words of the speaker is a Direct Speech or Direct Narration. It is always written within inverted commas.

Note: The direct speech contains:

  • Reporting speech: The man says
  • Reporting verb: says
  • Reported speech: "I sell ice-creams."
  • Verb of the reported speech: sell

In the sentence '2' the speech is reported in a narrative form without quoting the exact words of the speaker.

The speech reported in narrative form without quoting the exact words of the speaker is an Indirect Speech or Indirect Narration.

Note: The reporting speech and the reported speech are joined by a linking word and the commas are omitted.

Remember: 

There are two types of narration. They are:

  1. Direct Narration or Direct speech
  2. Indirect Narration or Indirect Speech

Changing Narration of Assertive Sentence

Objectives: By the end of the lesson, you will have

  • learnt the rules of narration according to tenses.
  • learnt changing the direct speech of statement or assertive sentence into indirect speech.

General Rules:

Change of Tense

1. If the reporting verb is in the present or future tense, the tense in the reported speech is not changed.

Direct: Mark says, "The food is tasty.”
Indirect: Mark says that the food is tasty.
Direct: The man says, "I can do it."
Indirect: The man says that he can do it.
Direct: He says, "I went there yesterday.”
Indirect: He says that he went there yesterday.
Direct: He will say, "I am ready to go."
Indirect: He says that he is ready to go.

2. If the direct speech describes universal truth, constant fact, habitual fact, or geographical fact, the tense in the reported speech remains unchanged.

DirectThe teacher said, "The earth moves round the sun."
Indirect: The teacher said that the earth moves round the sun.
DirectKeats said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
Indirect: Keats said that a thing of beauty is a joy forever.
DirectMother said, "All is well that ends well."
Indirect: Mother said that all is well that ends well.
3. If the reporting verb is in the past tense, shift the verb in the reported speech back one step in time. This means change----
  1. the present tense to past tense &
  2. past tense to past perfect tense.

Here's a basic breakdown:

Direct Speech

Indirect Speech
Present Tense

Past Tense

He said, "I go."

[Simple Present]


He said that he went.

[Simple Past]

He said, "I am going."

[Present Continuous]


He said that he was going.

[Past Continuous]

He said, "I have gone."

[Present Perfect]


He said that he had gone.

[Past Perfect]

He said, "I have been going."

[Present Perfect Continuous]


He said that he had been going.

[Past Perfect Continuous]

Here are some more examples:

Direct: Alison said, "I am fine."
Indirect: Alison said that he was fine.
Direct: Kate said, "I want to go."
Indirect: Kate said that she wanted to go.
Direct: He said, "I am reading a book.”
Indirect: He said that he was reading a book.
Direct: She said, "I have learnt my lesson."
Indirect: She said that she had learnt his lesson.

Direct: He said, “I have been learning English."
Indirect: He said that he had been learning English.

(ii) Past tense in reported speech changes into corresponding past perfect tense [had + past participle]. Past perfect tense does not change.

Direct Speech

Indirect Speech
Past Tense

Had + Past Participle

She said, "I went."

[Simple Past]


She said that she had gone.

[Past Perfect]

She said, "I was going."

[Past Continuous]


She said that she had been going.

[Past Perfect Continuous]

She said, "I had gone."

[Past Perfect]


She said that she had gone.

[Does Not Change]

She said, "I had been going."

[Past Perfect Continuous]


She said that she had been going.

[Does Not Change]

Here are some more examples:
Direct: Urmi said, "I went to school.”
Indirect: Urmi said that she had gone to school.
Direct: He said, "I wrote the book."
Indirect: He said that he had written the book.
Direct: Tithi said to me, "I was sick.”
Indirect: Tithi told me that she had been sick.
Direct: He said, "I was reading a book.”
Indirect: He said that he had been reading a book.
Direct: Shimu said to me, "I was making research to solve the problem.”
Indirect: Shimu told me that she had been making research to solve the problem.

Note: The use of the conjunction that between the reporting speech and the reported speech is not a must in the indirect speech.

(iii) Modal verbs have corresponding past tense. They are described in the table below.
Direct Speech

Indirect Speech

I said, "I shall go."

shall


I said that I should go.

should

Esha said, "Paul will come."

will


Esha said that Paul would come.

would

Esha said, "I can go."

can


Esha said that she could go.

could

Esha said, "I may go."

may


Esha said that she might go.

might

 Here are some more examples:
Direct: I said, "I shall go."
Indirect: I said that I should go.
Direct: He said, "I can do the work."
Indirect: He said that he could do the work.

Direct: He said, "I will do it."
Indirect: He said that he would do it.

Direct: He said, "I shall have done it."
Indirect: He said that he would have done it.
Direct: Esha said, "I may go."
Indirect: Esha said that she might go.

Change of Pronouns

(i) First person changes according to the speaker/ subject of reporting verb. 

Direct speech: Father says to me, "I help myself."
Indirect speech: Father tells me that he helps himself.

(ii) Second person changes according to the listener/ object of reporting verb. 

Direct speech: Father says to me, "You help yourself."
Indirect speech: Father tells me that I help myself.

(iii) Third person does not change.

Direct speech: Father says to me, "They help themselves."
Indirect speech: Father tells me that they help themselves.

Note: If the Reporting Verb has an object, it is not good English to write, said to us/ him before that. It is better to write told us/him etc.

If the Reported speech has two or more verbs occurring at the same time, the past tense of the verbs is not changed:

Direct: The teacher said, "Mr. Ant worked hard while Mr. Grasshopper slept.”
Indirect: The teacher said that Mr. Ant worked hard while Mr. Grasshopper slept.
Direct: He said, "The children sang, danced and played."
Indirect: He said that the children sang, danced and played.

Change of Time and Place Expressions

Words that express nearness are often changed into the words expressing remoteness:

Words in direct speech

Words in indirect speech
Here

there
This

that
Ago

before
These

those
Hence

thence
Come

go
Hither

thither
Thus

so, in that way
Today

that day, the same day
Tomorrow

the next day, the following day
Yesterday

the previous day, the day before
Last night

the previous night, the night before

 Exercise:

Change the following sentences into indirect speech:

  1. The boy says, "My father is working abroad." 
  2. Karim says, “I was right."
  3. He said to me, “I shall help you."
  4.  Anwar said to them, "You were absent from the class yesterday."
  5. The man said to Kalam, "You have not sent me the letter". 
  6. Ahmed said to his father, "I am preparing my lesson".
  7. He said to me, "I did not see the boy going". 
  8. They said to me, “You have done well.”
  9. The man said to the children, “Allah is kind". 
  10. They said, "we came, worked and returned.”


Changing Narration of Interrogative sentence

Objectives: By the end of the lesson, you will have:

learnt changing the reported speech of question into indirect speech.

Structure of indirect speech
  1. Reporting verb is changed into "ask" or "enquire of".
  2. "If" or "whether" is used as a linking word.
  3. The auxiliary verb in the reported speech is used after the subject.
  4. If the sentence begins with "who", "which", "what", "how", "when", "where", "why", etc., these are not changed and "if" or "whether" is not used.

Note: The indirect speech becomes a statement, and no question mark is used.

Direct: Nadim said to Nadia, “Are you reading now?”
Indirect: Nadim asked Nadia if she was reading then.
Direct: The boy said to Hafiz, “Will you help me?”
Indirect: The boy asked Hafiz whether he would help him.
Direct: The man said to Shaila, “What is your name?”
Indirect: The man asked Shaila what her name was.
Direct: Karim said to Asif, “When will you return to me?”
Indirect: Karim asked Asif when he (A) would return to him (K).
Direct: The man said to his brother, "Can you do it alone?"
Indirect: The man asked his brother if he could do it alone.
Direct: The lady said to her husband, “How did you manage it?"
Indirect: The lady asked her husband how he had managed it.
Direct: He said to me, "Do you know me?"
Indirect: He asked me if I knew him.
Direct: He said to me, "Do you not go there?"
Indirect: He asked me if I did not go there.
Direct: He said to me, "Why did you go there?"
Indirect: He asked me why I had gone there.
Direct: He said to Nadia, "Why did you not go there?"
Indirect: He asked me why I had not gone there.
Direct: He said to me, "What makes you laugh?"
Indirect: He said to me what made me laugh.
Direct: He said to her, "Who are you? What do you want?"
Indirect: He asked her who she was and what she wanted.

Exercise

Turn into the indirect form:

  1. I said to him, "When will you go there?" 
  2. He said to me, "Did you write a letter?" 
  3. They said to us, "How will you sink a tube-well?” 
  4. We said to them, "Have you seen the man going?" 
  5. He said to me, "When did you do the work?" 
  6. He said to me "Is your father at home?" 
  7. The man said to the boy, "When will you go home?" 
  8. He said to me, "Why do you go there?" 
  9. He said to me, "Are you waiting for me?" 
  10. The stranger said to me, "Did you not see me?"


Changing Narration of Imperative Sentence

Objectives: By the end of the lesson, you will have:

learnt to change the direct speech of imperative sentences into indirect form.

Structure of indirect speech

a. Reporting verb is changed into "tell", "command" or "order", "request" or "beg" or "entreat" or "ask", "forbid" according to the sense of the speech.

b. Reporting verb and Reported speech are joined by Infinitive "to".

Direct: He said to me, "Do it now".
Indirect: He told me to do it then.
Direct: Father said to me, "Never go there".
Indirect: Father ordered me never to go there.
Direct: The teacher said to us “Do not tell a lie".
Indirect: The teacher forbade us to tell a lie. [or, The teacher advised us not to tell a lie.]
Direct: The man said to me, "Please help me”.
Indirect: The man requested me to help him.

When the reporting verb is without object:

Direct: They said, "Come again.”
Indirect: They told (asked) me (someone) to go again.

When there are vocatives:

Direct: The captain said, "Soldiers, march on".
Indirect: The captain commanded the soldiers to march on.
Direct: The leader said, "Friends, listen to me".
Indirect: Addressing them as friends, the leader requested them to listen to him.
Direct: The student said to the Headmaster, "Excuse me, Sir".
Indirect: The student begged the Headmaster to excuse him.

When there is ‘let us’ in the direct speech, it indicates proposal or suggestion:

Direct: He said, "Let us do it".
Indirect: He proposed or suggested that they should do it.
Direct: He said to me, “Let us go there".
Indirect: He proposed to me that we should go there.

Note: Reporting verb is changed into propose or suggest. Should is used for 'let'

When there is 'let me/him/her’ etc. it does not indicate proposal:

Direct: He said, "Let him do it".
Indirect: He said that he might (or might be allowed to) do it.
Direct: The boy said to me, "Let me read now".
Indirect: The boy told me that he might read then (or might be allowed to read then).

Note: Reporting verb is changed according to sense, 'let' is changed into might / might be allowed to

When ‘let' indicates request or order:

Direct: He said to me, "Please let me go there".
Indirect: He requested me that he might be allowed to go there. [or, He requested me to let him go there.]
Direct: The teacher said to the boy, "Let your friend do it".
Indirect: The teacher ordered the boy to let his friend do it.
Direct: He said, "Let me have some milk".
Indirect: He wished that he might have some milk.

Exercise

Change into indirect form of speech:

  1. My brother said to me, "Go home at once".
  2. He said to them, "Do not come here".
  3. He said to him, "Please explain the poem."
  4. The general said to the soldiers, “March on".
  5. The speaker said to the members, "Please obey the Chair".
  6. He said, "Let us try again."
  7. He said to me, “Let us walk fast".
  8. She said to me, "Let me read the story".
  9. The boy said, "Sir, please grant me leave in advance".
  10. He said, "Let me come in".