Reported Speech

Reported speech is used to report a statement of somebody to someone else. And there are two ways to report the words of a speaker. They are direct speech and indirect speech. 

Direct Speech

The reporter uses the exact words of the speaker to report the message.

• Original words of the speaker are used,
• They are written in between inverted commas or quotation marks.
• The comma is used after the reporting verb.

Example - My class teacher says, "I will help you". 

                    (says - will be the reported verb)

                    (I will help you  - Original words of the speaker)

Indirect Speech

Indirect speech the reporter uses his or her own words to convey the message.

• Quotation marks are omitted
• Pronoun is changed
• Time words and place words are changed
• That is used just after reporting the verb

Example - 

• Direct - My class teacher says, "I will help you"
• Indirect - My class teacher says that he will help me.

Basic Rules of Reported Speech

If the reporting verbs are in present or future tense, the tense of the direct speech is not changing into indirect speech.

Example - 

• Direct -  My class teacher says, "I will help you"

                    (says - is a reporting verb in present tense )

                    (I will help you - Future tense)

• Indirect - My class teacher says, that she will help me.

If the reporting verbs are in any past tense, the tense of the direct statement will be changed into the relevant past tense.

    Direct                                                 Indirecct

    is, am, are                                             was were

    was, were                                              had been

    will                                                         would

    shall                                                       should

    can                                                         could

    may                                                        might

    must                                                       had to

    have, has                                               had

    do, does                                                 did

    go                                                            went

    went                                                       had gone

Example - My class teacher said "I will help you"

                   (said  - reported verb in past tense)

                  My class teacher said that he would help me

Time words and place words are generally changed.

    Direct                                        Indirecct

    This                                               That

    These                                            Those

    Here                                              There

    Ago                                                before

    Now                                               then

    Today                                            that day

    Tomorrow                                    next day

    Yesterday                                     the day before, previous day

     Last night                                    previouse night

   

Example -  My class teacher says, "I will help you tomorrow"

                  My class teacher says that he will help me next day

                  My class teacher said, "I will help you tomorrow"

                  My class teacher said that he would help me next day

Exercise

1. Write the given sentences in indirect speech.

1. Kamal says, "I will help him"
2. Teacher says, "We will guide the students well"
3. Pawan said, "I was writing an essay last month"
4. Our teacher asks, "Do you do homework daily?"
5. Ramani said, "I went to Colombo yesterday"