Direct and Indirect Speech

• Direct speech


  The person's words are duplicated exactly and enclosed in quotation marks
• Direct speech


  • Direct quoting is useful when you have part of a source that is extremely well-written such that it clearly explains the idea for the readers to understand easily
  • Direct quotes are also useful for writing famous sayings or quotes from famous figures
• Direct speech


  • "I have to finish my homework before I go out."
• Indirect speech


  It reports what someone said or wrote but not in the exact words and not in quotation marks
• Indirect speech


  • An indirect quote, on the other hand, means you can choose to take an idea from another source, but write that idea in your own words
  • It gives you a chance to reword ideas that are good but may not have been written in a particularly clear or memorable way
• Indirect speech


  • Amanda said that she had to finish her homework before she went out.
• Changes in indirect speech

  1. First and second-person pronouns and possessive adjectives normally change to the third person

  2. Change certain time markers

  3. Tense steps back
• Exceptions to pronoun changes in indirect speech
• Pronoun changes in indirect speech


  • She said, "I have lost my phone."
  • She said (that) she had lost her phone.
• Time marker changes in indirect speech


  • "I saw him yesterday", she said.
  • She said (that) she had seen him the day before.
• Questions in indirect speech

  • Necessary changes: tenses, pronouns, possessive adjectives, and adverbs of time and place change as in statements
  • Interrogative form of the verb => affirmative form
  • Question mark is omitted in indirect questions
• Questions in indirect speech


  • She said, "Where is he going?"
  • She asked where he was going.