Direct Speech
When we want to describe what someone said, one option is to use direct speech. We
use direct speech when we simply repeat what someone says, putting the phrase
between speech marks:
Paul came in and said, “I’m really hungry.”
It is very common to see direct speech used in books or in a newspaper article. For
example:
The local MP said, “We plan to make this city a safer place for everyone.”
As you can see, with direct speech it is common to use the verb ‘to say’ (‘said’ in the
past). But you can also find other verbs used to indicate direct speech such as ‘ask’,
‘reply’, and ‘shout’. For example:
When Mrs Diaz opened the door, I asked, “Have you seen Lee?”
She replied, “No, I haven’t seen him since lunchtime.”
The boss was angry and shouted, “Why isn’t he here? He hasn’t finished that
report yet!”
Indirect Speech
When we want to report what someone said without speech marks and without
necessarily using exactly the same words, we can use indirect speech (also called
reported speech). For example:
Direct speech: “We’re quite cold in here.”
Indirect speech: They say (that) they’re cold.
When we report what someone says in the present simple, as in the above sentence, we
normally don’t change the tense, we simply change the subject. However, when we
report things in the past, we usually change the tense by moving it one step back. For
example, in the following sentence the present simple becomes the past simple in
indirect speech:
Direct speech: “I have a new car.”
Indirect speech: He said he had a new car.
All the other tenses follow a similar change in indirect speech. Here is an example for all
the main tenses:
The same rule of moving the tenses one step back also applies to modal
verbs. For example:
Reporting Questions
When you report a question you need to change the interrogative form into an affirmative
sentence, putting the verb tense one step back, as with normal reported speech.
There are two types of questions that we can report – questions that have a yes/no response, and
questions that begin with a question word like ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who’ etc. When we report a
yes/no question, we use ‘if’. For example:
Direct speech: “Do they live here?”
Indirect speech: You asked me if they lived here.
As you can see, in the reported version of the question, ‘do’ is eliminated because it is no longer
a question, and the verb ‘live’ becomes ‘lived’.
For questions starting with question words like ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘who’, etc., we report the
question using the question word but change the interrogative form to the affirmative form. For
example:
Direct speech: “Where do they live?”
Indirect speech: You asked me where they lived.
Direct speech: “When are you leaving?”
Indirect speech: He asked us when we were leaving.
Direct speech: “How will they get here?”
Indirect speech: She asked me how they would get here.
When we report a question we normally use the verb ‘ask’. As with the verb ‘to tell’, the verb ‘to
ask’ is normally followed by an object pronoun, though it is possible to omit it.
Reporting Orders and Requests
When you give someone an order, you use the imperative form, which means using just the verb
without a subject. For example:
“Call me back later.”
“Have a seat.”
“Don’t do that!”
To report an order we use ‘tell’ and the infinitive of the verb. For example:
You told me to call you back later.
He told me to have a seat.
She told us not to do that.
When you make a request, you normally use words like ‘can’, ‘could’, or ‘will’. For
example:
“Could you call me back later?”
