DIRECT - INDIRECT SPEECH
Introduction
When we want to repeat (say or report) what another person(s) says, we say it in two ways:
Mr. Penguin and Mrs. Penguin are talking. Mr. Monkey overhears their conversation, and goes to Miss Penguin, their daughter, to report what he hears...
Your father said to your mother, "I am leaving you." (the exact words)
This kind of repeating somebody else's exact words is called DIRECT SPEECH.
However, Mr. Monkey tells (reports to) Miss Penguin what he hears...
Your father told your mother that he was leaving her.
Mr. Monkey does not use the exact words said by Mr. Penguin but tells her in a different way, changing the exact words... This way of repeating somebody else's words in an indirect way is called INDIRECT SPEECH OR REPORTED SPEECH.
Another example:
1. The girl said to her father, "I want to become a teacher."
('The girl said to her father' - introductory (main) clause; "I want to become a teacher" - the actual quoted words - subordinate clause)
2. The girl told her father that she wanted to become a teacher.
('The girl told her father' - introductory (main) clause; 'That she wanted to become a teacher' - subordinate clause; 'that' - conjunction)
Please refer to the topic 'SENTENCE'.
In sentence 1 we quote (say or report or repeat) the exact words of the girl.
This is called "DIRECT SPEECH". The girl's words are put within inverted commas or quotation marks or speech marks. [ "..." - double quotation marks; '...' - single quotation marks]
In sentence 2, however, we report what the girl said without quoting the exact words, but using different words without changing the meaning of the actual spoken words.
This is called "INDIRECT (reported) SPEECH". There are no inverted commas or quotation marks.
The Direct Speech construction is normally used in writing.
The Indirect (reported) Speech construction is mostly used in conversation, because it is not convenient to use punctuation marks, such as commas and inverted commas, in speech.
To report a direct speech sentence in indirect speech, we need to know what changes the words take while being changed.
The changes effected in the "indirect speech" sentence are:
1. the comma (,) after 'said' in the introductory clause and the quotation marks ("...") are removed
2. the introductory verb 'said to' is changed to 'told'
3. the conjunction 'that' is put between the main clause and the subordinate clause [only in statement sentences]
4. the personal pronoun 'I' is changed to 'she'
5. the verb 'want' is changed into 'wanted'
The changes depend on the Kinds of Sentence (according to expression); the TENSE of the main verb of the sentence; and the subject of the sentence, whether it is a noun or a pronoun.
When there are so many points and rules to be applied to change a Direct Speech sentence into an Indirect Speech sentence, it is best we start from the beginning and to discuss each rule separately and elaborately.
