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00:00Hi friends! Today we will learn about direct and indirect speech.
00:08Consider the sentence, She said, I saw him.
00:14In this sentence, the direct words of the speaker are repeated.
00:19There is no change in the words.
00:23This type of speech is called direct speech.
00:28Now, imagine that I want to tell someone else what that person said.
00:34So we will say it like this,
00:38She said that she had seen him.
00:42In this sentence, the words of the speaker are reported and not directly repeated.
00:49Such speech is used to talk to someone about the past.
00:54This type of speech is called indirect or reported speech.
01:00Reported speech finds extensive use in journalism,
01:05as news is always reported in the past.
01:09Let's look at some of the characteristics of direct and reported speech.
01:16Direct speech
01:18In the direct speech, the words spoken are always put inside inverted commas.
01:25The first word inside the inverted commas starts with a capital letter.
01:32We do not change the tense of the sentence.
01:36Reported speech
01:39In reported speech, no inverted commas are used.
01:44The pronoun I changes to he or she.
01:48Likewise, they changes to we.
01:53We change the tense of the sentence according to the tense of the direct speech.
01:59Now, let's look at some of the rules for changing direct speech into reported speech.
02:07Omit all the inverted commas or quotation marks and end the sentence with a full stop.
02:15For example,
02:17She said, I am tired.
02:22She said that she was tired.
02:25We notice that the inverted commas are omitted and the sentence is ending in a full stop.
02:33He asked, Where are you going?
02:37He asked that, Where was he going?
02:41Here also, the direct speech has a question mark, but we omit the question mark in the reported speech.
02:49Second, the tense of the direct speech will be changed into its corresponding tense in the reported speech.
02:59The tense change will be done as follows.
03:03Simple present will change into simple past.
03:08For example,
03:10She said, I like to read.
03:13She said that she liked to read.
03:17Present continuous will change into past continuous.
03:22For example,
03:24Andrew said, I am coming over.
03:27Andrew said that he was coming over.
03:31Present perfect will change into past perfect.
03:36For example,
03:38The girl said, I have been to London.
03:42The girl said that she had been to London.
03:46Simple past will change into past perfect.
03:51For example,
03:52He said, I hated broccoli when I was a kid.
03:56He said that he hated broccoli when he was a kid.
04:01Past continuous will change into past perfect continuous.
04:06For example,
04:08They said, We were waiting for the bus when the accident happened.
04:13They said that they had been waiting for the bus when the accident happened.
04:19When the reporting verb of the direct speech is in present tense,
04:23the tense in the reported speech will not change.
04:27For example,
04:29He says, I am happy.
04:32He says that he is happy.
04:36When a universal statement is stated in direct speech,
04:40the tense in the reported speech will not change.
04:44For example,
04:46She said, Water is transparent.
04:50The fact that water is transparent is known universally,
04:54so the tense in the reported speech will not change.
04:58So, the sentence will be,
05:01She said that water is transparent.
05:05Third,
05:06Whenever we change a sentence from direct speech to indirect speech,
05:11we can also change the pronouns.
05:15Given below is a conversion table for pronouns.
05:20I in the direct speech will change to he or she in the indirect speech.
05:28My in the direct speech will change to his or her in the indirect speech.
05:36Mine will change to his or her.
05:41You can change to I, he, she, we, they according to the context.
05:49Your can change to my, his, her, our, their.
05:55Yours can change to mine, his, hers, ours, their.
06:02We will change to they.
06:05Our will change to their.
06:08Ours will change to theirs.
06:11These can change to those.
06:14So friends, today we learned about direct and reported speech,
06:19its characteristics, and some rules for changing direct speech into reported speech.
06:26Now you may go ahead and take a quiz to learn more.
06:30Bye-bye.