The document explains the differences between direct and indirect speech in English. Direct speech involves quoting someone's exact words within inverted commas, while indirect speech reports what was said without quotation marks. It also covers the rules for punctuation, verb usage, and the structure of both speech types.

1. Direct &Indirect Speech _Himanshu
Maurya

2. Introduction
When you’re using English on a day to day basis,
talking about what people are saying or might have
told you is going to come up a lot!
But there’s an art to it – read on to find out more
about how to use direct and indirect forms of speech
correctly.

3. What’s the difference between direct
and indirect speech?
Both terms describe a way of recounting
something that may have been said – but
there is a subtle difference between them.
•Direct speech describes when something is
being repeated exactly as it was – usually in
between a pair of inverted commas. For
example:
She told me, “I’ll come home by 10pm.”

4. Indirect speech will still share the same information – but
instead of expressing someone’s comments or speech by
directly repeating them, it involves reporting or describing
what was said. An obvious difference is that with indirect
speech, you won’t use inverted commas. For example:
• She said to me that she would come home by 10pm.
Let’s take a closer look at each one!

5. Speech and their type:-
There are two main types of reported speech: direct speech and
indirect speech.
Direct speech repeats the exact words the person used, or how we
remember their words:
Barbara said, “I didn't realise it was midnight.”
In indirect speech, the original speaker’s words are
changed.
Barbara said she hadn’t realised it was midnight.

6. Direct Speech:-
• In direct speech we usually put a comma between the
reporting clause and the reported clause. The words of
the original speaker are enclosed in inverted commas,
either single (‘…’) or double (“…”). If the reported clause
comes first, we put the comma inside the inverted
commas:
• “I couldn’t sleep last night,” he said.
• Rita said, ‘I don’t need you any more.’

7. • If the direct speech is a question or exclamation, we use a
question mark or exclamation mark, not a comma:
• ‘Is there a reason for this?’ she asked.
• “I hate you!” he shouted.
• We sometimes use a colon (:) between the reporting
clause and the reported clause when the reporting clause
is first:
• The officer replied: ‘It is not possible to see the
General. He’s busy.’

8. • You can also use direct speech in the past and future
tenses. You’ll often come across direct speech in the past
tense to describe something that has already happened.
Most written forms of English will use direct speech in this
way.
• For example:
• “He said to her, “I’ll catch the last train home.”

9. • Direct speech can be used in the future tense too, to
create a feeling of anticipation, or expectation. It can also
be used to express something that you plan to say to
someone.
• While you might not come across this in formal or
professional forms of written English, you will probably
see this commonly in creative forms of writing, such as a
story or novel.
• For example:
• Before I go away I’ll tell him, “I’m never coming back.”

10. • Direct speech isn’t always a description of what
someone may have spoken. You can also quote
from other texts in a similar way, by using inverted
commas before and after the quote. Here, instead
of using the verb “to say”, you might want to use a
different verb instead, such as “to write”, “to state”
or “to describe”.

11. Indirect Speech
• In indirect speech it is more common for the reporting
clause to come first. When the reporting clause is first, we
don’t put a comma between the reporting clause and the
reported clause. When the reporting clause comes after
the reported clause, we use a comma to separate the two
parts:
• She told me they had left her without any money.
• Not: She told me, they had left her without any money.
• Nobody had gone in or out during the previous hour, he
informed us.

12. • We don’t use question marks or exclamation marks in
indirect reports of questions and exclamations:
• He asked me why I was so upset.
1. Not: He asked me why I was so upset?

13. • In indirect speech, say and tell are both common as reporting verbs.
We don’t use an indirect object with say, but we always use an
indirect object (underlined) with tell:
• He said he was moving to New Zealand.
• Not: He said me he was moving to New Zealand.
• He told me he was moving to New Zealand.
• Not: He told he was moving to New Zealand.

14. • We use say, but not tell, to report questions:
• ‘Are you going now?’ she said.
• Not: ‘Are you going now?’ she told me.
• We use say, not tell, to report greetings, congratulations and other wishes:
• ‘Happy birthday!’ she said.
• Not: Happy birthday!’ she told me.
• Everyone said good luck to me as I went into the interview.
• Not: Everyone told me good luck …

15. Conclusion:-
•Direct speech describes when something is being
repeated exactly as it was – usually in between a pair
of inverted commas. ... Indirect speech will still share
the same information – but instead of expressing
someone's comments or speech by directly repeating
them, it involves reporting or describing what was said.