Page 97 - Grammar Glow - 7

18 18 Direct and Indirect Speech

Warm-up

Complete the table by changing the speech of the given sentences.

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

1. The boy said, “I like flying kites.”

2. Anshika said, “My mother is
cooking dinner.”

3. She said that she wanted to give her sister a present.

4. She said that she had bought a watch for her mother.

Direct and Indirect Speech

The direct speech reports the exact words of the speaker.
l She said, “I am enjoying the fresh mountain air.”

The indirect speech is the reporting of the speaker’s statement in our own words. It is
also called the reported speech.
l She said that she was enjoying the fresh mountain air.
Since the reporting takes place at a later stage, the verb also changes its tense to the past. There
are some rules for changing direct speech into indirect speech.

Inverted commas or quotation marks (“ ”) are removed and the sentence should end in a full stop.
l He said, “I agree with Rishu.” (direct speech)
l He said that he agreed with Rishu. (indirect speech)

Note that the verb inside the quotation marks has changed its tense from present to past.
However, the verb inside the quotation marks does not change when we express a universal truth.

l Our teacher said, “The earth is a sphere.” (direct speech)
l Our teacher said that the earth is a sphere. (indirect speech)

Remember
Statements in the indirect speech are generally introduced by the conjunction ‘that’.

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