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1 1 22 22 Direct and Indirect Speech
Direct and Indirect Speech

Practise What You Know!actise What You Know!
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Change the speech of these sentences.

1. My father says, “Honesty is the best policy.”
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2. I said to my friend, “You have helped me in my hour of need.”
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Let’s Learn Direct and Indirect Speech

There are two ways we can convey or narrate what someone has said: using direct speech
or indirect speech (reported speech).

The direct speech reports the exact words of a speaker/writer. It is put within quotation
marks or after a colon (:). The first word inside the quotation marks is always capitalised.
The indirect speech reports what the speaker has said, but not in his/her own words. It
doesn’t use quotation marks or a colon. The content of the speech is introduced by the
conjunction that. However, sometimes the conjunction may be dropped, too.

R
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The verb used before the reported speech (said, declared, exclaimed, etc.) is called the reporting verb.

Let’s Learn to Change Direct Speech into Reported Speech

When changing a direct speech to reported speech, there are certain rules that we need to
follow.

If the reporting verb is in the present or future tense, the verb in the quotation marks does
not change. The same applies to any universal truths. For example:
I confirm, “I love my country.” (direct speech)
O
I confirm that I love my country. (indirect speech)

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