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You can answer the question "What did he/she say?" in two ways:
l) by repeating the words spoken (direct speech)
2) by reporting the words spoken (indirect or reported speech).
DIRECT SPEECH:
In direct speech you repeat the actual exact words that the speaker says/said. Put quotation marks (“ ”) before and
after the speaker's statement.
She said , “ My name's Stella.”
(comma, quotation marks, capital letter, full stop inside quotation marks)
The speaker's statement always starts with a capital letter. She said can go before or after the statement, but is
separated from it by a comma.
We may be reporting something that's being said NOW (for example a telephone conversation), or telling someone
later about a previous conversation.
Examples: She says "What time will you be home?"
She said "What time will you be home?" and I said "I don't know! "
REPORTED SPEECH:
In indirect speech we do not use speech marks and often we do not repeat word for word what someone has said
but rather retransmit or convey the meaning of what they have said. This can be very useful for example if I have just
had a conversation and someone asked what we were talking about. I might very well find it very hard to repeat word
for word what was said. However, I could quite easily explain what was talked about and what was and wasn’t said in
my own words.
Other examples were indirect or reported speech are common are in news reports.
For example a politician gives a long speech that covers many topics. However, the news report needs to sum this up
in many less words e.g. Tony Blair said that Gordon Brown was making a hash of the economy and wouldn’t it be
great if he was back in power. He said that………….. It has been reported………. It is assumed that……………..
We use REPORTING or INTRODUCTORY VERBS like 'say', 'tell','ask', and we may use the word 'that' to
introduce the reported words. Inverted commas are not used.
She said, "I saw him." > She said that she had seen him.
a. 'That' may be omitted: She told him that she was happy. She told him she was happy.
b. 'Say' and 'tell': Use 'say' when there is no indirect object: He said that he was tired.
Say something to somebody
say is usually used without a personal pronoun or object. It can be used with direct speech, but cannot be used to
report commands or questions.
Always use 'tell' when you say who was being spoken to: He told me that he was tired.
Tell somebody something
tell is often followed by a personal direct object. It's only used in direct speech if we are giving information, an
instruction or a command. It's used to report commands, and cannot be used to report questions.
c. 'Talk' and 'speak' are used: - to describe the action of communicating: He talked to us.
REPORTED SPEECH 1
She was speaking on the telephone.
-with 'about' to refer to what was said: He talked (to us) about his parents.
REPORTED SPEECH 2