Unit 30

Direct & indirect

speech
0. INTRODUCTION
1. DIRECT SPEECH AND INDIRECT SPEECH.
A. STATEMENTS IN INDIRECT SPEECH.
1.1. EXCEPTIONS TO BACKSHIFT
1.2. MODAL AUXILIARIES
1.3. OTHER CHANGES IN INDIRECT SPEECH
1.4. TO SAY AND TO TELL AND ALTERNTATIVE INTRODUCTORY VERBS
1.5. REPORTING MORE THAN ONE DIRECT SENTENCE
B. QUESTIONS IN INDIRECT SPEECH
C. COMMANDS IN INDIRECT SPEECH.
D. EXCLAMATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.
E. FREE INDIRECT SPEECH.
2. CONCLUSION
0. INTRODUCTION
According to LOMCE, grammar is a very important aspect of FLL. Direct and indirect speech are
two very important resorts of the English Language and in order to be proficient students must
master their usage.
In this topic I will deal with direct and indirect speech and all the changes that we have to take into
account when we want to report what someone says.
There are several modes in which other people’s language may be reported. The most explicit
modes are introduced by a reporting clause referring to the speaker and the act of communication in
speech or writing.
If a reporting clause introduces the report of the communication, the reported clause, which refers to
the utterance itself, may take the form of the direct speech or indirect speech. Direct speech seeks to
give the exact words that someone, who may be the reporter, utter or has uttered in speech or in
writing. Indirect speech, on the other hand, conveys in the words of a subsequent reporter what has
been said or written by the original speaker or writer, who may be again the same person as the
reporter.
In ordinary conversation, we use reported speech much more than direct speech. This is because we
usually don’t know or cannot remember the exact words that someone has said. Direct speech is
mainly used in written stories.
In order to establish a clear concept of the differences between direct and indirect speech, I will
start by defining what we call direct and indirect speech, next I will mention the changes we find in
the verb tense with all the exceptions and the social case of modals, and finally, I will state al the
other changes which utterances undergo when they are reported.

1. DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

In direct speech we repeat the original speaker’s exact words: He said, ‘I have lost my umbrella’.
Remarks repeated are place between inverted commas, and a comma or colon is placed immediately
before the remark. It retains its status as a main clause. Direct speech is found in conversations, in
books and quotations, but may also be used in conversation to give a more dramatic effect: He says,
‘The train will be late’.
In the indirect speech, also called reported speech, we give the exact meaning of a remark or a
speech without necessarily using the speaker’s words. The words of the speaker are subordinated,
often in the form of a ‘that’-clause, and incorporated into the structure of the main sentence. It has

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no comma and ‘that’ can be omitted after ‘say/tell + object’, but it is more common to keep it after
‘command’, ‘explain’, ‘object’, ‘point out’, etc. It is used in conversations reported verbally.
When a report is conveyed through indirect speech, we can specify the changes in wording that are
required because the situation of the utterance by the reporter may differ in certain respects form
that of the utterance by the original speaker. The differences affect the use of deictic features of the
language, those features that relate to the time and place of the utterance and to the persons referred
to in the utterance.
A. STATEMENTS IN INDIRECT SPEECH
In indirect speech the reporting verb may be in the present tense, when we are reporting a
conversation which is still going on, when we are reading a letter and reporting what is says, or
when we are reporting a statement that somebody makes very often or holds to be true and when we
refer to any kind of document.
When the reporting verb is in a present, present perfect or future tense we report the direct speech
without any change of tense, as in the following examples: She says, ‘I won’t go back’ (direct
speech) and, She says that she won’t go back (indirect speech).
But indirect speech is normally introduced by a reporting verb in the past tense, since one is
generally informing someone else of something that somebody said in the past. Then, it is often
necessary to change the tense forms of the verbs. Such a change of verb forms in indirect speech is
termed Backshift.
Direct Speech Backshift in Indirect Speech
Simple present Simple past
Present continuous Past continuous
Simple past Past perfect
Past continuous Past perfect continuous
Present perfect Past perfect
Present perfect continuous Past perfect continuous
Future Conditional
Future continuous Conditional continuous
Conditional Conditional
Past perfect Past perfect

The lack of change in the last example is explained by the observation that if a verb is already in the
past perfect form, it already expresses ‘past in the past’, and no further backshift to ‘past in the past’
can be expressed through the grammar of the English verb.

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1.1. EXCEPTIONS TO BACKSHIFT
The tense form is kept in the following cases:
1. Simple past and past continuous tenses in time clauses remain unchanged; and a past tense used
to describe a state of affairs that still exists when the speech is reported does not normally
change. Simple past in spoken English is often left unchanged: He said, ‘John arrived on
Tuesday’ could be reported: He said (that) John arrived/had arrived on Tuesday.
2. As we have already said, the past perfect does not change as it cannot be further back-shifted.
3. The conditional remains unchanged in indirect speech.
4. Conditional sentences implicating improbable condition (2nd type) normally remain unchanged
in indirect speech because, however improbable it may be, it is possible and if the tenses were
changed to those of the past conditional this possibility would be removed and the meaning
would be changed. For example: He said, ‘If she came, I should be surprised’, would be
reported: He said (that) is she came, he would be surprised. If you say: He said (that) if she had
come, he would have been surprised; you are changing the meaning by removing all possibility
of its happening.
However, conditionals which refer to the present and are impossible or unfulfilled may not
change in indirect speech without affecting the meaning of the conditional: He said, ‘If I were
rich, I would marry her’, will be reported: He said (that) if he had been rich, he would have
married her. Type 3 conditionals, or impossible conditionals, also remain unchanged in indirect
speech.
5. A present tense that expresses an eternal truth or something similar may be shifted. On the other
hand, when the idea of a universal truth is quite obvious, the tense is not always shifted.
6. After ‘wish’, ‘would rather/sooner’ and ‘it is time’ the verb remains unchanged in the indirect
speech.
7. After ‘had better’ the verb remains unchanged or is reported by ‘advise + object + infinitive’ as
in the following example: He said, ‘They had better go to bed early’, which will be reported: He
said that they had better go to bed early; or He advised them to go to bed early.
1.2. MODAL AUXILIARIES
In general, in reported clauses the verb changes of a modal auxiliary result in the use of the
corresponding past tense forms: ‘might’ for ‘may’, ‘could’ for ‘can’, etc. But if the modal auxiliary
has no past equivalent, this includes auxiliaries which are already past, then the same form remains
in indirect speech. Besides, it is necessary to point out some details related to some of them.

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 When ‘must’ is used for deduction, permanent command/prohibitions and to express intention
or advice, it remains unchanged. For example: He said, ‘It must be could outside’, which will be
reported: He said (that) it must be could outside.
On the other hand, when it is used for obligation ‘must’ can remain unchanged or may become
‘would have to’ or ‘had to’. It becomes ‘would have to’ when the obligation depends on some
future action, that is to say, when it is clearly replaceable by ‘will have to’: He said, ‘If things
get worse, we must (will have to) leave the house’ will be reported: He said (that) if things got
worse, they would have to leave the house. It becomes ‘had to’ when the time for fulfilment of
the action has been fixed or is fulfilled fairly promptly: He said, ‘I must be there by 9 o’clock’
will be reported: He said (that) he had to be there by 9 o’clock.
 When ‘Could you…?’ is used for invitation, it is reported by ‘ask/invite’ + an infinitive: He said
‘Could you have dinner with me?’ will be reported: He asked/invited me to have dinner. When
it is used as a request, it is reported by ‘ask’ + an infinitive: He said, ‘Could you get the tickets’
will be reported: He asked me to get the tickets.
‘Could I…?’ used as a request for permission normally remains unchanged. The same happens
when ‘could’ is used for a present permission, but when it is used for past permission it may
remain unchanged or become ‘was/were allowed to’ or ‘had been allowed to’.
‘Could’ for present ability does not change, but when it is used for past ability it may remain
unchanged or become ‘had been able to’.
 ‘Needn’t’ can remain unchanged and usually does. Alternatively, it can become ‘didn’t have to’
or ‘wouldn’t have to’.
The rest of the auxiliaries with no past tense equivalent or which are already past remain, in general,
unchanged in reported speech.
1.3. OTHER CHANGES IN INDIRECT SPEECH
If the identities of the person speaking and the person addressed are not identical in the situations of
the original and reported utterances, the personal pronouns need to be changed. Pronoun shift
requires the shift of the 1st and 2nd person pronouns to 3rd person pronouns or to nouns, when the
persons referred to in the original utterance are absent in the reported utterance.
But when someone is reporting his own words, pronouns and possessives do not change.
But there are other changes that are necessary to mention. If the time relationship between time
references in the indirect speech and the time of the utterance has changed between the original
utterance and the reported utterance, it is necessary to make adjustments. Time references are
changed variously according to the time of the reported utterance.
If the places of the utterances are different, place references are changed accordingly: for example,
‘here’ to ‘there’ or if the reference is to the place of the reporting utterance ‘there’ to ‘here’.

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Demonstratives are also changed if the relative distance has changed: ‘this’ changes to ‘that’ and
‘these’ changes to ‘those’ but again the reserve if there is greater proximity at the time of the
reported utterance. Also ‘this/that’ when used as adjectives may become ‘the’. On the other hand,
when ‘this/these’ are used as pronouns, the may become ‘it/they/them’ respectively.

1.4. TO SAY AND TO TELL AND ALTERNATIVE INTRODUCTORY VERBS.

In direct speech, ‘say’ can introduce or follow a statement. Inversion of ‘say’ and noun is possible
when it follows the statement, as in ‘I have just arrived’, said Tom. On the other hand, ‘say to’ plus
the person addressed usually follows the statement: ‘I have just arrived’, Tom said to me.
‘Tell’ requires the person addressed except in the expressions: ‘tell lies/stories/the truth’. ‘Tell’
must be placed after the remark: ‘I am leaving at once’, Tom told me.
Indirect statements are introduced by ‘say’, which is normally placed first, the form ‘say to’ + the
person addressed being little used in indirect speech, or ‘tell’, which must be followed by the person
addressed without a preposition. There are other useful introductory verbs that may be used
according to the circumstances of the case. They are the following: ‘add’, ‘admit’, ‘assure’,
‘explain’, ‘deny’…
These verbs can introduce indirect statements and ‘that’ is usually placed after them:
Direct: He said, ‘I have been to Paris several times’.
Indirect: He told me/assured me/explained me (that) he had been to Paris several times.
Reporting verbs can be also used to refer to many different kinds of thoughts, including beliefs,
wishes, hopes, intentions and decisions. Some reporting verbs used to report people’s thoughts are:
‘accept’, ‘decide’, ‘expect’, ‘guess’, ‘know’, ‘agree’, ‘plan’, ‘feel’, ‘hope’, ‘dream’, ‘believe’, etc.
A third group of reporting verbs refer to learning and perceiving facts: ‘I saw that they were
studying English’. Some of these verbs are: ‘conclude’, ‘hear’, ‘realize’, ‘discover’, ‘note’, ‘see’,
etc.
1.5. REPORTING MORE THAN ONE DIRECT SENTENCE
When we report two or more direct sentences uttered consecutively, they are often combined into
compound or complex sentences: ‘I’m bored. I’m going home’, he said > He said he was going
home because he was bored.
‘I’ve been to France several times but I’ve never been to Italy.’ > He said (that) he’d been to France
several times but had never been to Italy.
This tendency is especially common in writing.
B. QUESTIONS IN INDIRECT SPEECH

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When we turn direct questions into indirect speech the changes in tense, pronouns, possessive
adjectives, and adverbial phrases of time and place apply also to indirect questions. Additionally,
there are other changes that are necessary.
 The introductory verb ‘say’ changes to a verb of inquiry: ‘ask’, which is the most common,
‘inquire’, ‘want to know’ and ‘wonder’… Only ‘ask’ can be followed by the person addressed,
unless other words, normally, ‘as to’ are inserted: ‘He questioned me as to why I hadn’t
phoned’.
 If the direct question begins with an interrogative word, this interrogative word is the connective
in the indirect question: He said, ‘How will you do it?’ will be reported: He asked how she
would do it.
 If there is no interrogative word is the direct question, the connective ‘if’ or ‘whether’ is placed
after the introductory verb in the indirect question: He asked, ‘Do you know him?’, will be
reported: He asked if/whether I knew him. ‘If’ is more usual than ‘whether’; but ‘whether’ can
emphasize that a choice has to be made.
C. COMMANDS IN INDIRECT SPEECH.
Several changes are necessary when we turn direct commands into indirect ones. The introductory
verb ‘to say’ in replaced by a verb of command or request, such as ‘tell’, the most frequent, ‘order’,
‘command’, and ‘ask’, which is followed by an object + ‘to’ and the infinitive.
 The introductory verb of the indirect command must be followed immediately by the person
addressed. In direct speech commands the person addressed is often no mentioned. But in
indirect speech the person addressed must be included, so that in cases such as: He said, “Go
away”, it is necessary to include a noun or a pronoun in the indirect speech: he told
me/you/him/the boy to go away. As we can see, the imperative form of the verb in direct speech
changes to the corresponding infinitive form.
 Pronouns, possessive adjectives, adverbs of place and time change like in statements and
questions.
 Negative commands are expressed by placing ‘not’ before the infinitive: He said, ‘Don’t open
the door’ will be reported: He told me not to open the door.
 Thee are other two ways of expressing commands. On the one hand, ‘say’ as introductory verb
+ ‘was/were’ + an infinitive can be used as an alternative to the construction ‘tell + accusative +
infinitive with ‘to’ but it is less forceful: He said, ‘Sit down, John’, could be reported: He said
(that) John was to sit down.
On the other hand, another alternative could be the construction ‘order’ + should + infinitive:
He said, ‘Keep silent, children’, could be reported: He ordered that the children should keep

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 silent. This construction is more formal and therefore less common than the ‘tell’ + accusative +
infinitive with ‘to’ construction.
D. EXCLAMATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
 Exclamations usually become statements in indirect speech. Exclamations beginning with
‘how…!’ and ‘what…!’ are reported by ‘say/exclaim’: He said, “What a wonderful day!’ will
be reported: He said/exclaimed (that) it was a wonderful day.
We should note that there are other cases which are reported in a different way. Here are some
examples:
Direct: He said, ‘Thank you!’. Indirect: He thanked me.
Direct: He said, ‘Good luck!’. Indirect: He wished me luck.
Direct: He said, ‘Damn!’. Indirect: He swore.
 ‘Let’s’ usually expresses a suggestion and becomes ‘suggest + gerund’ or ‘suggest + that +
subject + should+ in indirect speech: He said, ‘Let’s go to the cinema’ will be reported: He
suggested going to the cinema or He suggested that we should go the cinema.
‘Let’s not’ used alone in answer to an affirmative suggestion is often reported by some phrases
such as: ‘opposed the idea/was against it/objected to’: He said, ‘Let’s sell the house’. ‘Let’s
not’, said Helen, will be reported: He suggested selling the house but Helen was against it.
E. FREE INDIRECT SPEECH
Free indirect speech, consists on reporting an utterance indirectly by back-shifting the verb while
omitting or parenthesising the reporting clause, which are the conventional signals of indirect
speech.
The convention of free indirect speech is a more flexible medium for reporting than normal indirect
speech.
Free indirect speech, unlike ordinary indirect speech, can incorporate the question and the
exclamation structures of direct speech: ‘Could you be imagining things? (wondered Harry)’, ‘Here
was Mary at last (thought John)’, ‘How many years had he and his sister dreamed of this moment!’
Next to direct questions and exclamations forms, the clearest, sometimes the only, indicators of free
indirect speech are back-shifted verbs in the past tense. For example, ‘would’ in main clauses often
invites understanding as the back-shifted equivalent of future ‘will’ (volitional, conditional, direct
future in the past) as in: ‘That evening he would be seeing Sylvia again’.
The use of free indirect speech for describing interior monologues as become a very widespread if
not standard practice in the fiction of the 20th century. The convention of free indirect speech is a
more flexible medium for reporting than normal indirect speech and produces a more vivid
impression.

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2. CONCLUSION
Finally, I would like to say that direct and indirect speech is present in the English curriculum,
especially in the highest levels, and it will encourage students to increase their sophistication in
communicating information previously learned to a third party. The effect of the students’
understanding of these features will be felt in the use of the reporting structures to start a
conversation, maintain it, and alter its focus. These expressions and others will improve the
student’s strategic and sociolinguistic competence. Besides, students will feel an increasing
confidence in the ability to understand native speakers reporting past events, and in their emotional
and intellectual attitudes.