DIRECT &

REPORTED SPEECH
Year 6
WHAT IS DIRECT SPEECH?
 When a person says a statement him/herself
we call this “Direct Speech” like:
 - “I like pizza.” said Mary
 - “Debbie has a beautiful voice.” said dad
 - “I am very hungry.” said David

 So we have: “ A direct statement” + who said

WHAT IS REPORTED SPEECH
(INDIRECT SPEECH)
 When someone says what someone else had
said, in other words, when someone reports
what someone else said.

 Examples:
 - Mary said that she liked pizza.
 - Dad said that Debbie had a beautiful voice.
 - David said that he was very hungry.
CHANGING FROM DIRECT TO
INDIRECT SPEECH
 “I like pizza” said Mary

 Mary said that she liked pizza.

 “Debbie has a beautiful voice.” said dad

 Dad said that Debbie had a beautiful voice.

 “I am very hungry.” said David

 David said that he was very hungry.
WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?
CHANGES FROM DIRECT TO
INDIRECT

The local MP said, “We plan to make this city a safer place for
everyone.”

The local MP said that they planned to make the city a safer
place for everyone.

1- We take the verb tense one step backwards (as shown in

previous table)
2- We remove the speech marks and replace it with that
3- We change the pronoun according to who the speaker was
CHANGES IN TENSES EXAMPLES
CHANGES TO MODAL VERBS
 The same rule of moving the tenses one step
back also applies to modal verbs. For
example:
CHANGES TO TIME
EXPRESSIONS
 Sometimes it’s necessary to change the time expressions
when you report speech, especially when you are speaking
about the past and the time reference no longer applies.
For example:
 Direct speech: “I had a headache yesterday.”
 Indirect speech: You said you had had a headache the day
before.
 Direct speech: “It’s been raining since this afternoon.”
 Indirect speech: He said it’d been raining since that
afternoon.
 Direct speech: “I haven’t seen them since last week.”
 Indirect speech: She said she hadn’t seen them since the
previous week.
CHANGES TO TIME EXPRESSIONS
now then / at that time
tonight that night

today that day

yesterday the day before / the previous day,

last night the previous night / the night

before
tomorrow the following day

this week that week

last month the previous month / the month
before
next year the following year / the year
after
five minutes ago five minutes before
REPORTING QUESTIONS
1- Yes/no questions
Direct speech: I asked, “Do they live here?”
Indirect speech: You asked me if they lived here.

2- For questions starting with question words like ‘what’,

‘where’, ‘when’, ‘who’, etc., we report the question using the
question word but change the interrogative form to the
affirmative form. For example:
 Direct speech: “Where do they live?”

 Indirect speech: You asked me where they lived.

 Direct speech: “When are you leaving?”
 Indirect speech: He asked us when we were leaving.
 Direct speech: “How will they get here?”
 Indirect speech: She asked me how they would get here.
REPORTING ORDERS
When you give someone an order, you use the imperative
form, which means using just the verb without a subject. For
example:
 “Call me back later.”

 You told me to call you back later.

 “Have a seat.”
 He told me to have a seat.
 “Don’t do that!”
 She told us not to do that.
ASSESSMENT
1.He said,  "I'm ready for the meeting.”
He said that he was ready for the meeting.
2.“The clients have arrived!” She exclaimed.
She exclaimed that the client had arrived.
3. “Show them in.” the boss ordered.
The boss ordered to show them in.
4. "We ordered the materials last week.”
She said they had ordered the material the week
before.
5. "We'll finish production next month.”
She said they would finish the production the month
after.
ASSESSMENT
 “ I am happy” Snoopy said
 Snoopy said that he was happy.
 “John really likes French fries.” Sue Said
 Sue said that John really liked French fries.
 “Mum is cooking in the kitchen.” Dan said
 Dan said that Mum was cooking in the kitchen
 “There's an elephant inside the dining-room.” Kate
said
 Kate said that there was an elephant inside the dining
room
 “They are doing their homework.” Ahmed said 
 Ahmed said that they were doing their homework.
 “Reported speech is easy!” Sarah said
 Sarah said that reported speech was easy.
ASSIGNMENT
 You’ll find a sheet on the system, please
answer it and then correct your answers
using the Model Answer paper.

 For more emphasis, you can answer pages 40

& 41 in the Pupil book. We have answered
them earlier and you took your papers back
with the corrected answers.
Have a nice day!