Direct and indirect speech definition

Speech is an important feature in factual writing, such as newspaper reports and recounts. It enables the writer to share important information about what people involved in the story had to say. Inverted commas are used to show direct speech in your writing. Recap and get moving with this fun video. Factual writing such as newspaper reports or recounts include two types of speech - direct and indirect/reported speech. Direct speech Direct speech is when the exact words that have been said by a person are written down inside inverted commas. • Inverted commas (speech marks) go before and after direct speech. They surround what was said by the speaker. For example: "I'm pleased to have raised so much money," said Captain Tom. Punctuating direct speech • A new speaker needs a new line. This might not be included in a newspaper report as the speech won’t be part of a conversation between people or characters. • You should use a capital letter at the start of each piece of speech. • Punctuation (question marks, full stops and exclamation marks) go inside the inverted commas. • If the person who is speaking is named before the speech, you must use a comma before the first set of inverted commas. For example: Captain Tom exclaimed, “Let’s go and do some more laps of the garden!” Indirect (reported) speech • When indirect speech is used, the writer will share the main points of what someone has said without writing exactly what they said in full. • No speech punctuation (like inv...

Reported speech: reporting and reported clauses Speech reports consist of two parts: the reporting clause and the reported clause. The reporting clause includes a verb such as say, tell, ask, reply, shout, usually in the past simple, and the reported clause includes what the original speaker said. … Reported speech: punctuation In direct speech we usually put a comma between the reporting clause and the reported clause. The words of the original speaker are enclosed in inverted commas, either single (‘…’) or double (“…”). If the reported clause comes first, we put the comma inside the inverted commas: … Indirect speech: past continuous reporting verb In indirect speech, we can use the past continuous form of the reporting verb (usually say or tell). This happens mostly in conversation, when the speaker wants to focus on the content of the report, usually because it is interesting news or important information, or because it is a new topic in the conversation: … Reported speech: reporting nouns Reporting nouns are nouns such as comment, criticism, remark, statement. We can represent indirect speech with reporting nouns as well as with reporting verbs. These are more common in writing than speaking, and are usually quite formal. (Reported speech is underlined.) … (Definition of indirect speech from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press) Bilingual Dictionaries • English–Dutch Dutch–English • English–French French–English • Englis...

Speech expressing things other people have said without quoting In speech or indirect discourse is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be In many languages, indirect discourse is expressed using a Changes in form [ ] In indirect speech, words generally have • I, you, he, we, and the corresponding verb forms (in • this and that. • phrases of relative time or place such as now, yesterday and here. There may also be a change of Indirect speech need not refer to a speech act that has actually taken place; it may concern future or hypothetical discourse; for example, If you ask him why he's wearing that hat, he'll tell you to mind your own business. Also, even when referring to a known completed speech act, the reporter may deviate freely from the words that were actually used, provided the meaning is retained. This contrasts with direct speech, where there is an expectation that the original words will be reproduced exactly. Ambiguity [ ] Some modal verbs ( would, could, might, should, ought to) do not change in indirect speech. • I can get it for free. OR I could get it for free. He said that he could get it for free. (ambiguity) However, in many • Mogę mieć to za darmo. (I can get it for free) On powiedział, że może mieć to za darmo. (literally: He said that he can get it for free.) Examples [ ] English [ ] Some examples of changes in form in indirect speech in English ...

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When you’re using English on a day to day basis, talking about what people are saying or might have told you is going to come up a lot! But there’s an art to it – read on to find out more about how to use direct and indirect forms of speech correctly. What’s the difference between direct and indirect speech? Both terms describe a way of recounting something that may have been said – but there is a subtle difference between them. Direct speech describes when something is being repeated exactly as it was – usually in between a pair of inverted commas. For example: She told me, “I’ll come home by 10pm.” Indirect speech will still share the same information – but instead of expressing someone’s comments or speech by directly repeating them, it involves reporting or describing what was said. An obvious difference is that with indirect speech, you won’t use inverted commas. For example: She said to me that she would come home by 10pm. Let’s take a closer look at each one! Direct speech Direct speech can be used in virtually every tense in English. You can use it to describe something in the present tense – to express something that is happening in the present moment, or make it feel like it is happening right now. For example: “While she’s on the phone, she’s saying to him, “I’m never going to talk to you again.” You can also use direct speech in the past and future tenses. You’ll often come across direct speech in the past tense to describe something that has already happened. ...

Spoken and written communication is like one big game of telephone. Sometimes we hear the original tale, and other times we hear a retelling of the story. In this lesson, we're going to explore what that means by studying the difference between direct and indirect speech and learning proper grammar techniques for both. When we use direct speech, we are repeating what was said. When we use indirect speech, we're reporting what was said. Let's now look at some specific examples to learn how to change speech from direct to indirect. These examples will also reinforce the difference between direct and indirect speech. 1. Changing From Present Tense to Past Tense When converting speech from direct to indirect, you must change the present tense verbs to the past tense and remove any quotation marks or commas. Direct Speech (Present Tense) Indirect Speech (Past Tense) Jenn says, ''I love watching TV.'' Jenn said she loved watching TV. 2. Changing From Simple Past Tense to Past Perfect Tense What if the direct speech is already written in the past tense? If the sentence is written in simple past tense, you just remove the punctuation and change the verb to past perfect to make it indirect speech. Direct Speech (Simple Past Tense) Indirect Speech (Past Perfect Tense) Lana said, ''I saw him at the mall.'' Lana said she had seen him at the mall. 3. Changing Speech in the Form of a Question Whether you are repeating or reporting what someone has said, there are grammatical rules for b...