Direct speech and indirect (reported) speech | Canguro English

Join Sonia and I as we learn all about direct and indirect speech, also called reported speech. See you in class!

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In English there are two ways of repeating what somebody says to you. You can use direct or indirect speech (also called reported speech). Now we're going to look at the difference between the two.

DIRECT SPEECH
Direct speech is when we repeat exactly what a person says. For example:

"The pizza is cold!" (original)
Jane said, "the pizza is cold!" (direct)

We only use this when we are going to repeat exactly word-for-word what the person said. Direct speech is common in books, plays and quotations, or if we're going to imitate that person. It's not common in any other situation.

We normally use a comma after the reporting verb, and we must put the speech in inverted commas. Or we can put the speech in inverted commas first and the reporting verb after.

Pretty simple really.

INDIRECT (REPORTED) SPEECH
Indirect speech is when we repeat the meaning of what another person said, but not necessarily using the exact words. With indirect speech we don't use a comma after the reporting verb and we also don't use quotation marks, for example:

"The pizza I bought is cold!" (original)
Jane said, "the pizza I bought is cold!" (direct)
Jane said that the pizza she bought was cold. (indirect)

So you can see that sometimes when we use indirect speech we need to make changes to the verbal tense used and any pronouns or possessive adjectives. Let's take a closer look at this.

VERB TENSE CHANGES
Maybe you have read in a textbook or your teacher has told you that verbs in indirect speech must always be changed to the past tense, but the truth is that it really depends on the situation. Not only is it not complicated but it gives us a lot of power to change the meaning of what we say in a simple way. Let's look at some examples.

Firstly, let's imagine a scenario where your friend Maria is talking about something in the past:

"We went to Paris last year."

Now when we change this to reported speech the main verb "went" is already in the past tense, so we don't need to change it:

Maria said she went to Paris last year.

Now, in theory we could change this to the past perfect tense, but it is not very common in spoken English, as long as it doesn't affect the understanding of the timings of the actions.

Ok, now let's imagine that Maria's dad is in hospital. She says:

"My dad is in the hospital."

Now, in this case we have two options when we repeat this speech. If we know her dad is still in the hospital at the time of speaking then we can keep the verb in the present tense because it is still true, but if he has left the hospital, or we don't know if he is still in the hospital then we need to use the past tense.

Maria said her dad is in the hospital. (He is still in the hospital)
Maria said her dad was in the hospital. (He is not in the hospital now, or we don't know)

Now let's imagine that Maria is talking about something that is always true or an abstract concept, for example:

"I never eat carrots, but my friend Paco loves them."

In this case, because these things normally do not change, we don't change the verb to the past tense:

Maria said that she never eats carrots but her friend Paco loves them.

What about if Maria is using the future?:

"I will go to Paris next week."

Well, again it depends. If at the time of speaking Maria is still going to Paris in the future, then we can use the future, or the past if appropriate:

Maria said she will go to Paris next week. (Event is in future)
Maria said she would go to Paris this week. (Event is in future)
Maris said she went to Paris last week. (Event is in past)

Now, what about if Maria is using the conditional?:

"I would love to go to Paris."

Well, with conditionals we don't change the verb.

Maria said she would love to go to Paris.

And what if Maria is using a modal?:

"I could eat a lot of pizza right now."

Well, this is more complicated, and requires an understanding of how modals change when conjugated, so you need to watch the class about modals to understand this.

So, as you can see sometimes we change the verb, and sometimes we don't.

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