In English, there are two ways of conveying the words spoken by one person to another:

1. Direct Speech
2. Indirect Speech

Example 1. Suppose you are at college and your teacher, David, says, “I want to meet your parents.” When you return home, you may report David’s statement to your parents in either of the following ways:

Example 2. Suppose you see your friend (named John) in a market who says to you, “I have bought a book for you”. When you come home, you can say about this to your brother in the following two ways:

It can be seen that:

  In direct speech, the actual words spoken by a person (with no change in them) are conveyed to another person.

  In indirect speech, the actual words spoken by a person are slightly changed while conveying them to another person. For instance, the verb and pronouns are changed.   Direct speech:Direct speech involves quoting the exact words spoken by a person. These words are enclosed in quotation marks. A comma is placed after the reporting verb.

Example.

  He said, “I am going to school”.

  Indirect speech: Indirect speech conveys the meaning of what someone said, but with some changes to the original words. Since the words were originally spoken in the past and are now being reported in the present, the verb tense is often changed. Also, because the speaker addressed you directly but you are now reporting it to someone else, the pronouns are usually changed as well.

Changes are made to verb tense, and pronouns to accurately reflect the shift from the original context to the reporting context.

Example.

Note. Direct and indirect speeches are also called direct and indirect narrations.  

Before learning the rules for conversion of speech, you must first understand the following two parts of the sentence.

  Reporting verb: The verb in the first part of the sentence (i.e., he said, she said, he says, she says, etc.) is called reporting verb.

Examples.

 He said, “I need your help”.
 She says, “I won a prize”.
 They said, “We saw a joker”.

  Reported speech: The second part (actual words of the speaker) of the sentence which is enclosed in inverted commas is called reported speech.

Examples.

 He said, “I need your help”.
 She says, “I won a prize”.
 They said, “We saw a joker”.

 Rule 1. Removal of Quotation Marks: In indirect speech, the words of the speaker are not enclosed in inverted commas in indirect speech. Therefore, the inverted commas are removed.

 Rule 2. Use of 'that': The conjunction ‘that’ is used between reporting verb and reported speech in indirect speech.

 Rule 3. Change in Tense: The tense of the reported speech is changed for converting direct speech into indirect speech. Remember, If the reporting verb (first part) is in the past tense (e.g., he said, she said), the tense of the reported speech (second part) is changed. When the reporting verb is in the present or future tense (e.g., he says), the tense is not changed.

 Rule 4. Change in Pronoun. The pronoun (or subject) of the reported speech (second part) is changed according to the pronoun (or subject) of the reporting verb (first part) of the sentence. The possessive pronouns (e.g., his, her, my, their, your etc) are also sometimes changed according to the subject or object of the reporting verb (first part) of the sentence.

 Rule 5.Change in Time Expressions: If time is mentioned in the sentence, the time references are changed as follows:

• today → that day
• yesterday → the previous day
• tomorrow → the next day
• now → then

Note: The detailed rules for changes in tense, pronouns, and time are available on this website.