Direct & Indirect Speech

Direct speech is a speaker’s actual words. In writing, we write a direct speech with quotation marks ("......")

Indirect speech is a report of what the announcer has said.

Example :

1. Comand / request

v Direct : Mrs. Chandra said to Vita "Don't wory about it."

v Indirect : Mrs. Chandra told Vita not to wory about it.

2. Question

v Direct : Vita asked "Are you a journalist?“

v Indirect : Vita asked if / whether I was journalist.

3. Statement

v Direct : Mr. Chandra said "I worked hard yesterday.“

v Indirect : Mr. Chandra said that he worked hard the day before

In comand sentences, direct speech can changed to indirect speech with change "Said" to be "Ordered", "Told", and "Forbade".

v Direct : Hamid said, "Open the door!"

v Indirect : Hamid ordered to open the door.

v Direct : Hamid said, "Sinta, come here!"

v Indirect : Hamid told Sinta to come here.

v Direct : Hamid said to Andi, "Do not disturb me!"

v Indirect : Hamid forbade Andi to disturb him.

Indirect speech : a report of what the announcer has said.

There are 3 kinds of indirect speech :

1. Imperrative (command / request)
If you put a command into indirect speech, you remain changing of the person, backshift of tenses and changing of
expression of time. The form is mostly: to or not to + infinitive.

Affirmative Commands

Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
Mother said toSulfikha, “Sulfikha, sweep the floor, please”	Mother told Silfikha to sweep the floor.
Anjarach said to Yusni, “ turn on the fan, please.”	Anjarach told Yusni to turn on the fan.”
Arya Wiwaha said to Setyadi, “ Setyadi, buy me a bottle of minute maid pulpy orange, please.”	Arya Wiwaha told Setyadi to buy a bottle of minute maid pulpy orange.

Negative Commands

Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
Teacher said to Allan, ‘’Allan dont go closethe window’’	The Theacher asked Allan not to close the window
Mother said to me, ‘’don’t switch the channel’’	Mother told to me not to go the channel
Nolan said to me’’ dont go anywhere after you done your home work’’	Nolan told me to not to go anywhere after I had done my home work

Direct speech		Indirect speech
Present simple Wisnu said, "It's cold."	›	Past simple Wisnu said it was cold.
Present continuous Mr. Medianto said, "I'm teaching English online."	›	Past continuous Mr. Medianto said he was teaching English online.
Present perfect simple Sulfikha said, "I've been on the web since 1999."	›	Past perfect simple Sulfikha said she had been on the web since 1999.
Present perfect continuous Mr. Yusni said, "I've been teaching English for seven years."	›	Past perfect continuous Mr. Yusni said he had been teaching English for seven years.
Past simple Mr. Setiady said, "I taught online yesterday."	›	Past perfect Mr. Setiady said he had taught online yesterday.
Past continuous Mr. Arya Wiwaha said, "I was teaching earlier."	›	Past perfect continuous Mr. Arya Wiwaha said he had been teaching earlier.
Past perfect Kristian said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived."	›	Past perfect Kristian said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
Past perfect continuous Vangelis said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes."	›	Past perfect continuous Vangelis said she'd already been teaching for five minutes.

REMEMBER! You must change the time signals when the direct sentences contain expressions of time. Look at the examples below.

Direct Speech : The annoncer said, “ The accident happened yesterday night.”

Indirect Speech : The annoncetr said that the accident had happened the night

before.

Indirect Speech : Rhomedal said, “ Justin is at the kampung lauk now.”

Reported Speech : Rhomedal said that Justin was at the kampung lauk then.

Expressions of time if reported on a different day

This (evening) That (evening)

Today Yesterday

These (days) Those (days)

Now Then

(a week) ago (a week) before

Last weekend The weekend before last / the previous weekend

Here There

Next (week) The following (week)

Tomorrow The next/following day