Reported Speech / Direct to Indirect Conversion Techniques for Postal Assistants Exam 2014

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Friends, we've decided to post English basics for upcoming Competitive Exams. In today's post we shall discuss about the reported speech. In our next lessons we shall look after Voice, Articles, Sentence Rearrangement, Prepositions, Synonyms & Antonyms.

The reported speech is also known as the direct / indirect speech. Now lets have a look at some important points you should know about reported speech.

Important Points to Keep in mind while converting Direct Speech into Indirect Speech 

1. If the reporting verb is in the Present or Future Tense, the tense of the verb in the reported speech does not undergo any change.
2. If the reporting verb is in the Past Tense, the Present Tense of the verb in the reported speech is changed into its corresponding Past form.
   
3. When the reported speech expresses some Universal or Habitual truth, the tense of the verb in the Reported speech does not undergo any change.
4. If the Reporting verb is in the Past Tense and the verb in the reported speech is in the Past Indefinite, the tense of the verb in the reported speech is changed into Past Perfect Tense.
5. If the reporting verb is in the Past Tense and the verb in the reported speech is in the Past Progressive tense, then the verb in the reported speech is changed into Past Perfect Progressive Tense.
6. Verbs like 'Shall', 'Will', 'May', 'Can', in the Reported Speech are changed into 'Should', 'Would', 'Might', 'Could' respectively.
7. 'Said' is replaced by 'told' in the indirect narration when there is an object.
8. Much care should be taken of the Pronouns. Pronouns in the reported speech change according to the sense of the sentence.
9. Words expressing nearness are generally changed into worlds expressing distance. Have a look at some examples :
• Now becomes Then
• This becomes That
• These becomes Those
• Here becomes There
• Age becomes Before
• Hither becomes  Thither
• Tonight becomes That night
• Thus becomes So
• Today becomes That Day
• Tomorrow becomes The next Day
• Yesterday becomes The day before
• Last Night becomes The  night before
• Hence becomes Thence
• Come becomes Go (at times as per the context)
10. When an Interrogative Sentence is changed into Indirect Narration, instead of the verbs 'say' or 'tell' we make use of interrogative verbs like 'ask' or 'inquire' or 'demand'. That  is never used to introduced the reported speech. 'Ask' is used where the verb has an object and 'inquire' or 'demand' is used where the verb does not have any object.
11. In reporting commands and requests, the Indirect speech we use the verbs 'exclaim', 'wish', 'bless', 'pray', etc. instead of 'say' or 'tell'.
12. While quoting the direct speech we must put the inverted commas at the proper places.

Now lets have a look at a few Examples of Reported Speech :

• Direct : Sushma Says, "Ajay is likely to come".
• Indirect :  Sushma says that Ajay is likely to come.

• Direct : Lovely has said, "Pinky has bought a book".
• Indirect : Lovely has said that Pinky has bought a book.

• Direct : Satish says to his mother, "He has been reading for six hours".
• Indirect : Satish tells his mother that he has been reading for six hours.

• Direct : Mohan will say, "Sohan has finished his work"
• Indirect : Mohan will say that Sohan has finished his work.

• Direct : Sunita said, "Asha sings nicely"
• Indirect : Sunita said that Asha sang nicely

• Direct : Kamlesh said, "Swarna is reading fast".
• Indirect : Kamlesh said that Swarna was reading fast.

• Direct : Suresh said, "Gopal finished his work"
• Indirect : Suresh said that Gopal had finished his work.

• Direct : Tanu said, "Manu has been working hard".
• Indirect : Tanu said that Manu had been working hard.

• Direct : His uncle said, "He is always punctual".
• Indirect : His uncle said that he is always punctual. (Habitual Fact). 

• Direct : The preacher said, "Honesty is the best policy".
• Indirect : The preacher said that honesty is the best policy. (Universal Truth).

That's all for now friends. In our next post we shall discuss more examples of Reported Speech. Happy Reading :)

Thanks to Mr. Sudhanshu Chatterjee for contributing this post

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