REPORTED SPEECH

REPORTED SPEECH

(Direct and Indirect Speech)

When students are learning English, they will learn language skills and language component. Grammar is one of English language component that it must be learnt and understood by students. It is a very basic knowledge and an important tool for students to master English. It is a science that teaches students how the way to speak, to read, and to write English correctly. Besides, by learning grammar the students will know about system of language so they will be able to combine and build words into meaningful sentence.

We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use Direct- Indirect or Reported Speech. In English grammar, reported speech is one of many grammatical categories which is important to be learnt by students. It is needed to be learnt because it is one of three ways for students to report or share their statements or thoughts to other people especially when they communicate between each other. Reported speech is commonly used to report what other people have said or thought without reporting the exact word. With indirect reported speech, one wishes to report the content of the original source without necessarily repeating sentences exactly as they were originally uttered.

To report people word’s, thoughts, and beliefs there are two main ways: direct and indirect speech. Reported speech is also used when people are interested not in the words that someone has chosen, but in the essential information they conveyed.

A.    Meaning of Direct and Indirect Speech

Direct and Indirect are two particular methods of reproducing in writing someone’s words.  In Reported Speech (Direct and Indirect) has two parts , namely :

·         Reported Verb (Kata Kerja yang Melaporkan)

·         Reported Words (Kata-Kata yang Dilaporkan)

Reported Verb                      Reported Words

He says,                                   “I go to the school everyday.”

She will say,                            “No body is speak.”

Jane said,                                 “Yes, I agree. “

In Direct style, the words are reproduced exactly using quotes; in Indirect style, someone’s words and actions need to be translated/transformed into a particular style of a third person narration. Direct style is independent on the declarative verb. In indirect style, however, the declarative verb becomes a tense-reference, therefore the sequence-of-tenses rules (and their exceptions) take control. 

How to write quotations:

1.    Put a comma after said                                    Jane said,

2.    Put quotation marks                                                    Jane said,”

3.    Capitalize the first word of the quotation                     Jane said,”Y

4.    Write the quotation. Put a final period                       Jane said, “Yes, I agree.

5.    Put quotation marks after the period                          Jane said, “Yes, I agree.”

6.    When there are two or more sentence in a quotation, put the quotation marks at the beginning and end of the whole quote. Do not put the quotation marks around each sentence.

CORRECT :

Jane said, “ Yes, I agree. They’re graceful and playful. Do you own a cat?”

INCORRECT :   Jane said,  “Yes, I agree. “

   “They’re graceful and playful. “

   “Do you own a cat?”

7.    Be sure to put quotation marks above the line, not on the line.

INCORRECT : Ana said,,”My book is on the table.”

CORRECT      : Ana said, “My book is on the table.”  

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

For example :

Direct speech	Indirect speech
"I'm going to the cinema", he said.	He said he was going to the cinema.

B.     The Changing in Reported Speech (Direct and Indirect Speech)

1.      Tenses and Modal Change

As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense:(the tense on the left changes to the tense on the right):

Direct Speech		Indirect Speech
Present Simple She said, "It's cold."	›	Past Simple She said it was cold.
Present Continuous She said, "I'm teaching English online."	›	Past Continuous She said she was teaching English online.
Present Perfect Simple She said, "I've been on the web since 1999."	›	Past Perfect Simple She said she had been on the web since 1999.
Present Perfect Continuous She said, "I've been teaching English for seven years."	›	Past Perfect Continuous She said she had been teaching English for seven years.
Past Simple She said, "I taught online yesterday."	›	Past Perfect She said she had taught online yesterday.
Past Continuous She said, "I was teaching earlier."	›	Past Perfect Continuous She said she had been teaching earlier.
Past Perfect She said, "The lesson had already started when he arrived."	›	Past Perfect NO CHANGE - She said the lesson had already started when he arrived.
Past Perfect Continuous She said, "I'd already been teaching for five minutes."	›	Past Perfect Continuous NO CHANGE - She said she'd already been teaching for five minutes.

Modal verb forms also sometimes change:

Direct Speech		Indirect Speech
will She said, "I'll teach English online tomorrow."	›	would She said she would teach English online tomorrow.
can She said, "I can teach English online."	›	could She said she could teach English online.
must She said, "I must have a computer to teach English online."	›	had to She said she had to have a computer to teach English online.
shall She said, "What shall we learn today?"	›	should She asked what we should learn today.
may She said, "May I open a new browser?"	›	might She asked if she might open a new browser.

Note : There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to.

Example :

Direct speech	Indirect speech
"I might go to the cinema", he said.	He said he might go to the cinema.

We can use the present tense in reported speech if you want to say that something is still true. i.e. my name has always been and will always be Catherine.

Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
"My name is Catherine ", she said.	She said her name was Catherine. or She said her name is Catherine.

We can also use the present tense if you are talking about a future event.

Direct Speech (Exact Quote)	Indirect Speech (Not Exact)
"Next week's lesson is on reported speech ", she said.	She said next week's lesson is on reported speech.

2.      Time change

If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of    reporting.

For example we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of reporting.

Today	+ 24 hours - Indirect Speech
"Today's lesson is on presentations."	She said yesterday's lesson was on presentations.

Expressions Of Time If Reported On A Different Day
this this (evening)		>         that >         that (evening)
today yesterday		>         thatday ... >         the day before, the previous day >         those
these these (days) two days ago		>         those (days) >         two days before
now		>         then
(a week) ago last		>         (a week) before >         …before, the previous
last weekend		>         the weekend before last / the previous weekend
here over here		>         there >         over there
next (week)		>         the following (week)
tomorrow		>         the next/following day

In addition if you report something that someone said in a different place to where you heard it you must change the place (here) to the place (there).

3.      Changing Pronouns

When changing from direct speech to indirect speech, it is often necessary to change the pronouns to match the subject of the sentence.

Examples:

• She said, "I want to bring my children." BECOMES She said she wanted to bring her children.
• Jack said, "My wife went with me to the show." BECOMES Jack said his wife had gone with him to the show.

C.    The Kind of Reported Speech (Direct and Indirect Speech)

1.      Reported Statements

When do we use reported speech, sometimes someone says a sentence, for example "I'm going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe we want to tell someone else what the first person said. We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:

·       Direct Speech: Marry says, “I like ice cream”

·       Reported Speech: Marry says that she likes ice cream

We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I' to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.  But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:

·         Direct Speech: Marry said, “I like ice cream”

·         Reported Speech: She said that she liked ice cream

Occasionally, we don’t need to change the present tense into the past if the information in direct speech is still true (but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then usually we like to change the tense):

·         Direct Speech: She said, “The sky is blue”

·         Reported Speech: She said that the sky is/was blue

2.      Reported Questions

In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence.

Example:

·         Direct Speech: "where do you live?"

Reported Question: She asked me where I lived.

·         Direct Speech: "where is Julie?"

Reported Question : She asked me where Julie was.

Ø The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a present simple question with 'do' or 'does' so I need to take that away. Then I need to change the verb to the past simple.

Ø The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present simple of be by inverting (changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before putting the verb into the past simple.

Here are some more examples:

Direct Question	Reported Question
“Where is the Post Office, please?”	She asked me where the Post Office was.
“What are you doing?”	She asked me what I was doing.
“Who was that fantastic man?”	She asked me who that fantastic man had been.

So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have any question word to help us. It's easy, instead use 'if':

• Direct Speech: "Do you like chocolate?"
• Reported Question : She asked me if I liked chocolate.

More Examples:

Direct Question	Reported Question
“Do you love me?”	He asked me if I loved him.
“Have you ever been to Mexico?”	She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.
“Are you living here?”	She asked me if I was living here.

3.      Reported Requests

What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)

For example:

• Direct Speech: "Close the window, please"
• or: "Could you close the window please?"
• or: "Would you mind closing the window please?"

All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':

Example :

Direct Request	Reported Request
“Please help me”	She asked me to help her.
“Please don’t smoke”	She asked me not to smoke.
“Could you bring my book tonight?”	She asked me to bring her book that night.
“Could you pass the milk, please?”	She asked me to pass the milk.
“Would you mind coming early tomorrow?”	She asked me to come early the next day.

To report a negative request, use 'not':

·         Direct speech: "Please don't be late"

·         Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

4.      Reported Orders

We can call this an 'order' in English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example: "Sit down!"

In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell' instead of 'ask': She told me to sit down.

More Examples :

Direct Order	Reported Order
“Go to bed!”	He told the child to go to bed.
“Don’t worry!”	He told her not to worry.
“Be on time!”	He told me to be on time.
“Don’t smoke here!”	He told us not to smoke there