Reported Speech

These are words used to recount other’s speech or even our own. It can come as either direct or indirect speech. Direct speech repeats the exact words previously stated and carries a quotation mark. Whereas indirect speech, which is more popular and commonly referred to as “reported speech,” recounts the speech as best as it can be remembered. As a result, the original speech is changed when repeating it, but the message in the speech remains unchanged.

Take this scenario between Blake, Jaden, and Iris, for instance:

• Blake: I will be traveling to the Bahamas next week. (Direct speech)
• Jaden: Sorry, what did you say?
• Iris: He said that “I will be traveling to the Bahamas next week.” (Direct speech)
• Iris: Blake said he would be going to the Bahamas next week. (Indirect speech)

In the example above, when making an indirect speech, the pronoun “I” changed to “he” because a report of a previous speech was being made. In addition, “will” was also changed to “would” because it is in the future tense.

To make a reported speech, or indirect speech, there are some rules you need to follow. They include:

• Changing the pronoun.
• Changing the tenses.
• Showing that it is a reported speech by saying “he/she/they said that” at the beginning of the speech.

Here is another example of a direct speech:

• Direct speech: I don’t like singing.
• Indirect or reported speech: He said that he doesn’t like reading.

In this example, the pronoun “I” is changed to “he.”

To show how tenses change in indirect speech, take a look at the example below.

• Direct speech: It is beautiful!
• Indirect speech: He said that it is beautiful.
• Direct speech: I am reading.
• Indirect speech: She said that she was studying.