Narration (Direct and Indirect Speech) - English-see.blogspot

-
Direct and Indirect Speech

The teacher said, " We studied chapter 1 yesterday."
The teacher said that they had studied chapter 1 a day before.

The sentences in bold above shows that the speech of a speaker can be reported in two different ways.

1. Expressing the actual words spoken by the speaker. This method is known as Direct Speech.

The teacher said, " We studied chapter 1 yesterday."

The verb which introduces the direct speech is known as Reporting Verb. 
For example, 'said' in the sentence above is the reporting verb.
a. The  words generally used by the speaker are put within inverted commas.

Reporting Verb                    Reported Speech

The teacher said,          "We studied chapter 
                                                1 yesterday."
b.  A comma is placed after reporting Verb.

2. Expressing the words of speaker by the listener in his/her (listener's) words i.e. summary of the Speaker's speech, is known as Indirect speech.

The teacher said that they had studied chapter 1 a day before.

Here we find the following points.
a.  Comma is not used after the reporting verb.
b.  Inverted commas are not written.
c.  Reporting Speech and Reported Speech are joined by the conjunction that.
d.  Pronouns are changed.
e.  The tense of reporting verb is unchanged.

Rules for changing the speech.

1.  Change of Pronouns
2.  Change of Tenses
3.  Change of Adverbials

1.  Change of Pronouns

Pronouns are changed on the following basis.
a.  First person pronouns such as I and we change according to the subject in the Reporting Speech.

Example: 
Direct: Mohan said, "I will go home."
Indirect: Mohan said that he would go home.
Here I refers to Mohan (subject) in the Reporting Speech.

b.  Second person pronouns (you) changes according to the object in the Reporting Speech.

Example:
Direct: I said to Mohan, "You should go now."
Indirect: I told Mohan that he should go then.
Here you refers to Mohan (object) in the Reporting Speech.

c.  Third person pronouns such as he, she and they, and any singular noun in the Reporting Speech is not changed.
Example: 
Direct: Naren said, " He is a naughty boy."
Indirect: Naren said that he was a naughty boy.

2.  Change of Tenses

Tenses of the Reported Speech are changed according to the tense of reporting verb on the following basis:

a.  If reporting verb is in present or future tense, i.e. says/will say, then the tense of reported verb doesn't change.
Example: 
Direct: Radha says, "I am going to school."
Indirect: Radha says that she is going to school.
The reporting verb in the direct speech above is in present tense, therefore the tense of the reported verb is also not changed. It was present continuous in the direct speech, and so it is in the indirect.

b. When reporting verb is in past tense, i.e. said, then the tense of reported verb change accordingly.

i. Simple present changes to simple Past.
Example: 
Direct:  Ravi said, 'There is a snake in the hole."
Indirect: Ravi said that there was a snake in the hole.

ii.  Present perfect is changes to past perfect.
Example:
Direct: Himali said, "Manavee has done Homework."
Indirect: Himali said that Manavee had done Homework.

iii.  Present progressive changes to past progressive.
Example: 
Direct: Jaya said, "I am singing a song."
Indirect: Jaya said that she was singing a song.
iv.  Present perfect progressive changes to past perfect progressive.
Example:
Direct: Robin said, "I have been working since 7 a.m. in the morning.
Indirect: Robin said that he had been working since 7 a.m. in the morning.

v. Simple Past changes to past perfect.
Example:
Direct: Rohit said, "Mohan went to Delhi on Saturday.
Indirect: Rohit said that Mohan had gone to Delhi on Saturday.

vi. Past progressive changes to past perfect progressive.
Example:
Direct: Pramod said, "It was raining in the morning."
Indirect: Pramod said that it had been raining in the morning.

vii. Past perfect and past perfect progressive do not change.

But the tense of the reported speech is not changed if it contains any universal truth or habitual fact.
Example:
Direct: The teacher said, "The earth moves round the sun."
Indirect: The teacher said that the earth moves round the sun.


3.  Change of Adverbials (time and place denoting words or phrase)
Some words or phrases in the direct speech express time or place. These words are replaced with other words or phrases.
Refer the following table for more information.
 Direct SpeechIndirect speech
 Today that day
 Tomorrow the following day, the next day
 Yesterday the previous day, the last day
 Last night previous night, the night before
 Tonight that night
 Ago before
 Thus so, in that way
 Here there
 Hither thither
 Hence thence
 Now then
 This  that
 These those
 Come go

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Adjectives - English-see.blogspot

-
Image
Look at the following sentences and observe the words in bold letters. It was a very hot summer. A lion was taking rest under a tree. A tiny mouse was so hungry and it was running all around searching food. It didn't notice the lion and ran over him. The lion was disturbed. Angrily, the lion placed his large paw on the small creature. What did you understand? These words point out the noun placed  after them. They describe them. They give additional information about the nouns they describe. For example tiny mouse tells us that the mouse was small in size. Large paw describes the paw of the lion that it was relatively great in size. Definition of Adjective: A word placed before a noun which tells us about the qualities of the noun or describes it, is known as Adjective. Types of Adjectives: Adjectives of Quality Adjectives of Quantity Adjectives of Number Demonstrative Adjectives Interrogative Adjectives Possessive Adjectives Adjectives of Quality:  They are used to describe...
Read more

Tenses (Present, Past and Future Tense)

-
Image
Tense means the indication of a point of time which refers to the action happened, happens or will happen. There are three types of tenses in English. i. Present tense ii. Past tense iii. Future tense Present Tense Each of the types of tenses has four different forms. Present Indefinite Tense Present Progressive (Continuous) Tense Present Perfect Tense Present Perfect Progressive (Continuous) Present Indefinite Tense The  present indefinite  tense, also known as simple present tense, states a stative or habitual or true action. Generally simple present tense is used to indicate an action which happens –  always, regularly, every day, daily, normally, generally, usually, occasionally, sometimes, often, rarely, frequently, nowadays, naturally, seldom, constantly, never, every a week, every year, once a year, on a week, at times, at present, now and then, or all the time. Sentence structure: Subject (3rd person singular) + main verb+s/es (5th form). Subject (except 3rd perso...
Read more

Transformation of sentence - English-see.blogspot

-
Image
Changing a sentence from one grammatical form to another without changing its meaning is known as transformation of sentence. Interchanging  Affirmative and Negative Sentence Rule of Work 1. Remove adverb "too" and put "so......that"     Repeat the subject     Cannot/Could not according to the tense Example:  Affirmative: He is too weak to walk. Negative: He is so weak that he cannot walk. Affirmative: She is too intelligent to fool. Negative: She is so intelligent that she cannot be fooled. 2. For superlative degrees in Affirmative, use No other ............ as + positive degree Example:  Affirmative: Napoleon was the greatest European general. Negative: No other European general was as great as Napoleon. 3. For comparative degree, use as + positive degree + as Example:  Affirmative: Abhishek is better than any other  boy in the class. Negative: No other boy in the class is as good as Abhishek. 4. Replace phrases such as "As soon as","Hardly...
Read more