Direct and Indirect speech with rules and examples

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In English, to report someone’s words or their own words, you can use direct or indirect speech. These may include statements, questions, orders, advice…

When moving from direct to indirect style, it is often necessary to change personal pronouns, demonstrative and possessive pronouns according to who says what:

Here are some examples:

Note: That is often implied in indirect speech. It is not mandatory to use it, so it is indicated in brackets in this lesson.

Introductory verbs

To relate someone’s words to both direct and indirect speech, you need an introductory verb.

The two most frequent are tell and say, but there are many other possible ones like:

Say or tell ?

Be careful to distinguish SAY from TELL. The two verbs may have the same meaning, but their use is different. With TELL, the interlocutor is quoted: the name or pronoun is placed immediately after tell (tell somebody something).

With SAY, the interlocutor is not necessarily quoted; if he is, he is introduced by the preposition to (say something to somebody):

• He says (that) he is English.
• He tells me (that) he is English.

However, tell is used in some expressions without mentioning a contact person:

• tell the truth
• tell a story
• tell the time

Note: the wording ‘He said to me…‘ is possible but seems clumsy. It is best to use ‘He told me…‘.

TIMES MODIFICATIONS

The shift to indirect speech leads to changes in the tense, depending on whether the verb is in the present tense or in the past tense.

If the introductory verb is in the present tense, the tense (or modal) does not change.

• “I’m sorry.” → He says he is sorry.
• “I hate driving” → He says he hates driving.

Be careful, if the statements reported are still true now you must not change the tense!

• He said this morning (that) he hates driving. (= He still hates driving now).

If the introductory verb is in the past, the verb tense changes:

Examples of major changes in time:

MODALS

The modals could, should, would, might, needn’t, ought to, used to don’t change when used with indirect speech.

Those who change are will → would, can → could, may → might:

• I will come with you. → Tina promised she would come with me.
• I can help you. → He said he could help me.
• It may be a good idea. → I thought it might be a good idea.

TIME, PLACE AND DEMONSTRATIVE MARKERS

Expressions of time, place and demonstratives change if the context of indirect speech is different from that of direct speech.

She said “I saw him yesterday.” → She said she had seen him the day before.

Orders and prohibitions to indirect speech

To relate an order or prohibition to indirect speech, verbs such as tell, order or forbid are used… Be careful, remember to replace Don’t by NOT when it is the main verb of the sentence!

For affirmative sentences, use to + infinitive

For negative sentences use not to + infinitive

• Don’t worry! → He told her not to worry.
• He said, “go to bed!” → He ordered the child to go to bed.
• Don’t marry him! → She forbade me to marry him.
• Please don’t be late. → She asked us not to be late.

Questions to the indirect speech

If there is an interrogative word like where/who/when/why… in direct speech, we keep it in indirect speech:

• What are you doing? → She asked me what I was doing.
• Who was that beautifl woman? → He asked me who that beautiful woman had been.
• Where do you live? → He wanted to know where I lived.
• “Why don’t you speak Spanish?” → He asked me why I didn’t speak Spanish.

If it is a closed-ended question or you have to answer yes/no, you use if or whether:

• “Do you like chocolate?” → She asked me if I liked chocolate.
• “Are you living here?” → She asked me if I was living here.
• “Have you ever been to Paris?” → He asked me if I had ever been to Paris.

When the question contains a modal, it is preterite in the reported question:

• How will he react? → He wondered how he would react.

Some examples of indirect questions:

• I wondered what they were talking about.
• I don’t know if they’ll come or not.

OTHER CHANGES

Expressions of advice such as must, should and ought are usually reported using the verbs advise or urge:

• “You must read this book.” → He advised / urged me to read that book.

The expression let’s is usually reported using the verb suggest, with gerund or with should:

• “Let’s go to the cinema.” → He suggested going to the cinema. OR He suggested that we should go to the cinema.

Related posts:

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2. English grammar basics: The prepositions (with examples)
3. How to use the genitive in English? Complete lesson with examples
4. How to use the verb to be in English (rules & examples)