How to make indirect speech in English. Rules for general questioning in indirect speech

While learning English, each of us inevitably encounters reading literature. Most often, the main difficulty lies precisely in retelling what has been read, when you need to turn direct speech into indirect speech (reported/indirect speech).
We have already talked about how to convey direct speech when writing using quotation marks, and now we will look at the oral nuances of its presentation.
You can often hear the question: “What did he answer you?” You start: “He said that...” Indeed, what next?
How to correctly coordinate all grammatical aspects, choose the right tense, word order, reflect the nature of the question or declarative sentence? Today we will look at and give examples of these interesting questions.

So let's decide:

Direct speech- a literal introduction into the author’s speech of any remarks. Syntactic structures are used in accordance with the speaker's personality.

He says, " I will come.”/ He says: “I will come.”

Indirect speech- a way of introducing someone else's speech into your own speech. In this case, sentences are constructed in the third person.

He says that he will come./ He says he will come.

When talking about the transition from direct speech to indirect speech, two things should be taken into account: important factors: organization of syntax and punctuation (i.e. agreement and organization of words, elimination of quotation marks, introduction of auxiliary conjunctions, word order) and agreement of tenses within a new sentence.

Syntax and punctuation of indirect speech

In the case of a sentence transitioning from direct speech to indirect speech, the “loss” of quotation marks should be taken into account. By by and large from two equivalent independent sentences we get a complex sentence with a main and dependent part. Usually in English such proposals are united by the union that, although its absence does not in any way disrupt the order:

She told me, "I like black coffee."/ direct speech

She told me that she liked black coffee./ reported speech
She told me she liked black coffee./ reported speech

Please note that not only the punctuation changes, but also the pronouns. We will coordinate the information by analogy with the Russian language. There is a 100% coincidence here, because we're talking about rather about the logic of presentation of information.

Mary asks me"Will you come?"
Mary asks me, if I will come.

From this example it is clear that the pronoun you changes to I, since we are talking about me, accordingly, in the presentation, as well as in the Russian language, pronouns will be agreed upon by person.

This example is also interesting because in direct speech the sentence is a question. In English, there is a certain principle of agreeing on word order when translating questions from direct speech to indirect speech. Let us list the main features of the organization of such proposals:

Firstly, the question mark disappears and is replaced by a simple dot.

Secondly, in indirect speech, sentences again acquire direct word order. This can be explained very simply - there is a period at the end.

General question introduced by unions if or whether, which translates as " whether"in Russian languages are not related to subjunctive conjunctions:

Brian asked me, "Will you marry me?"
Brian asked me if I would marry him.

Special questions are introduced with question words:

"Why do you love me?" she said.
She said why I loved her.

We restore direct word order and omit the auxiliary verb in indirect speech.

Offers in imperative mood combined in indirect speech through a particle to. Punctuation marks (quotes and exclamation mark, if there is one) disappear:

Matthew asked me, "Play the piano, please."
Matthew asked me to play the piano.

Negative imperative sentences With don't are introduced into indirect speech through not to:

Bobby said, "Don't smoke, Laura!"
Bobby told Laura not to smoke.

Agreement of tenses in indirect speech

Coordination of tenses can cause difficulties when the predicate of the main sentence (directly the words of the author) is used in one of the past tense forms. If predicate the main clause is expressed by a verb in the present tense, then the sentence in indirect speech retains verb forms in all parts of the sentence:

Dan says, "You look so fine!"
Dan says I look great.

Julia askes, "When do did you come back?"
Julia asks me when I come back.

Agreement with the predicate in the past tense

The principle applies here - the predicate of the subordinate clause (the one that was in quotation marks) will be introduced into indirect speech in time one step earlier, that is:

Present will go to Past
Future will go to Past
Past will go to Past Perfect

1. The action of the subordinate clause occurs simultaneously with the main action or expressed by a verb in the future tense. In this case it is used Past Simple or Past Continuous:

He said, "I love my wife."
He said he loved his wife.

He asked, "What are are you doing?"
He asked what I was doing.

Mike was told, "They will arrive tomorrow."
Mike was told that they would arrive the next day.

2. The action of direct speech happened before. In this case, Perfect tenses are used:

Alex asked, " Did you go to the party yesterday?"
Alex asked if I had gone to the party the day before.

Please take into account changing circumstances of the time. Yesterday, for example, according to the rules English grammar can never be used with perfect tenses. We replaced it with the day before, preserving the essence of the concept itself " yesterday", A tomorrow in the first paragraph on the next day.

You can’t do without indirect speech exceptions. The tenses will not be consistent, but will remain in both sentences if there is a specific date or a well-known fact is being discussed:

He said, "The tower was built in 1255 ."
He said that the tower was built in 1255 .

We wish you interesting practice and success in coordination!

Victoria Tetkina

The basic elements of writing are the sentence and the paragraph. Using them, you can write essays, essays and stories. If you are interested in writing stories, you may need to use direct speech.

The rules for direct speech differ from the design of ordinary sentences and paragraphs, so we will look at them in more detail.

Direct and indirect speech

Direct speech is used when you reproduce in writing the direct words of the speaker.

“I'm going to London for two weeks,” said Alice.
“Put on your jacket, please,” mother said to him. "It's freezing today."

Indirect speech is used when you convey the content of someone's remarks without quoting them verbatim. For example:

Alice said she was going to London for two weeks.
Mother told him to put on his jacket, because it was freezing.

What is direct speech used for?

Direct speech is rarely used in, since, as a rule, there are no characters in them. But when you're writing a story with multiple characters, direct speech can be very useful for several reasons:

This helps describe the character. Every person speaks differently, and the way you convey a character's speech patterns will tell the reader a lot about them.
This helps make the story more exciting and suspenseful. Arguments, conflicts, and action-packed moments are made more alive by direct speech.

Rules for formatting direct speech

When using direct speech, it is important to remember:

Direct speech should be separated from the rest of the text.
The reader must understand which character is speaking at the moment.

Follow these rules and you won't have any problems:

Each replica must be opened and closed by quotation marks.

Must be only words that are part of the cue and punctuation marks related to it. For example:

Right

“It’s my umbrella,” he said crossly. "Yours is in your room."

Wrong

“I’ll call you tomorrow, she said. Take care."
“It’s my umbrella, he said crossly. Yours is in your room."

Speech-related punctuation must be contained within quotation marks.

Right

“What is the weather like today?” she asked.

Wrong

“What is the weather like today”? she asked.

Be clear who is speaking

It should be completely clear to the reader who is speaking. If there are only two characters, it is not necessary to put 'said X' or 'said Y' after each line, but you need to indicate the speaker after the first line of person X and after the first line of person Y.

"Are you saying the house is haunted?" the man asked.
“Well, it’s supposed to be haunted, but so far nobody has seen any ghosts,” Blakely replied.
“So, will you give us a tour?”
"I can't see why not."
“Alright, it’s settled then.”

If there are more than two people in a conversation, it is even more important to let the reader know who is speaking. In this case, you will have to indicate the speaker more often. For example:

“What’s the plan for today?” Jack asked.
“So what are we going to do?” Helen sighed. "I'm bored."

Short forms of I’m, you’re, he’ll, don’t, wouldn’t

In direct speech (but not in indirect) it is allowed to use short forms: I’m, you’re, he’ll, don’t, wouldn’t, etc.

Some notes about punctuation.

Pay attention to the punctuation in this sentence:

“I don’t know,” said Martin. "Watch a movie, maybe."

In case the response is a question:

“Do you know what to do?” asked Martin. "Because I don't."

Here the speech is separated from 'asked Martin' by a question mark. In this case, it acts as a comma, so it is followed by a lowercase letter.

Sometimes you may come across a line like this:

"I think," said Martin, "we should watch a movie."

In this case, the first half of the line is not , so the author's words are followed by a comma rather than a period, and the line continues with a lowercase letter.

Specifying Tone and Mood

The most commonly used is 'said X' or 'said Y'. But the verb 'say' tells us nothing about the tone of the speaker or the volume of his voice. If you want to make it clear that the speech is being spoken angrily, or loudly, or very quietly, you need to use. Their choice is great.

The statements that a person makes are conveyed in writing in two ways: direct or indirect speech. This is typical for both Russian and English languages.

Differences between direct and indirect speech

Direct speech or Direct Speech is the literal transmission of someone’s speech (phrases, sentences) in writing. That's why it's in quotation marks.

Cyril said, “I’ve never been to London.”

Kirill said: "I've never been to London."

Indirect speech or Indirect or Reported Speech is not a literal transmission of speech. Indirect speech retains the content, but can change form, conveying the message inaccurately, in other words. In this case, quotation marks are not placed, and the sentence becomes a subordinate clause.

Fam said that she had never been to London.

Pham said she had never been to London.

Direct speech in English

Direct speech in English is somewhat different from Russian in writing: upper quotation marks (“) are used instead of the usual Russian “herringbones”. Moreover, in English, the period at the end of the sentence is placed before the quotation marks, like other signs, while in Russian, on the contrary, after the quotation marks.

She answered, “No, I can’t.”

She replied: “No, I can’t.”

After the introductory construction “He said”, “She answered”, “Someone exclaimed”, etc. use a colon or comma.

I said: “I don’t like fruit.”

I said, "I don't like fruit."

Direct speech includes not only affirmative sentences, but also interrogative, exclamatory or incentive sentences. Punctuation is always stored inside quotation marks.

We exclaimed, “It’s so easy!”

We exclaimed: “It’s so simple!”

To convey direct speech in English, the following verbs are usually used:

Say - to speak

Tell - tell

Ask - ask

Answer - answer

Explain - explain

Exclaim - to exclaim

Whisper - whisper

Scream - scream

As well as many other verbs whose meaning is related to the transfer of information.

Transformation of direct speech into indirect speech

Indirect speech is used more often than direct speech, especially in oral speech. But in English, the transformation from direct speech to indirect speech is not limited to the fact that quotation marks are omitted. It is also necessary to observe the rule of coordinating tenses, as well as a number of other rules. Also, in indirect speech, parts of a sentence are not separated by a comma.

Personal and possessive pronouns are replaced depending on the context.

Boris said, “We should work.”

Boris said they should work.

He said they should work.

Demonstrative pronouns also change:

this – that

these – those

She said to Moris, “Give me this shawl.”

She asked Moris to give her that shawl.

Adverbs of time are replaced:

today – that day

ago – before

tomorrow – the next day

He said, “I’ll call it off tomorrow.”

He promised to call it off the next day.

If the predicate in the main sentence is in the past tense (which happens most often), subordinate clause in indirect speech it also requires the transition of the predicate to the past tense.

They said, “We are working.”

They said they were working.

How often do we convey other people's words to someone else? Every day!

For example: “She told you to call her. He said he would be late. They ask if we will go with them."

In all these sentences we are retelling the words of other people, that is, we are using indirect speech.

In English, such sentences are formed by certain rules. They are easy to understand and remember.

In this article I will tell you how to correctly translate direct speech into indirect speech in English.

From the article you will learn:

4 steps to convert direct speech to indirect speech in English

What is direct and indirect speech?

Direct speech is a verbatim statement from another person.

Such speech, whether in Russian or in English, is highlighted in writing with quotation marks. For example:

“I won’t be able to come,” she said.

He replied: “I don’t understand.”

Indirect speech is the transfer of the words of another person.

That is, we retell to someone what someone said.

For example:

She said she couldn't come.

He said he didn't understand.

The English language has its own rules and features of translating direct speech into indirect speech.

Let's look at the main ones.

Attention: Confused about English rules? Find out at free lesson in Moscow as English.

4 steps to convert direct speech to indirect speech in English

In order to convert direct speech into indirect speech, you need to do certain things. To make it easier for you to remember them, I have divided these steps into 4 steps.

So, to convey someone's words in English (that is, convert direct speech to indirect speech), we:

1. Remove the quotes and put the word that

For example, we have a proposal:

To convey these words to someone, just like in Russian, we remove the quotation marks and put the word that - “what”.

She said that…..
She said that...

Note that that can often be omitted, especially in colloquial speech.

2. We change the character

In direct speech, a person usually speaks on his own behalf. But in indirect speech we cannot speak on behalf of this person. Therefore, we change “I” to another actor.

Let's return to our proposal:

She said, “I will buy a dress.”
She said, "I'll buy a dress."

Since we are conveying the girl’s words, instead of “I” we put “she”:

She said that she…..
She said that she….

3. We agree on a time

In English, we cannot use the past tense with the present or future tense in the same sentence.

Therefore, if we say “said” (that is, we use the past tense), then next part sentences must be coordinated with this past tense.

Let's take our proposal:

She said, “I will buy a dress.”
She said, "I'll buy a dress."

To harmonize the first and second parts of the sentence, we change will to would.

She said that she would buy a dress.
She said that she would buy a dress.

Let's look at the table for coordinating basic tenses when translating direct speech into indirect speech.

In the left column is the tense used in direct speech. On the right is the tense that should be used in indirect speech.

Direct speech	Indirect speech
Present Simple For example: He said, “I drive a car.” He said, “I drive a car.”	Past Simple For example: He said that he drove a car. He said he was driving a car.
Present Continuous She said, “I am working.” She said, "I'm working"	Past Continuous She said that she was working. She said she was working.
Present Perfect They said, “We have cooked dinner.” They said, “We have prepared dinner.”	Past Perfect They said that they had cooked dinner. They said that they had prepared dinner.
Future tense - will She said, “I will read the book.” She said, "I'll read the book."	Future tense - would She said that she would read the book. She said she was reading a book.
Past Simple He said, “I called you.” He said, “I called you.”	Past Perfect He said that he had called me. He said he called me.

Note: If we convey the words of a person at the present moment, that is, we say “he/she speaks,” then there is no need to coordinate tenses.

Direct speech:

She says, “I am studying.”
She says: “I’m working out.”

Indirect speech:

She says that she is studying.
She says she is studying.

4. Change some words

In some cases, we must agree not only on tenses, but also on individual words.

What are these words? Let's look at a small example.

She said, “I am driving now.”
She said, "I'm driving now."

That is, she is currently driving.

However, when we convey her words, we will not be talking about the present moment (the one when we are talking now), but about a moment in time in the past (the one when she was driving).

Therefore, we change now (now) to then (then).

She said that she was driving then.
She said she was driving at the time.

Look at the sign of such words, and you yourself will understand this logic.

Direct speech	Indirect speech
this, these this, these	that, those that, those
here Here	there there
now Now	then Then
today Today	that day that day
tomorrow Tomorrow	the next day the next day
yesterday yesterday	the day before per day

You must use this replacement logically.

For example:

The man told you this while you were in the building where he works. Already at home, you tell someone about this:

If you are in the same building where he works, then there is no need to replace the word.

Now let's look at how to translate an interrogative sentence from direct speech to indirect speech.

Questions in indirect speech in English

Questions in indirect speech, in fact, are not questions, since the word order in them is the same as in an affirmative sentence. We don't use auxiliary verbs(do, does, did) in such sentences.

Let's look at the question in direct speech.

He asked, “Do you like this cafe?”
He asked: “Do you like this cafe?”

To ask a question in indirect speech, we remove the quotation marks and put if or whether, which are translated as “li”.

The agreement of tenses occurs in the same way as in ordinary sentences.

Our proposal will look like this:

He asked if I liked that cafe.
He asked if I liked that cafe.

She said, “Will he call back?”
She said, “Will he call back?”

She said if he would call back.
She said if he would call back.

Special questions in indirect speech

Special questions are asked with the following question words:

what - what
when - when
how - how
why - why
where - where
which - which

When translating such questions into indirect speech, we leave the direct word order (as in affirmative sentences), and in place of if we put a question word.

For example, we have a question in direct speech:

She said, “When will you come?”
She said, "When are you coming?"

In indirect speech, such a question would look like this:

She said when I would come.
She said when I would come.

Let's look at another example:

So, we have looked at the basic rules that you will need to translate direct speech into indirect speech. Now let's try to do this in practice.

Reinforcement task

Convert direct speech to indirect speech. Leave your answers in the comments.

1. She said, "I will come tomorrow."
2. He said, "I am working at my garden."
3. They said, "We play the piano".
4. He said, "Do you like the house?"
5. She asked, "When will you go to this concert?"

In order to master indirect speech, it is not enough just to know the rules. It is necessary to practice the acquired knowledge in order to maximize the results.

That is why most use various games to make it easy and interesting for students.

Reported speech is a topic that requires additional attention. First, we need to know that when we want to express another person's thoughts in English, we need to “shift” the time itself one step back. So, if the sentence is in Present Simple, we need to use Past Simple. Look at the table below:

But there are also those that remain unchanged:

would	would
could	could
might	might
should	should
ought to	ought to

Now that you have already mastered all the intricacies of Reported Speech, we suggest playing a game called What did you say?

What is needed for this?

First of all, you need a group of friends who are ready to accept the rules of the game. They are simple: the first person says a phrase, the second asks again what he said, the first, using indirect speech, rearranges the sentence. It looks something like this:

Do you like watching TV?
- What did you say?
- I asked if you liked watching TV?
- Yes, I do.
- What’s your favorite TV channel?

Below we will offer a series of questions that you can use for the game:

Do you like going to the cinema?
What are you doing at the weekend?
Have you ever sung in public?
How long have you been learning English?
What did you do last weekend?
What were you doing yesterday at 5.50pm?
Do you think you will get married?
Are you going to learn a new language?
Do you wish you were famous?
Who is your favorite actor?
What are you doing this evening?
Have you ever fallen in love?
How long have you been living here?
Did you watch a good movie last weekend?
Were you watching TV yesterday at 7.45pm?
Will you have children?
What are you going to do next Monday?
Where do you like spending your holidays?

You can come up with your own questions and vary them using all tenses of the English language. It will be not only interesting, but also useful. It is safe to say that after such a game the topic “Reported Speech” will be mastered perfectly.

Be aware of time shifts:

Present Simple	Past Simple
Present Continuous	Past Continuous
Past Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous
Past Perfect Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous
Past Simple	Past Perfect
Present Perfect	Past Perfect
Past Perfect	Past Perfect
Future Simple	Conditional
Will – will not	Would - wouldn't

Remember to change the following words:

Today	That day
Now	Then
Tonight	That night
Last day	The day before / the previous day
yesterday	The day before
Ago	before
Last week	The week before
Next year	The following year
Tomorrow	The next day / the following day
Here	There
This	That
These	Those

Study and don't be afraid to make mistakes in speech. As soon as you start speaking, all mistakes will fade into the background. Remember that speaking is the first step to speaking fluently.