Indirect Speech: Rules for Converting Direct Speech

In our Russian language, there are two ways of transmitting someone else’s speech: direct speech and indirect. The same is in English. And if with direct speech everything is clear, then the use, rules and design of indirect speech can cause some difficulties. In the article you can find Indirect Speech rules and facts that may seem interesting to you.

Direct and indirect speech in Russian

What is direct and indirect speech? First, we give simple examples in Russian for greater clarity. Direct speech is transmitted verbatim. There are certain rules for the design of direct speech in Russian. It is entered with either quotation marks and a colon, or a dash. Take a look at the following two examples:

1. He said: "I want to learn English."
2. “I want to learn English,” he said.

Indirect speech is introduced by the union in a complex sentence and does not always convey a person’s speech word for word:

1. He said he wanted to learn English.
2. Marina said she was going to do journalism.

Direct and Indirect Speech Rules

In English, as well as in Russian, there is direct (direct) and Indirect (indirect) Speech (speech).

To begin, we will analyze the features of direct speech in English. As in Russian, it fully conveys the words of a person and does not change what was said. Most often, Direct Speech is separated by quotation marks and commas:

1. He said, "I want to learn English."
2. "I want to learn English," He said.

As you may have noticed, punctuation marks in direct speech in English, unlike Russian, are placed inside the direct speech itself, no quotation marks are followed by a dash, the first word is always capitalized.

Indirect speech in English requires a more detailed explanation. Now we’ll try to find out how a person’s speech is made out and transmitted in English, and also find out the basic rules of Indirect Speech.

Indirect Speech: what is it?

With indirect speech, many people have some problems. Mainly with the fact that in English the time coordination works here.

But first, let's look at the main points of Indirect Speech that you need to know.

The main difference between direct and indirect speech is that when transmitting a person’s words by indirect speech, quotation marks and punctuation marks are omitted, and the first person changes to the third. Also, indirect speech in English is most often introduced by the union that. That is, a sentence with direct speech:

• Mary says, "I love reading." - Mary said: "I love to read."

It has the following form in an indirect speech sentence:

• Mary says that she loves reading. - Mary says she loves to read.

Everything is very simple if the time of the main sentence is present or future. Then there will be the same time in the subordinate clause. But if we are dealing with the past tense, everything will be a little more complicated.

Indirect Speech: time alignment

Matching the times only seems complicated, but in reality it is not so complicated, if you look at it.

Simply put, this rule works like this: what was a direct speech, that is, a subordinate clause, is consistent with time in the main sentence. For example, if we say: “Jack said he plays tennis,” we need to put “plays” at the same time as the word “said” in the past. In English, we work on this principle:

• Jack said that he played tennis. - Jack said he plays tennis.

For clarity, we will compile a small table that shows how each time changes according to the rules of Indirect Speech.

Do not forget that along with the times, according to the rules of Indirect Speech, pronouns in English also change. I.e:

• now (now) changes to then (then);
• this (this) changes to that (that);
• these (these) → those (those);
• today (today) → that day (on that day, then);
• tomorrow (tomorrow) → the next day;
• yesterday (yesterday) → the day before (the day before);
• ago (back, ago) → before (earlier);
• next day / week / year (next day / next week / next year) → the following / next day / week / year (the same thing, in principle, only the word changes and a certain article is added);
• last morning / night / day / year (yesterday morning / yesterday night / yesterday / that year) → the previous morning / night / day / year (previous morning, previous night, previous day, previous year).

Modal verbs also change in indirect speech, but only those that have their form in the past tense: can, may, have to. For example, must has no past tense, which means it remains unchanged. But he remains unchanged only when he expresses an order or advice with a touch of obligation. If we talk more about the need to do something, must change to had to.

When not changing:

• My girlfriend said, "You musn't smoke!" - My girlfriend said: "You should not smoke!"
• My girlfriend said I musn't smoke. - My girlfriend said that I should not / should not smoke.

When changing to had to:

• Alice said again: "I must finish this work now!" - Alice said again: "I have to finish this work now!"
• Alice said that the had to finish that work then. - Alice said she should finish this work.

Cases When Times May Not Change

Well-known facts conveyed in the subordinate clause will not be agreed upon:

• The teacher said that the Earth goes round the sun. - The teacher said that the earth revolves around the sun.

If you tell in your speech that you still haven’t changed, then you can omit the rules for reconciling times and leave the future or present as it is. Take the sentence with direct speech:

• Jonh said, "Frank speaks Korean so fluently!" - John said: "Frank is so fluent in Korean!"

You can remake it into a sentence with an indirect speech, based on the rules for coordinating times, but it will also not be considered a mistake if you do not start to change the time: after all, Frank still speaks Korean fluently.

• Jonh said that Frank spoke Korean fluently. - John said Frank is fluent in Korean.
• Jonh said that Frank speaks Korean fluently. - John said Frank is fluent in Korean.

We give one more example of a sentence with direct speech.

• Mary told, "Learning French is boring for me". - Mary said: "Learning French is a boring activity for me."

But it’s known that Mary is still learning French and still thinks that learning this language is boring. Therefore, we can coordinate the subordinate clause, but we can not agree. Neither one nor the other will be considered a mistake.

• Mary told that learning French is boring for her. - Mary said that learning French for her is a boring lesson.
• Mary told that learning French was boring for her. - Mary said that learning French for her is a boring lesson.

Indirect Speech: interrogative sentences and the rules of their education

There are two types of Indirect Questions ( general questions): general and special. We will tell about each of them now.

General issues

These are questions that we can answer simply “yes” or “no.” When translating a general question into indirect speech, we use if or whether unions, which are translated into Russian as "if." In general, the same principles for reconciling times work as in affirmative sentences.

• She asked me, "Do you like this movie?" - She asked me: "Do you like this movie?"
• She asked me whether / if I liked that movie. “She asked if I liked this movie.”

As you can see, nothing complicated: at the very beginning we put if or whether, and then change the times according to the rules. Answers to questions when translated into indirect speech are also consistent, but yes / no is omitted here.

• I answered, "Yes, I do." - I replied: "Yes, I like it."
• I answered that I did. - I replied that I like it.

Special Issues

Special questions require a more specific answer, not just yes or no. To translate a similar question into indirect speech, you need to put a question word at the very beginning of the subordinate clause, and also change the times according to the rules.

• Mark asked, "How are you?" - Mark asked: "How are you?"
• Mark asked me how I was. - Mark asked how I was doing.

And another example:

• My parents stood by me and asked, "Hey, Dan, why did you drink so much?" - My parents stood over me and asked: "Hey Dan, why did you drink so much?"
• My parents stood by me and asked why I had drunk so much. “My parents stood above me and asked why I drank so much.”