Direct and Indirect

Direct Speech

Direct/Quoted speech is saying exactly what someone has said. It appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. When we use direct speech in writing, we put the words spoken between inverted commas ("___") and there is no change in these words. We may be reporting something that's being said NOW, or telling someone later about a previous conversation

Indirect Speech

Indirect/Reported speech is enclosing what the person said. It doesn't use quotation marks and doesn't have to be word for word.

Indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past. When we use indirect speech, we don’t use inverted comas. We should change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs for example say, ask, and we may use the word that to introduce the reported words.

Direct Speed	Indirect Speech
Present Simple	Past Simple		In Case  Of  Tenses
Present Continue	Past Continue
Past Simple	Past Perfect Simple
Past Continue	Past Perfect Continue
Present Perfect Simple	Past perfect simple
Present Perfect Continue	Past perfect continue
Past Perfect Simple	Past perfect simple
Past Perfect Continue	Past perfect continue
Future with “Will”	Would
Future with “Going to”	Was/were going to
Can	Could
Must/Have to	Had to
May/Might	Might
Would, could, should, ought to	Don’t change.
Yesterday	The previous day/The last day/The day before
Today	That Day
Tomorrow	The next day/The following day/The coming day
Shall	Should
This	That
These	Those
Now	Then/right away
The day after tomorrow	in two days time
The day before yesterday	Two days before
Tonight	That night
Last night	The previous night/the last night/the night before
Here	There
Hither	Thither
Ago	Before
Sir and Madam	Respectfully (in reporting speech)
Good morning/ after noon/evening	Greeted
Good night/good bye/fare well	Don’t change
Next (Sunday, month, week etc.)	The following/the next (Sunday, month, week etc.)
Last (night, week, Sunday, month, year etc.)	The previous/ The last ( night, week, Sunday, month, year etc.)/ The (night, week, Sunday, month, year etc.) before
Hence	Thence
Thus	So
Has to / have to	Had to
Is to/ are to/ am to	Was to / were to
Do/Does	Did
Come	Go	These two rarely change
Go	Come
Hello, hallo, hullo, yes, no, alright, hi are removed

Examples
Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
Present Simple	Past Simple
She said, “I like fiction.”	She said that she liked fiction.
Present Continue	Past Continue
Mary said, “I am writing a novel.” He said, “I am going to see my mother tomorrow.” She said, “I hope I will win the contest.”	Mary said that she was witting a novel. He said that he was going to see his mother the next day. She said that she hoped she would win the contest.
Present Perfect	Past Perfect
Tom said, “I have broken my arm yesterday.”	Tom said that he had broken his arm the previous day.
No change of tense is required when you are describing about the universal truths.
She said, “Washington is the capital of United States.”	She said that Washington is the capital of United States.
He said, “The sun rises in the East.”	He said that the sun rises in the East.
This	That
They say,” We don’t like this place.”	They say that they don’t like that place.
Tomorrow	The next day
He said,” I may not come tomorrow.”	He said that he might not come the next day.
She said to her father,” Good night father.”	She said good night to her father.
Good morning/ after noon/evening	Greeted
I said to him,” Good morning.”	I greeted (to) him.
Note: in spoken English, when the place or the thing is in your reach, “this” and “here” don’t change, they remain unchanged.
Do/Does	Did
He said,” I don’t like this chair.”	He said that he didn’t like this chair.