Direct Speech and Indirect Speech

He says to me, “I will send you the material you gave me yesterday.”
He asks her, “Will you bring your book tomorrow?”
He asks her if or whether she will bring her book the next day.
I ask you if you will bring your book the day after.
Rule 3: The 3rd person singular (he, him, his, his/ she, her, her, hers/ it, it,
its) and plural (they, the, their, theirs) in the direct speech remains
unchanged.
She said to me, “He is living with her in his parents’ house.”
She said to me that he is living with her in his parents’ house.
Tense Changes
Basic Rule: If the tense of the reporting verb is present or future tense,
the tense in the direct speech remains unchanged.
He says to me,
He is saying to me,
He has said to me, “I did my assignment last week.”
He will say to me,
He will be saying to me,
that he did his assignment the previous
week.
Basic Rule 2: If the tense of the verb in the reporting clause is any form
of past tense (Simple past, Past Perfect, Past perfect continuous and past
continuous), the tense the “actual speaking” goes one step back to the
past.
He asked/had asked/was asking/had been asking her, “Where were you
yesterday?”
He asked/had asked/was asking/had been asking her where she had been
the previous day.
V2/was/were (simple past) Had + V3 or had been – past
perfect tense
Was/were + ving – past continuous Had been + ving – Past perfect
tense continuous tense
V1/Vs (Simple present tense) V2 (simple past tense)
Is/am/are + Ving – present Was/were + Ving – past
continuous tense continuous tense
Will/can/may/shall + V1 simple Would/could/migh/should +V1 =
condition tenses present condition tense
Would/could + V1 present Would/could have + v3 = perfect
condition tense condition tense
will be + ving Would be + ving
Has/have + V3 – Present perfect Had + v3 – past perfect tense
tense
Present perfect continuous tense Past perfect continuous tense
She has told him, “I won’t do this activity again.”

She was telling him, “I won’t do this again.”

Time change
Now …………………………… then
Today ………………………….. that day
Yesterday ………………….the previous day/ the day before
Last week/year……………..the previous week/ the week before
Tomorrow ………………… the next day/the following/the day after
Next week/year …The next week/the following week/the week after
Place adverb
Here ……… there
Demonstrative words
This ……. That
These ….. those
Functional types of Sentences
Direct statement/declarative ----------------- Reported statement – using
the “THAT” as connector
e.g. He said to her, “You should bring my tomorrow.”
He said to her that she should have brought his book the next day.
Direct Interrogative/question --- reported question
1. If the direct question is asked by using auxiliary verbs, we use “if
or whether” to connect the Reporting Clause with the reported
speech.
e.g. I asked him, “Have you brought my pen?”
 I asked him whether/if he had brought my pen.
2. If the direct question is asked using “WH-words”, those WH-
words are used as connectors.
e.g. I ask him, “Why shouldn’t you bring my pen?”
I ask him why he shouldn’t bring my pen.
Direct Imperative ------- Reported imperative sentence
e.g He ordered them, “Don’t forget to bring my books.”
He ordered them not to forget to bring his books.
She commands us, “Stop talking in your classroom.”
She commands us to stop talking in our classroom.
- In changing direct imperative to indirect one, change the given
verb into infinitive with to – to + V1.
Direct Exclamation ----- reported exclamation
He exclaimed, “What a hot day it is!”
He exclaimed, “It is a very hot day.”
He exclaimed that it was a very hot day.
Rule 3: The last past tenses – past perfect tense (had + V3), past perfect
continuous tense (had been + ving) and Perfect condition tense
(would/should/might/could have + V3), remain unchanged when we
change direct speech to indirect speech.
e.g. She told us, “You might have done correctly if you had given time
to your mind.”
She told us that we might have done correctly if we had given time to
our mind.
Relative Clauses
They are dependent clauses that refer to the nearest noun in front of
them.
e.g. The man who plays football over there is our Math teacher.
Mr. John, who plays football over there, is our Math teacher.