In linguistics, indirect speech (also reported speech or indirect discourse) is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be direct discourse.
Reported or indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs like 'say', 'tell', 'ask', and we may use the word 'that' to introduce the reported words. Inverted commas are not used.
EXAMPLES:
She said, "I saw him." (direct speech)
She said that she had seen him. (indirect speech)
ANOTHEREXAMPLESFORINDIRECTSPEECH
She told him that she was happy.
She told him she was happy.
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basedus00
Direct Speech Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. When we use direct speech in writing, we place the words spoken between quotation marks (" ") and there is no change in these words. We may be reporting something that's being said NOW (for example a telephone conversation), or telling someone later about a previous conversation.
basedus00
Examples: 1. She says, "What time will you be home?" 2. She said, "What time will you be home?" and I said, "I don't know! " "There's a fly in my soup!" screamed Simone. 3. John said, "There's an elephant outside the window."
basedus00
REMEMBER: Direct Speech uses quotations (") while Indirect Speech does not. I hope this helps!
Answers & Comments
Answer:
In linguistics, indirect speech (also reported speech or indirect discourse) is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be direct discourse.
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Answer:
Indirect speech
Reported or indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words spoken. We use reporting verbs like 'say', 'tell', 'ask', and we may use the word 'that' to introduce the reported words. Inverted commas are not used.
EXAMPLES:
She said, "I saw him." (direct speech)
She said that she had seen him. (indirect speech)
ANOTHER EXAMPLES FOR INDIRECT SPEECH
She told him that she was happy.
She told him she was happy.
Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. When we use direct speech in writing, we place the words spoken between quotation marks (" ") and there is no change in these words. We may be reporting something that's being said NOW (for example a telephone conversation), or telling someone later about a previous conversation.