Learn English with English, baby!

Join for FREE!

Social_nav_masthead_logged_in

Direct vs. Reported Speech

Direct and reported speech are two different ways to say what someone else said.

In direct speech, we quote the exact words that a person said. We put quotation marks around their words and add a speech tag such as "he said" or "she asked" before or after the quote. For example:

"Are you free tonight?" she asked.
"I failed a test last week," she said.
He asked, "Have you seen any good movies lately?"

We can also use direct speech to say what someone is saying right now, as in: She says, "Hurry up."

Reported speech is another way of saying what someone said, but without quotation marks. Reported speech doesn't usually repeat the words exactly as the person said them. It typically changes the tense of the verbs. For example, if the speaker used a present tense verb, we change it to the past tense. If the speaker used a past tense verb, we change it to past perfect. We also change pronouns and time expressions.

See how the quotations given in direct speech above look in reported speech. Notice the changes in verb tense:

She asked if I was free that night.
She said she had failed an exam the week before.
He asked if I had seen any good movies lately.

Direct vs. Reported Speech Grammar Quiz

  1. He said Paul Nash beautiful pictures of war scenes.

  2. She asked, "Where from."

  3. Marie asked me if I of a good lunch spot.

  4. He told the truck driver that been everywhere.

  5. " in a risk-free trial of a timeshare off the coast of Guadalajara?" asked the saleswoman.

Go Super to see the answers! Go Super!

Direct vs. Reported Speech Lessons:

Zayn Malik

Bad Manners

The Expat Bubble

TV on the Radio

Off My Chest

Star Trek

Where the Wild Things Are

Benefits

The iTEP® test

  • Schedule an iTEP® test and take the official English Practice Test.

    Take Now >

Comments

Log in to Reply

keni-gnawi

Morocco

i thank you very much for this lesson  but it will be more rich if you add  some  exercises

05:31 PM Apr 03 2009 |

luis fer

luis fer

Colombia

it is agood lesson.thanks a lot

 

11:21 PM Feb 28 2009 |