LEARNING TO CHANGE NARRATION/SPEECH

Narration/speech

Assertive sentence

Read the following sentence:

Direct:   He says,''I am unwell.''

Indirect: He says that he is unwell.

Direct :   I will say ,''I can help Rana.''

Indirect :I will say that I can help Rana.

Direct :  You have said,''I did this.''

Indirect :You have said that you did it .

Direct :I say to him,''You are honest.''

Indirect: I tell him that he is honest.

Direct :He says to me,''you are intelligent''

Indirect :He tells me that I am intelligent.

Direct :They will say to you,''You were clever.''

Indirect:They will tell you that you were clever.

Structure:

1.Direct :subj.+say/says/will say,''subj.+verb+ext.''

Indirect : subj.+say/says/will say +that +changing person of the subj. +verb +ext.

2.Direct:subj.+say/says/will say  +to +obj.,''subj.+verb+ext.''

Indirect:subj.+tell/tells/will tell +obj. +that+changing person of subj.+verb +ext.

Note when the reporting verb is in present or future tense ,the tense of verb in reported speech will be unchanged.only the person of subject and object in reported will be changed according to the person changing rules.Here we can recollect the rules again

a.first person word of reported speech will be changed according to the subj.of reporting verb.

b.second person word of reported speech will be changed according to the obj.of reporting verb.

c.third person word will remain unchanged.

Read the bellow sentence:

Direct:He said,''Man is mortal''

Indirect:He said that man is mortal.

Direct :The teacher said,''The earth moves round the sun''

Indirect :The teacher said that the earth moves round the sun.

Here the reported speech is a universal truth or habitual fact.Therefore,instead of the reporting verb in past tense,the tense of verb in reported speech will remain unchanged.Only a conjunction (that) is used here deleting comma and inverted comma.