Direct and Indirect Speech Direct speech is the exact quote of the speech. They are completely identical transcripts of speech between two people. Reported speech is the way a listener would narrate the incident in front of another person. The verbs in the present tense will change into their corresponding past tenses in the following manner −
Simple present to simple past
Present progressive to past progressive
Present perfect to past perfect
Present perfect progressive to past perfect progressive.
The word “will, shall” will be replaced by “would”.
The word “can” will be replaced by “could”. Important: The only action words that will not change its tense are actions that are universal truth.
She says “I am a bit busy today.” A. She said that she was a bit busy that day. B. She said she is busy today C. She says that she is a bit busy today. D. She is a bit busy today was said by her.
Correct answer: (C) She says that she is a bit busy today.
Explanation:
This question tests the rules for converting direct speech to reported speech, particularly when the reporting verb is in the present tense.
The sentence provided is: “She says, ‘I am a bit busy today.”
Option (C) “She says that she is a bit busy today” correctly keeps the reporting verb in the present tense (“says”), keeps the tense of the reported verb (“is”), and adjusts the pronoun. “Today” remains unchanged.
Why Other Options are incorrect:
• Option (A) “She said that she was a bit busy that day” uses the past tense of the reporting verb “said” and changes the tense, which is incorrect.
• Option (B) “She said she is busy today” also incorrectly changes the reporting verb to “said.”
• Option (D) “She is a bit busy today was said by her” is passive and doesn’t follow the rules for converting direct to reported speech.
Therefore, “She says that she is a bit busy today” is the most accurate reported speech conversion for the given sentence.
Grammer Rules:
• The reporting verb, “says,” is in the simple present tense.
• When the reporting verb is in the present or future tense, the tense of the verb in the reported speech does not change. Tense changes occur when the reporting verb is in the past tense, such as “said.”
• The pronoun “I” in direct speech changes to “she” in reported speech.
• The time adverb “today” typically changes to “that day” in reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past tense. However, with a present tense reporting verb like “says,” the time adverb “today” can remain “today” if the reported statement is still relevant.
They said that they took the bus every day. A. That they took the bus every day was said by them. B. They said “We take the bus.” C. They said “We took the bus every day.” D. They said, “They take the bus every day.”
Correct answer: (D) They said, “We take the bus every day.”
Explanation:
The question requires converting reported speech (“They said that they took the bus every day”) back into direct speech.
The reported speech is: “They said that they took the bus every day.”
Option (D) “They said ‘We take the bus every day.'” correctly reverts the tense change (from past simple “took” to present simple “take”) and the pronoun change (from “they” to “we”), while also reintroducing the quotation marks appropriate for direct speech. To change from indirect to direct speech, the rules of direct speech are applied in reverse order. This includes using the correct tense for the reporting verb, removing conjunctions like “that,” and inserting quotation marks and other necessary punctuation.
Why Other Options are incorrect:
• Option (A) “That they took the bus every day was said by them.” This is a passive construction of the reported speech and not a direct speech conversion.
• Option (C) “They said ‘We took the bus every day.'” While the pronoun “we” is correct, the verb tense “took” is not reverted to the original present simple “take”. Tenses are generally backshifted from present to past in reported speech, so they should be shifted back from past to present when converting from reported to direct speech.
• Option (B) “They said, ‘They take the bus every day.'” This option incorrectly maintains the pronoun “they” in the direct speech. The original speakers used “We”, and in direct speech, it should be the exact words spoken.
Therefore, “They said ‘We take the bus every day.'” is the most accurate direct speech conversion for the given reported speech.
Grammar Rules:
• Converting reported speech back to direct speech requires reversing the changes made during the initial conversion.
o The tense of the verb in the reported clause needs to be shifted back to its original direct speech tense. Since the reported speech is “took” (past simple), the direct speech should use “take” (present simple).
o Pronouns need to be adjusted to reflect the original speaker’s perspective. In this case, “they” becomes “we”.
o Quotation marks are reintroduced around the direct speech.
o The conjunction “that” (if used in the reported speech) is removed.
He said, “She is taking medication weekly.” A. That she is taking weekly medication was said by him. B. She is taking weekly medication, he said. C. He said that she was taking medication weekly. D. He said that, weekly medication was being taken by her.
Answer: C
Correct answer: (C) He said that she was taking medication weekly.
Explanation:
This question tests the rules for converting direct speech to reported speech.
The sentence provided is: “He said, ‘She is taking medication weekly.'”
Option (C) “He said that she was taking medication weekly” correctly changes the verb tense from present continuous (“is taking”) to past continuous (“was taking”), uses the conjunction “that”, and maintains the pronoun “she”. This adheres to the rules for converting direct to reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past tense.
Why Other Options are incorrect:
• Option (A) “That she is taking weekly medication was said by him.” This option is a passive construction of the reported speech and does not follow the standard conversion rules. It also incorrectly keeps the tense in the present continuous.
• Option (B) “She is taking weekly medication, he said.” This option is still in direct speech, just with the reporting clause placed at the end. It does not convert the sentence to reported speech.
• Option (D) “He said that, weekly medication was being taken by her.” This option incorrectly converts an active voice sentence in direct speech to a passive voice sentence (“was being taken by her”) in reported speech. The adverb placement is also awkward.
Therefore, “He said that she was taking medication weekly” is the most accurate reported speech conversion for the given sentence.
Grammar Rules:
• The reporting verb, “said,” is in the simple past tense.
• When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the tense of the verb in the reported speech changes (backshift of tense).
• Present Continuous in Direct Speech changes to Past Continuous in Reported Speech. (e.g., “is taking” becomes “was taking”).
• The pronoun “She” (third-person) in direct speech remains “she” in reported speech.
• The conjunction “that” is typically used to introduce the reported clause (though it can sometimes be omitted).
He said to me “I will not give you any money without signing a contract.” A. He said to me that he would not give me any money without signing a contract. B. He said to me that he would not give me any money without him signing a contract. C. He said to me that he will not give me any money without signing a contract. D. He said to me that he would not give me money without signing a contract.
Correct answer is (A): “He said to me that he would not give me any money without signing a contract.”
Explanation:
This question involves changing direct speech into reported or indirect speech. The original sentence is: “He said to me, ‘I will not give you any money without signing a contract.'”
Let’s look at the options:
• Option (A) “He said to me that he would not give me any money without signing a contract.” This option correctly changes “I will not” to “he would not” and “you” to “me.” It uses “that” and keeps the meaning.
• Option (B) “He said to me that he would not give me any money without him signing a contract.” This option incorrectly changes “signing a contract” to “him signing a contract.” The original sentence means the speaker would not give money if the listener didn’t sign the contract.
• Option (C) “He said to me that he will not give me any money without signing a contract.” This option incorrectly keeps “will not” instead of changing it to “would not.”
• Option (D) “He said to me that he would not give me money without signing a contract.” This option omits “any” before “money,” which slightly changes the meaning. Option (A) is a more accurate conversion.
Therefore, “He said to me that he would not give me any money without signing a contract” is the most accurate reported speech.
Grammar Rules:
• Reporting Verb: When the reporting verb is in the past tense (e.g., “said to me”), the tense of the verb in the reported clause changes.
• Tense Change: “Will not” in Direct Speech changes to “would not” in Reported Speech.
• Pronoun Change: “I” changes to “he”; “you” changes to “me.”
• Conjunction: “That” introduces the reported clause.
• Other elements: Parts of the sentence like “without signing a contract” stay the same to keep the meaning.
We said, “We go for a walk every day.” A. They said that they had gone for a walk every day. B. We said that we went for a walk every day. C. We went for a walk every day, is what we said. D. They said that they went for a walk every day.
Correct answer: (B) We said that we went for a walk every day.
Explanation:
This question involves converting direct speech, “We said, ‘We go for a walk every day,'” into reported speech.
The direct speech is: “We said, ‘We go for a walk every day.'”
Option (B) “We said that we went for a walk every day” correctly follows the rules for converting direct to reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past tense (“said”).
• Since the reporting verb “said” is in the past tense, the tense in the reported clause typically changes (backshift).
• The direct speech “We go for a walk every day” describes a habitual action in the simple present tense. When the reporting verb is in the past tense, a backshift usually occurs. Thus, “go” (simple present) changes to “went” (simple past).
• The pronoun “We” in the direct speech stays as “we” in the reported speech because the subject of the reporting verb (“We”) is the same as the subject of the reported clause (“We”).
• The conjunction “that” introduces the reported clause.
Why Other Options are incorrect:
• Option (A) “They said that they had gone for a walk every day.” Incorrectly changes the pronoun to “they” and backshifts the tense to past perfect (“had gone”), which is not the standard change from simple present for a habitual action in this context.
• Option (C) “We went for a walk every day, is what we said.” This sentence structure is informal and does not represent the standard conversion to reported speech.
• Option (D) “They said that they went for a walk every day.” Incorrectly changes the pronoun to “they”.
Therefore, “We said that we went for a walk every day” is the most accurate reported speech conversion.
Grammar Rules:
• Reporting Verb: When the reporting verb (here, “said”) is in the past tense, the tense of the verb in the reported clause generally changes.
• Tense Change: Simple Present in Direct Speech (“go”) changes to Simple Past in Reported Speech (“went”).
• Pronoun Change: The first-person pronoun “We” in the direct speech stays as “we” in the reported speech when the subject of the reporting verb is the same as the subject of the reported clause.
• Conjunction: “That” introduces the reported clause.
She says, “I eat a mango a day.” A. She said that she ate a mango a day. B. She says that she eats a mango a day. C. That she eats a mango a day was said by her. D. She said that she eats a mango a day
Correct answer: (B) She says that she eats a mango a day.
Explanation:
This question tests the rules for converting direct speech to reported speech when the reporting verb is in the present tense.
The direct speech is: “She says, ‘I eat a mango a day.'”
Option (B) “She says that she eats a mango a day” is correct.
Here’s why other options are incorrect:
• Option (A) “She said that she ate a mango a day” incorrectly changes the reporting verb to the past tense (“said”) and backshifts the reported verb tense (“ate”).
• Option (C) “That she eats a mango a day was said by her” is a passive construction and does not follow the standard conversion rules.
• Option (D) “She said that she eats a mango a day” incorrectly changes the reporting verb to the past tense (“said”), even though the reported verb tense (“eats”) is correctly maintained.
Therefore, “She says that she eats a mango a day” is the most accurate reported speech conversion.
Grammar Rules:
• Reporting Verb: When the reporting verb is in the present tense (e.g., “says”), the verb tense in the reported speech does not change.
• Tense: Simple Present in Direct Speech (“eat”) remains Simple Present in Reported Speech (“eats”, adjusted for subject-verb agreement).
• Pronoun Change: The first-person pronoun “I” changes to a third-person pronoun “she” to reflect the speaker of the reported speech.
• Conjunction: “That” introduces the reported clause.
He said, “My father is playing tennis with me.” A. He said that his father was playing tennis with him. B. That his father was playing tennis with him was said by him. C. He said that his father is playing tennis with him. D. He said that tennis was being played by his father.
Correct answer: (A) He said that his father was playing tennis with him.
Explanation:
This question assesses the conversion of direct speech to reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past tense.
The direct speech is: “He said, ‘My father is playing tennis with me.'”
Option (A) “He said that his father was playing tennis with him” correctly converts the direct speech to reported speech.
Why the other options are incorrect:
• Option (B) “That his father was playing tennis with him was said by him.” This is a passive construction of the reported speech and does not follow the standard conversion rules.
• Option (C) “He said that his father is playing tennis with him.” This option incorrectly keeps the verb tense in the present continuous (“is playing”) instead of changing it to past continuous.
• Option (D) “He said that tennis was being played by his father.” This option incorrectly converts the active voice sentence in direct speech to a passive voice sentence (“was being played by his father”) in reported speech.
Therefore, “He said that his father was playing tennis with him” is the most accurate reported speech conversion.
Grammar rules:
• Reporting Verb: When the reporting verb is in the past tense (e.g., “said”), the tense of the verb in the reported speech changes (backshift of tense).
• Tense Change: Present Continuous in Direct Speech changes to Past Continuous in Reported Speech. (e.g., “is playing” becomes “was playing”).
• Pronoun Change: Possessive adjective “My” changes to “his”; object pronoun “me” changes to “him”.
• Conjunction: “That” is typically used to introduce the reported clause.
She said, “I am going to meet her tonight.” A. She said that she was going to meet her that night. B. That she was going to meet her tonight was said by her. C. I am going to meet her tonight, she said. D. She said that she is going to meet her that night.
Correct answer: (A) She said that she was going to meet her that night.
Explanation:
This question involves converting direct speech into reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past tense.
The direct speech is: “She said, ‘I am going to meet her tonight.'”
Option (A), “She said that she was going to meet her that night,” correctly converts the direct speech to reported speech.
Why the other options are incorrect:
• Option (B), “That she was going to meet her tonight was said by her,” is a passive construction of the reported speech and does not follow the standard conversion rules. It also incorrectly keeps “tonight.”
• Option (C), “I am going to meet her tonight, she said,” is still in direct speech, just with the reporting clause placed at the end. It doesn’t convert the sentence to reported speech.
• Option (D), “She said that she is going to meet her that night,” incorrectly keeps the verb tense in the present continuous (“is going to meet”) instead of changing it to past continuous.
Therefore, “She said that she was going to meet her that night” is the most accurate reported speech conversion.
Grammar Rules:
• Reporting Verb: When the reporting verb is in the past tense (e.g., “said”), the tense of the verb in the reported speech changes (backshift of tense).
• Tense Change: Present Continuous in Direct Speech (“am going to meet”) changes to Past Continuous in Reported Speech (“was going to meet”).
• Pronoun Change: “I” changes to “she.”
• Time Expression Change: “Tonight” changes to “that night.”
• Conjunction: “That” is typically used to introduce the reported clause.
He will say that his brother will take care of her. A. He will say, “My brother will be taking care of her.” B. He will say, “My brother will take care of her.” C. He will say, “My brother will take care her.” D. He will say, “Her care will be taken by my brother.”
Correct answer: (B) He will say, “My brother will take care of her.”
Explanation:
This question involves converting reported speech back into direct speech. The reported speech sentence is: “He will say that his brother will take care of her.”
Option (B) “He will say, ‘My brother will take care of her.'” is the correct direct speech form.
Why the other options are incorrect:
• Option (A) “He will say, ‘My brother will be taking care of her.'” This uses the future continuous tense, which was not the original tense in the reported speech.
• Option (C) “He will say, ‘My brother will take care her.'” This option is grammatically incorrect. It is missing the preposition “of” after “take care” to form the correct phrase “take care of her.”
• Option (D) “He will say, ‘Her care will be taken by my brother.'” This changes the sentence to passive voice, which was not the original form of the reported speech.
Therefore, “He will say, ‘My brother will take care of her.'” is the most accurate conversion back to direct speech.
Grammar Rules:
• Reporting Verb in Future Tense: When the reporting verb is in the future tense, the tense of the verb in the reported speech remains unchanged.
• Tense: Future Simple in Reported Speech (“will take care”) remains Future Simple in Direct Speech.
• Pronoun Change: The possessive adjective “his” changes back to “My” to reflect the speaker’s perspective.
• Punctuation: Quotation marks are inserted around the direct speech.
• Conjunction: The conjunction “that” is removed when converting to direct speech.
• Grammatical Accuracy: Ensure that the direct speech is grammatically correct. The phrase “take care of her” is correct, while “take care her” is incorrect.
She said, “I visited the University yesterday.” A. She said she had visited the university the day before. B. She said she visited the university that day C. That she visited the university was said. D. She said that she had visited the University the previous day.
Correct answer: (D) She said that she had visited the University the previous day.
Explanation:
This question involves converting direct speech into reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past tense.
The direct speech is: “She said, ‘I visited the University yesterday.'”
Option (D) “She said that she had visited the University the previous day” correctly converts the direct speech to reported speech.
Why the other options are incorrect:
• Option (A) “She said she had visited the university the day before.” This is also a correct form of reported speech, using “the day before” instead of “the previous day”, both are correct. However, the question provides “the previous day” in option D.
• Option (B) “She said she visited the university that day.” This option incorrectly keeps the verb tense in the simple past (“visited”) and incorrectly changes “yesterday” to “that day.”
• Option (C) “That she visited the university was said.” This is a passive construction of the reported speech and does not follow the standard conversion rules. It also incorrectly keeps the verb tense in the simple past.
Therefore, “She said that she had visited the University the previous day” is the most accurate and grammatically correct reported speech conversion.
Grammar Rules:
• Reporting Verb: When the reporting verb is in the past tense (e.g., “said”), the tense of the verb in the reported speech changes (backshift of tense).
• Tense Change: Simple Past in Direct Speech changes to Past Perfect in Reported Speech (e.g., “visited” becomes “had visited”).
• Pronoun Change: “I” changes to “she”.
• Time Adverb Change: “Yesterday” changes to “the previous day” or “the day before”.
• Conjunction: “That” is typically used to intro
