Learn English Grammar: DIRECT & INDIRECT SPEECH (REPORTED SPEECH)

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on direct and indirect speech. So,

what do I mean by that? So, this is whenever you're either talking about or you're writing

about what somebody said, and there are two different ways of doing it. So, you might

be just having a conversation with a friend, and you're telling them about a previous time

with a person who was speaking and what they said. Or you could be writing something, and

you need to write down what somebody said, and there are two different ways of doing

it. So, they're called direct speech and indirect or reported speech, whether you're speaking

about it or writing it down. But here, I'm showing you... Obviously, I've written some

examples down, so this is written, but these could just as easily be spoken face-to-face

with another person. Okay. So, the first example here is the direct speech. "He said", quotation

mark, "I'm going to the office", full stop, quotation mark. So, this is direct speech

because you're quoting exactly the words the person said. Okay? So, if you remember exactly

what the person said, you can quote them. Sometimes people aren't quite sure, but they

might say, "Oh, he said something like", and then put something in quotation marks, sort

of approximately what they said, but usually between the quotation marks. Also, if you're

writing an essay and you're quoting from another source with quotation marks, you can't change

anything; you have to quote exactly what it is. So, it is... In quotation marks, it should

really be exactly what the person said. But, of course, if you can't remember what they

said or if you prefer to say it in a more indirect way or reporting more loosely what

the person said, you would say, "He said that he was going to the office." Or you don't

have to use "that", that's why it's in brackets. "He said he was going to the office." You

don't have to use that little word, "that". It's a bit more formal to use "that". So,

you can see the difference here is that there are no quotation marks, because we're not

quoting directly. It's just a sort of an approximation of what the person said. But you can also

see that there's a difference in the tense, because at the time he said this, he was speaking

in the present tense. He said, "I'm going", "I am going", at now, at this moment, "I am

going to the office." So, he may have been answering a question if the person said, "Oh,

hello, John. Where are you going?" "I'm going to the office." So, he may have been answering

a question, but in that moment he's speaking in the present tense, so obviously you quote

in the present tense. But in the indirect reported speech, you're talking about something

that's happened in the past when you saw him. So, "He said he was going to the office."

We've gone into the past tense here, because it was in the past by the time you're talking

about it. Okay. And then we'll find this all the way through the different examples, the

tense has to change to go further back into the past. Right, so here's another example,

then. So, "The director said", quote, "The meeting will begin at 2pm", unquote. So, when

people say this out loud, quote, unquote, that's quite a useful thing to know. Quote,

unquote, beginning of quotation, end of quotation. Right. So, here, the director is speaking

in the future. "The meeting will begin at 2pm." So, maybe the director is speaking at

12 o'clock, lunchtime. You know, have your lunch, take your time. "The meeting will begin

at 2pm." Okay, so future tense. So, how does that change if you then move to indirect reported

speech? So, "The director said that the meeting would begin at 2pm." So, we've gone from "will",

future, to "would" in the past. Much later now, later, probably after the meeting has

taken place. Okay. And again, we've got that, but it's optional. "The director said the

meeting would begin at 2pm." It may be that everyone's sitting around the table waiting

and it's 10 past 2. "The director said the meeting would begin at 2pm." Well, why hasn't

it started yet? Where is the director to start this meeting? So, that's possible as well.

That's the kind of context you could have for that. Okay. But there's the change from

"will" to "would" there. Okay.

And then another nice, simple one going from present to past. "She said, quote, 'I live

in London.'" Unquote. But then if you're reporting this later indirectly, "She said she lived

in London." She said that she lived in London. That's what she said. Even if she still lives

in London now while you're speaking, the following day or the following week, she still lives

in London as far as you know, but it goes into the past tense because she said it in

the past. So, "She said she lived in London." Okay. So, from "live", present, to "lived",

past. Right.

And then a slightly different one. We've got the present perfect here, and then it changes

to the past perfect. So, whatever tense you're in for the quotation, you have to go further

back in the past for the indirect reported version. So, "The artist said, quote, 'I've

- I have finished the painting.'" And then in the indirect version, "The artist said

he had finished the painting." So, we've gone from "have finished" to "had finished". Okay.

And then finally, another verb, modal verb, "He said, quote, 'I can't swim.'" So, if you've

invited somebody to go swimming in the local swimming pool, and they say, "Oh, I'm sorry.

I can't swim. I would better go and do something else, go for coffee or something instead.

I can't swim." So, then in reported speech, indirect speech, "He said he couldn't swim."

"Can't" and "couldn't". So, "couldn't", "could not" is the past form of "can". "Can", "could",

"can't", "couldn't". Okay.

So, the... So, this can be used either in speaking or in writing. So, it sounds the

same in speaking. Of course, the difference in writing is that you have to use all the

punctuation and the quotation marks, so it's good to know, you know, best to put a comma

after "said". Or you could have other verbs, like "He answered" or "He mentioned", different

verbs, but "said" is the usual one. And so it's important to know how to write it, the

actual quotation marks. But in speaking as well, you would use the same change in the

verbs going further back into the past when you're using the indirect speech.

So, just to clarify, then, all the tense changes that will happen depending on what tense you're

using in the direct speech version, which tense you will use in the indirect version.

So, we have on the board here all the different tenses and how they will change from direct

to indirect. So, from present simple, it will go to past simple, and so if you were saying

in the direct form, "He said", quote, "I'm busy", in the indirect version, you would

say, "He said he was busy." So, "I am busy", present simple; "He was busy", past simple.

Okay? From "am" to "was" for the verb "to be". Okay?

So, similarly for every tense, I'll just read through them. From the present continuous,

you would change to the past continuous. From present perfect to past perfect. From present

perfect continuous to past perfect continuous. From past simple to past perfect. From past

continuous to past perfect continuous. Past perfect, there's no change, so if someone

says, "I had seen that", "I had seen that", "Yes, I had seen that", in the indirect speech,

you'd say, "He said that", "He had seen that", so it stays the same. Okay?

And then past perfect continuous, again, there's no change. So, if someone says... She said,

quotes, "I had been cooking that day", when there was a knock at the door, "I had been

cooking", and that's direct speech. And then in the indirect speech, "She said that she

had been cooking that day", so it stays the same. Okay.

So, then as we saw on the previous board, "will" changes to "would"; "can" changes to

"could"; "must" changes to "had to", because you can't have "must" in the past form. You

can have "have to" and then "had to", but if you use "must", you then have to use "had

to" in the indirect form. Okay.

And then "may" changes to "might", and then all of these, "might" or "to", "could", "should",

and "would", there's no change. So, for example, with "might", "She said", quotes, "I might

be going on holiday next week." Okay? "I might be going on holiday next week." And then in

the indirect, "She said that she might be going on holiday next week", or the following

week, if you're talking about it sometime later. So, that is an example of how all of

these stay the same, except you change it from "I" to "she" or "he". "I might be going

on holiday" is the direct one. "She said she might be going on holiday", or "He said he

might be going on holiday". So, the personal pronoun changes, but not the verb.

Okay, so I hope that's been a helpful explanation for you on the difference between direct and

indirect speech, how you write it with quotation marks for direct, how you have to change the

verb tense quite often with most of these, but some of them don't change. So, if you'd

like to test your knowledge on this, there's a quiz. If you'd like to go to the website,

www.engvid.com, and try the quiz, see how you do. So, thanks for watching, and hope

to see you again soon. Bye for now.