Report Speech

REPORTED SPEECH

Reported speech : Reported speech refers to reproducing the idea of another person’s words. Not all of the exact words are used : verb forms and pronouns may change.

Reporting speech is part of the sentence in direct speech is marked by quotation marks (“) and ends by quotation marks (“).

• He said, "I have a present for you in my bag."
• He asked me, "why do you come late."

While reported speech is the beginning of a sentence of direct speech.

• He said, "I have a present for you in my bag."
• He asked me, "why do you come late."

1.    Changes in sentence structure

When direct speech sentence was commuted to a sentence of indirect speech, quotation marks are also removed or replaced with the word “that” or “to” (for command line). For example :

No	Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
01	He said, "I have a present for you in my bag."	He said that he had a present for me in his bag.
02	He asked me, "why do you come late."	He asked me why I came late.
03	He orderd me, "don't bring a bag."	He ordered me to didn't bring a bag.

For the use of direct speech sentence interrogative sentence “yes-no question” it will be changed to if/whether. For example :

No	Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
01	They asked me, "Do you want to join us to play football?"	They asked me if/whether I want to join them to play football.
02	He asked me, "Does she want to mary me?"	He asked me if/whether she wants to mary her.

For direct speech sentence that uses 5W1H question (why,who,what,when,where,how), it will be converted into an affirmative sentence in the following way :

No	Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
01	He asked me, "why do you come late?"	He asked me why you came late.
02	He asked me, "what does she eat?"	He asked me what she ate.
03	He asked me, "when did you come?"	He asked me when I came.
04	He asked me, "who are you?"	He asked me who I was.
05	He asked me, "who is she?"	He asked me who she was.

  

2.    Pronoun changes

·       First person pronouns (I and We) on speech reporting (see explanation in the beginning) change according to the subject that is in reported speech.

No	Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
01	He said, ‘I am busy.’	He said that he was busy.
02	She said, ‘I am unwell.’	She said that she was unwell.
03	I said, ‘I will be late.’	I said that I would be late.
04	They said, ‘We will not permit this.’	They said that they would not permit that.
05	We said, ‘We need to buy some clothes.’	We said that we needed to buy some clothes.

·       The second person pronoun (You) in reporting speech in direct speech changes according to the object in reported speech.

No	Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
01	He said to me, ‘You have to come with me.’	He told me that I had to go with him.
02	She said to me, ‘You can go.’	She told me that I could go.
03	She said to him, ‘You can go.’	She told him that he could go.

·       Third person pronoun (he,she,it and they) in direct speech did not change when changed into indirect speech.

No	Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
01	He said, ‘She is a good girl.’	He said that she was a good girl.
02	She said, ‘They have invited us.’	She said that they had invited them.
03	They said, ‘He does not have the necessary qualifications.’	They said that he did not have the necessary qualifications.

Below are examples of direct and indirect speech to increase the understanding of the above explanation. 

Direct Speech	Indirect Speech
(+)	He said, “I have a present for you in my bag. here”	He said that he had a present for me in his bagthere.
(-)	He said, “I do not have a present for you in my bag”	He said that he did not have a present for me in his bag.
(?)	He asked, “Do I have a present for you in my bag?”	He asked me if/whether he had a present for me in his bag.
(?)	He asked me, “ Why do I have to have a present for you in my bag?	He asked me why he had to have a present for me in his bag.
(!)	He ordered/commanded me, “Bring my bag herenow!”	He ordered/commanded me to bring his bag there then.
(!)	He ordered me, “Don’t bring your bag here!”	He ordered me not to bring my bag there.

• BETTY SCHRAMPFER AZAR
• http://www.belajarbahasainggris.us/2012/04/penjelasan-direct-dan-indirect-speech.html