In our Russian language, there are two ways to convey someone else's speech: direct speech and indirect. Likewise in English. And if everything is clear with direct speech, then the use, rules and design of indirect speech can cause some difficulties. In the article, you can find Indirect Speech rules and facts that you might find interesting.
Direct and indirect speech in Russian
What is direct and indirect speech? To begin with, we give simple examples in Russian for greater clarity. Direct speech is transmitted verbatim. There are certain rules for the design of direct speech in Russian. It is entered either with quotation marks and a colon, or a dash. Take a look at the following two examples:
- He said "I want to learn English".
- - I want to learn English, he said.
Indirect speech is introduced by a union in a complex sentence and does not always convey a person’s speech word for word:
- He said he wanted to learn English.
- Marina said she was going to enter journalism.
Direct and Indirect Speech: Rules
In English, as well as in Russian, there are direct (direct) and Indirect (indirect) Speech (speech).
To begin with, let's analyze the features of direct speech in English. As in Russian, it completely conveys the words of a person and does not change what was said. Most often, Direct Speech is separated by quotes and commas:
- He said, "I want to learn English."
- "I want to learn English, " He said.
As you may have noticed, punctuation marks in direct speech in English, unlike Russian, are placed inside the direct speech itself, there is no dash after the quotes, the first word is always capitalized.
Indirect speech in English needs more explanation. Now we will try to find out how a person's speech is formed and transmitted in English, and also find out the basic rules of Indirect Speech.
Indirect Speech: what is it?
Many people have some problems with indirect speech. Mainly with the fact that in English the tenses work here.
But first, let's go over the essentials you need to know about Indirect Speech.
The main difference between direct and indirect speech is that when a person's words are transmitted by indirect speech, quotation marks and punctuation marks are omitted, and the first personchanges to a third. Also, indirect speech in English is most often introduced by the union that. That is, a sentence with direct speech:
Mary says, "I love reading." - Mary said, "I love to read."
It has the following form in a sentence with indirect speech:
Mary says that she loves reading. - Mary says she loves to read
It's very simple if the tense of the main sentence is present or future. Then the subordinate clause will have the same tense. But if we're dealing with the past tense, things get a little more complicated.
Indirect Speech: timing alignment
Coordination of times only seems complicated, but in fact it is not so difficult when you figure it out.
In simple terms, this rule works like this: what was direct speech, that is, the subordinate clause, is consistent with the time in the main clause. For example, if we say: "Jack said he plays tennis", we need to put "plays" in the same tense as the word "said" - in the past. In English, we work exactly on this principle:
Jack said that he played tennis. - Jack said he plays tennis
For clarity, let's make a small table that shows how each time changes according to the Indirect Speech rules.
| Sentence with direct speech | Sentence with indirect speech |
|
Present Simple He said, "I learn English every day". - Hesaid: "I study English every day." |
Past Simple He said that he learned English every day. - He said he studies English every day. |
|
Present Continuous Diana said, "I am looking for my younger sister now". - Diana said, "I'm looking after my little sister now." |
Past Continuous Diana said that she was looking for her younger sister then. - Diana said she was looking after her little sister now. |
|
Present Perfect Sasha said, "I have already written me essay". - Sasha said, "I've already written my essay." |
Past Perfect Sasha said that she had already written her essay. - Sasha said that she had already written her essay. |
|
Present Perfect Continuous Jastin said, "I have been learning Japanese for two years". - Justin said, "I've been studying Japanese for two years now." |
Past Perfect Continuous Jastin said that she had been learning Japanese for two years. - Justin said he has been learning Japanese for two years. |
|
Past Simple She noticed, "Mary did all that stuff by herself". - She remarked, "Mary did it all by herself." |
Past Perfect She noticed that Mary had done all that stuff by herself. - She noticed that Mary did it all by herself. |
|
Past Continuous Martin whispered, "I was looking for you all evening". - Martin whispered, "I've been looking for you all evening." |
Past Perfect Continuous Martin whispered that he had been looking for me all evening. - Martin whispered that he had been looking for me all evening. |
| Past Perfect | Remains the same |
| Past Perfect Continuous | Remains the same |
|
Future My dad said, "We will buy that car!" - My dad said, "We'll buy this car." |
Future In The Past My dad said that we would buy that car. - My dad said we will buy this car. |
Don't forget that along with the tenses, according to the rules of Indirect Speech, pronouns change in English. That is:
- now (now) changes to then (then);
- this (this) changes to that (that);
- these (these) → those (those);
- today (today) → that day (on that day, then);
- tomorrow (tomorrow) → the next day (the next day);
- yesterday (yesterday) → the day before (the day before);
- ago (back, ago) → before (earlier);
- next day/week/year (the next day/next week/next year) → the following/next day/week/year (the same, in principle, only the word changes and the definite article is added);
- last morning/night/day/yearyear) → the previous morning/night/day/year (the previous morning, the previous night, the previous day, the previous year).
Modal verbs also change in indirect speech, but only those that have their own form in the past tense: can, may, have to. For example, must has no past tense, so it remains unchanged. But it remains unchanged only when it expresses an order or advice with a touch of duty. In case we are talking more about the need to do something, must changes to had to.
When not changing:
- My girlfriend said, "You musn't smoke!" - My girlfriend said "You shouldn't smoke!"
- My girlfriend said I musn't smoke. - My girlfriend said I shouldn't/I shouldn't smoke.
When it changes to had to:
- Alice said again: "I must finish this work now!" - Alice said again: "I have to finish this work now!"
- Alice said that the had to finish that work then. - Alice said she had to finish this job.
Cases where times may not change
Commonly known facts given in a subordinate clause will not agree:
The teacher said that the Earth goes round the sun. - The teacher said that the earth revolves around the sun
If you talk in your speech about something that still hasn't changed, then you can omit the rules for coordinating tenses and leave the future or present as it is. Let's takesentence with direct speech:
Jonh said, "Frank speaks Korean so fluently!" - John said "Frank is so fluent in Korean!"
You can change it into a sentence with indirect speech, relying on the rules for coordinating tenses, but it will also not be considered a mistake if you do not change the time: after all, Frank is still fluent in Korean.
- Jonh said that Frank spoke Korean fluently. - John said that Frank is fluent in Korean.
- Jonh said that Frank speaks Korean fluently. - John said that Frank is fluent in Korean.
Let's give another example of a sentence with direct speech.
Mary told, "Learning French is boring for me". - Mary said: "Learning French is boring for me."
But it is known that Mary is still studying French and still thinks that learning this language is boring. Therefore, we can agree on a subordinate clause, or we can not agree. Neither will be considered a mistake.
- Mary told that learning French is boring for her. - Mary said learning French is boring for her.
- Mary told that learning French was boring for her. - Mary said learning French is boring for her.
Indirect Speech: interrogative sentences and rules for their formation
There are two types of Indirect Questions: general and specific. We will tell about each of them now.
General Questions
These are questions that we can simply answer yes or no. When translating a general question into indirect speech, we use the unions if or whether, which are translated into Russian as "if". In general, the same tense matching principles work here as in affirmative sentences.
- She asked me, "Do you like this movie?" - She asked me: "Do you like this movie?"
- She asked me whether/if I liked that movie. - She asked if I liked this movie.
As you can see, nothing complicated: at the very beginning we put if or whether, and then we change tenses according to the rules. Answers to questions when translating into indirect speech are also consistent, but yes/no is omitted here.
- I answered, "Yes, I do". - I said, "Yes, I like it."
- I answered that I did. - I said I like it.
Special questions
Special questions require a more specific answer, not just "yes" or "no". To translate such a question into indirect speech, you need to put an interrogative word at the very beginning of the subordinate clause, and also change tenses according to the rules.
- Mark asked, "How are you?" - Mark asked "How are you?"
- Mark asked me how I was. - Mark asked how I was doing.
And another example:
- My parents stood byme and asked, "Hey, Dan, why did you drink so much?" - My parents stood over me and said, "Hey Dan, why did you drink so much?"
- My parents stood by me and asked why I had drunk so much. - My parents stood over me and asked me why I drank so much.
