Direct and Indirect Speech (Reported Speech)
When we want to convey what someone else has said or expressed, we use two methods: Direct and Indirect Speech.
For example, if John says, “I like swimming”:
- Direct Speech: “I like swimming,” John said.
- Indirect Speech: John said he liked swimming.
Let’s look at more examples:
- Direct Speech: “I love you,” Michael said.
- Indirect Speech: Michael said he loved her.
- Direct Speech: “We are meeting in our office,” Lis said.
- Indirect Speech: Lis said they were meeting in their office.
Here are some tense and modal verb changes when reporting speech:
- am / is / are → was / were
- takes → took
- took → had taken
- is taking → was taking
- have taken → had taken
Modal verbs change as follows when reported:
- can → could
- will → would
- may → might
- must → had to
- should → should
- would → would
- could → could