Key considerations

Direct speech is what people actually say, e.g. I’m tired. Reported speech (also called ‘indirect speech’) is how we later report this, making changes to the words the speaker originally used (e.g. She said (that) she was tired.).

In order to make these changes appropriately, learners need to consider the context in which they are reporting: who they are speaking to, whether this person knows the person who said the original and whether what was said is still true. They also need to know a number of reporting verbs such as say, tell, explain and suggest, and they must be able to choose the patterns/construct the clauses that follow these verbs. In order to find the ‘correct’ answer in certain kinds of test and examinations, learners also sometimes need to know a number of formulaic ‘rules’.

We use the term ‘reported speech’ to include reports of what was written and thought as well as spoken.

Reported speech

What is reported speech?

Traditional practice exercises and tests ask learners to change sentences like those in the left-hand column into ones like those in the right-hand column (and sometimes even vice versa).

Often no context is provided in such exercises and tests, and little guidance is given for choosing between ‘direct’ and ‘reported’ speech. In fact, the two are rarely interchangeable – in reality we almost never use reported speech to convey exactly what someone has said. If we are interested in what was said exactly, we generally use direct speech.

Direct speech

Direct speech conveys exactly what someone has said, often:

• • to dramatise.

• • to create a sense of immediacy.

• • because the precise words used were in some way important (for example funny or strange).

It is found in newspaper reports, fiction and oral narratives.