Profile
Settings
Refer your friends
Sign out
Meaning of reported commands and requests:
A reported command is an order to do something with rarely a chance of refusal. Requests, unlike commands, are quite a polite way to ask someone to do something with a choice of refusing.
Reporting verbs for the orders and commands are:
Order, shout, implore, ask, forbid, threaten, purpose, command, tell, insist.
Rules for conversion of direct speech into indirect speech:
Rule 1: Conversion of direct speech to indirect speech (reporting verb).
When the reporting verb of the direct speech is in the past tense, then the present tense is changed to the past tense in indirect speech.
Example of direct speech to indirect speech:
Direct: She said, ‘I am fine’.
Indirect: She said that she was fine.
In indirect speech, tenses do not change if the original words show universal truth.
Example:
Direct: The teacher said, “We cannot live without oxygen”.
Indirect: The teacher said that we cannot live without oxygen.
The tenses of direct speech do not change when the reporting verb is given in the present or future tense.
Direct speech: He says/will say, ‘I am alone’.
Indirect:
He says/will say that she is alone.
Rule 2: Conversion of direct speech to indirect speech
Present tense
- Present perfect continuous tense changes to the past perfect continuous tense
Direct: ‘I have been to India,’ she told me.
Indirect: She told me that she had been to India.
- Present continuous tense changes to the past continuous tense
Direct: ‘I am playing cricket’, she exclaimed.
Indirect: She exclaimed that she was playing cricket.
- Present perfect tense changes into past perfect tense
Direct: She said, “I have finished my homework’.
Indirect: She said that she had finished her homework.
- Simple present tense changes into simple past
Direct: ‘I am not well’, he said.
Indirect: He said that he was unwell.
Rule 3: Conversion of direct speech into indirect speech
Past tense and future tense
- Simple past tense changes into past perfect
Direct: She said, “I arrived on Sunday.”
Indirect: She said that she had arrived on Sunday.
- Past continuous changes to past perfect continuous
Direct: ‘We were playing cricket’, they told me.
Indirect: They told me that they had been playing cricket
- Future tense changes into present conditional
Direct: She said, ‘I will be in Boston tomorrow’.
Indirect: She said that she would be in Boston tomorrow
- Future continuous tense changes into conditional continuous
Direct: He said, “I’ll be teaching Sania on Sunday”.
Indirect: He said that he would be teaching Sania on Sunday.
Rule 4: Changes in interrogative sentences
No use of conjunction: If the direct speech sentence begins with the question, then it is a joining clause, so conjunction should be avoided.
Example: Direct: “Where do you live in India?”, inquired the boy.
Indirect: The boy asked me where I lived.
When the sentence in direct speech begins with some helping verb, then the joining clause if or whether can be used
Example: Direct: She said, “Will you come to the function?”
Indirect: She asked whether we would come to the function.
Reporting verbs like said to change into demanded, inquired or asked.
Example: Direct: He said to me, “What are you thinking”?
Indirect: He asked me what I was thinking.
Rule 5: Change in modals
While transforming direct speech into indirect speech, the models of the sentences must change the following way:
- Can transforms into could
- May transforms into might
- Must becomes would have to/ had to
Example:
Direct: She said, “she can bake”.
Indirect: She said that she could bake.
The modals like: could, would, should and ought to do not change.
Example:
Direct: She said, “I should study hard”.
Indirect: She said that she should study hard.
Rule 6: Changes in pronoun
The first person pronoun indirect speech changes in accordance with the subject of the speech.
Example:
Direct: She said, “I am in college.”
Indirect: He said that he was in college.
The second person pronoun in direct speech changes according to the object of reported speech.
Example: Direct: She says to them, “You have to do your task.”
Indirect: She tells them that they have to do their task.
The third-person pronouns of direct speech do not change.
Example:
Direct: He says, “She bakes well”.
Indirect: He says that she bakes well.
Rule 7: Changes in request, wish, exclamation and command
Indirect speech is supported by some verbs like suggested, ordered and requested. Negative sentences take verbs such as prohibited, forbade, etc.
Commands
Example:
Direct: The teacher said to the student, “sit down”.
Indirect: The teacher ordered the student to sit down.
Direct: Mitul said, “I wish I could go to the party.”.
Indirect: Mitul wished he could come to the party.
Rule 8: Change in punctuations
In the direct search, the original words should always begin with a capital letter.
Example:
Direct: Anaesthesia said, “I am the best.”
Exclamation or question marks are to be placed inside inverted commas.
Example: He said, “What is your name?”
If direct speech comes after information regarding the person who spoke the words, then the commas are to be used to introduce the speech.
Example: “I am done,” she said.
Rule 9: Changes in time
In direct speech, the words that express closeness in time or place are changed into words that express distance.
For example:
Now transforms into then, here transformers into there, ago transforms into before, thus transforms into so, today transforms into that day, yesterday transforms into the day before etc.
Example: Direct: He said, “His mother came yesterday”.
Indirect: He said that his mother had come the day before.
Expression of time does not change when the reporting verb is given in present tense or future tense.
Direct speech: He says/will say, ‘I am angry’.
Indirect: He says/will say that she is angry.
Rules for conversion of indirect speech into direct speech
Rule 1: Use of reporting verbs like (told or told to) in the correct tense.
Rule 2:Put the comma before original words, and the first letter of the statement should be in capital letters.
Rule 3:The question mark should be inserted based on the mood of the sentence.
Rule 4:The conjunctions like (that or whether) should be removed whenever required.
Rule 5: When the reporting verb includes the past tense in indirect speech, it should be changed into present tense in the direct speech.
Rule 6:The change of past perfect tense into present perfect tense or ast tense is necessary according to the contexts.
Example:
Indirect: She said whether she was coming to the party.
Direct: She said to her, “Are you coming to the party?”
Reporting orders and request
Whenever an order or request is reported. Then the verb like ‘tell’ can be used to clause:
For example, He tells to leave.
Form of the pattern: Verb + indirect object + ‘to’ clause.
The term indirect object can be defined as a person being spoken to.
Several other words for requests and orders are here as follows: ask, invite, order, warn, ask, advice etc.
Examples:
Direct speech: The doctor said to me,” Stop drinking”.
Indirect speech: The doctor told me to stop drinking.
Active voice: “Get out of the room,” said the teacher.
Passive voice: The teacher ordered him to get out of the room.
Active voice: “Could you please be quiet?” Sara exclaimed
Passive voice: Sara requested the kid to be quiet.
Direct voice: The thief with the gun said to people, “Don’t move.”
Indirect speech: The thief with a gun warned people not to move.
Requests made for objects
The requests for objects go with the pattern;
Asked for + object
Examples:
Active voice: “Can I have an apple?” she asked.
Passive voice: She asked for an apple.
Active voice: “Can I have an apple?”, Please.
Passive Voice: She asked for an apple.
Active Voice: “May I have a glass of juice?” she said.
Passive Voice: She asked for a glass of juice.
Active Voice: “Water, please”.
Passive Voice: She asked for the water
Active Voice: “Could I have three litres of milk?”
Passive Voice: He asked for three litres of milk.
Conclusion:
Indirect speech is reporting something that is said by somebody else. Commands, requests, wishes and exclamations are reported daily as per the needs. Therefore, one should be careful about the rules of conversion from direct to indirect speech.
