Direct and indirect speech in English. Indirect speech in English

Translation from direct speech to indirect speech
done according to special rules
for each of the groups of proposals:
Narrative;
Interrogative;
Imperative.

Declarative sentences in indirect speech

If in the past-

Modal verbs also require changes in tense.

Interrogative sentences in indirect speech.

General questions in indirect speech.

Answers in indirect speech.

Alternative questions in indirect speech.

10. Special questions in indirect speech.

11.

Direct speech in English is formatted slightly differently, and this should be remembered, since if you seriously study the subject, you will have to do this in written exercises, letters or essays. At first glance, the differences are insignificant, but if you start to ignore them, it will immediately make you look like a foreigner.

The transfer of the meaning of a statement from direct to indirect speech is also quite different, and the resulting new English text is subject to certain rules, which will be discussed in a separate section.

If you need translation into direct speech in English, you will have to take diametrically opposite actions. In this case, it is necessary to be well aware of the rules for coordinating times. For example, with such an action it will be necessary to change some pronouns, and tense forms and circumstances of place to move “one step back”. It will look something like this:

Pat said that she would be ready to pass her exam next day. Pat said she would be ready to take the exam the next day.

Pat said, “I will be ready to pass my exam tomorrow.” Pat said, “Tomorrow I will be ready to take the exam.”

Tables will help you understand the rules of direct speech in English. We propose to compare the design of such sentences when transmitting colloquial statements in Russian and English:

If you look closely, you will notice that in Russian statements the period and comma are behind the quotation marks, but in English it is the other way around. If the author’s words are brought forward, then on the left side of the table there is a colon after them, and on the right half there is a comma. If the author’s words are embedded inside the statement, then it is striking that both parts of English direct speech are separated by commas.

You should also note that native speakers use so-called “inverted commas” - inverted commas - before direct speech. Usually they are double, but sometimes they are single. There is a special key on your keyboard for this.

It is very important to note that direct speech in English is conveyed literally, and examples will help you understand this:

“I’ll start learning French soon,” said Steven.“I’ll start learning French soon,” said Stephen.

Unlike indirect speech, a short form of the verb is used here "will", which is not recommended to do in indirect speech. When paraphrased, this sentence will look like this:

Steven said that he would start learning French soon. Stephen said that he will soon learn French.

According to the rule of tense agreement, instead of he will used here he would, but it cannot be shortened as he'd.

As an exercise for direct speech in English, you can use any of the tables presented. They will be of double benefit: you will remember how direct speech is formatted in your native language, and you will also become experts in English written statements. There is a little trick - try to do this exercise in Word, which has a text editing function.

As a piece of advice, we suggest using Word for writing essays and composing monologues. In most cases, the program will respond to errors and even correct some of them automatically. As for the design of direct speech, everything here works flawlessly.

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Direct speech and indirect speech

In English, as in Russian, there are concepts of direct speech and indirect speech:

He said, “I am busy today.” / “I’m busy today,” he said.

He asked me, “Are you busy?” / “Are you busy?” he asked me.

He said, “What a nice weather today!” / “What a nice weather today!” he said.

Features of translating direct speech into indirect speech

To convey someone else's statement in indirect speech, it is necessary to take into account what constitutes direct speech: a statement, a question or an order/request. Below we will consider the features of conveying narrative sentences in indirect speech.

Statements in indirect speech

If someone else's utterance is a statement (that is, an ordinary declarative sentence), then in order to convey it in indirect speech, you need to pay attention to the following:

That in indirect speech / verbs introducing indirect speech

Indirect speech is introduced by the conjunction that (what) which is often omitted:

He says, “I am busy.” —He says that he is busy. / He says he is busy.
He says: "I'm busy." - He says, What He is busy.

If in words introducing direct speech (that is, in the words of the author), the verb is used say without an addition indicating the person being addressed, then say preserved; if the verb say used with an addition (necessarily with to), for example, said to me, then say changes to tell+ addition without preposition to (told me):

Personal and possessive pronouns

All personal and possessive pronouns of direct speech are replaced according to the meaning:

Present tense of a verb introducing indirect speech

If verb present or future tense(Present Simple, Present Perfect, Future Simple), then the verb in indirect speech (in a subordinate clause) remains in the same tense as it was in direct speech:

Past tense of a verb introducing indirect speech

If verb(in the main sentence), introducing indirect speech, used in one of the past tenses, then the tense of the verb of direct speech changes in indirect speech (in the subordinate clause) to another corresponding tense according to the rule of tense agreement in English:

Demonstrative pronouns and adverbs of time/place

Demonstrative pronouns, some adverbs of time and place in indirect speech are replaced by other words according to their meaning:

Replacing demonstrative pronouns and adverbs of time/place
Direct speech Indirect speech
this(this, this, this) that(that, that, that)
these(these) those(those)
now(now, now) then(Then)
yesterday(yesterday) the day before(the day before)
tomorrow(Tomorrow) the next day / the following day(the next day)
here(Here) there(there)
today(Today) that day(in that day)
the day after tomorrow(day after tomorrow) two days later(Two days later)
the day before yesterday(day before yesterday) two days before(two days earlier)
ago(ago) before(earlier)
last week(last week) the week before / the previous week(a week earlier)

Read about the features of conveying interrogative and imperative sentences in indirect speech in the following sections.

How often do we convey other people's words to someone else? Every day!

For example: “She told you to call her. He said he would be late. They ask if we will go with them."

In all these sentences we are retelling the words of other people, that is, we are using indirect speech.

In English, such sentences are formed according to certain rules. They are easy to understand and remember.

In this article I will tell you how to correctly translate direct speech into indirect speech in English.

From the article you will learn:

• 4 steps to convert direct speech to indirect speech in English

What is direct and indirect speech?

Direct speech is a verbatim statement from another person.

Such speech, whether in Russian or in English, is highlighted in writing with quotation marks. For example:

“I won’t be able to come,” she said.

He replied: “I don’t understand.”

Indirect speech is the transmission of the words of another person.

That is, we retell to someone what someone said.

For example:

She said she couldn't come.

He said he didn't understand.

The English language has its own rules and features of translating direct speech into indirect speech.

Let's look at the main ones.

Attention: Confused about English rules? Learn how to speak English at a free lesson in Moscow.

4 steps to convert direct speech to indirect speech in English

In order to convert direct speech into indirect speech, you need to do certain things. To make it easier for you to remember them, I have divided these steps into 4 steps.

So, to convey someone's words in English (that is, convert direct speech to indirect speech), we:

1. Remove the quotes and put the word that

For example, we have a proposal:

To convey these words to someone, just like in Russian, we remove the quotation marks and put the word that - “what”.

She said that…..
She said that….

Note that that can often be omitted, especially in colloquial speech.

2. We change the character

In direct speech, a person usually speaks on his own behalf. But in indirect speech we cannot speak on behalf of this person. Therefore, we change “I” to another actor.

Let's return to our proposal:

She said, “I will buy a dress.”
She said, "I'll buy a dress."

Since we are conveying the girl’s words, instead of “I” we put “she”:

She said that she…..
She said that she….

3. We agree on a time

In English, we cannot use the past tense with the present or future tense in the same sentence.

Therefore, if we say “said” (that is, we use the past tense), then the next part of the sentence must be consistent with this past tense.

Let's take our proposal:

She said, “I will buy a dress.”
She said, "I'll buy a dress."

To harmonize the first and second parts of the sentence, we change will to would.

She said that she would buy a dress.
She said that she would buy a dress.

Let's look at the table for coordinating basic tenses when translating direct speech into indirect speech.

In the left column is the tense used in direct speech. On the right is the tense that should be used in indirect speech.

Note: If we convey the words of a person at the present moment, that is, we say “he/she speaks,” then there is no need to coordinate tenses.

Direct speech:

She says, “I am studying.”
She says: “I’m working out.”

Indirect speech:

She says that she is studying.
She says she is studying.

4. Change some words

In some cases, we must agree not only on tenses, but also on individual words.

What are these words? Let's look at a small example.

She said, “I am driving now.”
She said, "I'm driving now."

That is, she is currently driving.

However, when we convey her words, we will not be talking about the present moment (the one when we are talking now), but about a moment in time in the past (the one when she was driving).

Therefore, we change now (now) to then (then).

She said that she was driving then.
She said she was driving at the time.

Look at the sign of such words, and you yourself will understand this logic.

You should use this substitution logically.

For example:

The man told you this while you were in the building where he works. Already at home, you tell someone about this:

If you are in the same building where he works, then there is no need to replace the word.

Now let's look at how to translate an interrogative sentence from direct speech to indirect speech.

Questions in indirect speech in English

Questions in indirect speech, in fact, are not questions, since the word order in them is the same as in an affirmative sentence. We do not use auxiliary verbs (do, does, did) in such sentences.

Let's look at the question in direct speech.

He asked, “Do you like this cafe?”
He asked: “Do you like this cafe?”

To ask a question in indirect speech, we remove the quotation marks and put if or whether, which are translated as “li”.

The agreement of tenses occurs in the same way as in ordinary sentences.

Our proposal will look like this:

He asked if I liked that cafe.
He asked if I liked that cafe.

She said, “Will he call back?”
She said, “Will he call back?”

She said if he would call back.
She said if he would call back.

Special questions in indirect speech

Special questions are asked with the following question words:

• what - what
• when - when
• how - how
• why - why
• where - where
• which - which

When translating such questions into indirect speech, we leave the direct word order (as in affirmative sentences), and in place of if we put a question word.

For example, we have a question in direct speech:

She said, “When will you come?”
She said, "When are you coming?"

In indirect speech, such a question would look like this:

She said when I would come.
She said when I would come.

Let's look at another example:

So, we have looked at the basic rules that you will need to translate direct speech into indirect speech. Now let's try to do this in practice.

Reinforcement task

Convert direct speech to indirect speech. Leave your answers in the comments.

1. She said, "I will come tomorrow."
2. He said, "I am working at my garden."
3. They said, "We play the piano".
4. He said, "Do you like the house?"
5. She asked, "When will you go to this concert?"

If you need to convey what someone has said, you can do this using direct speech (Direct Speech) or indirect speech (Indirect Speech).
In direct speech, what someone said is conveyed exactly, without changes, and is written in quotation marks. In indirect speech, some of the speaker's words may be changed, and quotation marks are not used.

Examples:Direct Speech: Bob said, “Paris is great.” Bob said: “Paris is beautiful.”
Indirect Speech: Bob said (that) Paris was great. Bob said Paris was beautiful.

Rules for converting direct speech into indirect speech

There are simple rules for transmitting direct speech by indirect speech:

1. Verbs in direct speech in the Present Tense form are used in indirect speech in the Past Tense form. More about .
Present Simple → Past Simple
Present Continuous → Past Continuous
Present Perfect → Past Perfect

2. Verbs in direct speech in the Past Tense form are used in indirect speech in the Past Perfect form (or may not be used). More about .
Past Simple → Past Perfect
Present Perfect → Past Perfect

3. Verbs in direct speech do not change in form.
Past Perfect → Past Perfect

4. Verbs in direct speech in any future tense pass into the corresponding future in the past in indirect speech. More about .
Future Simple → Future Simple in the Past
Future Continuous → Future Continuous in the Past
Future Perfect → Future Perfect in the Past

5. Forms in direct speech in the Past Tense form change in indirect speech as follows.
can → could
will → would
shall → should
may → might
But Past Tense forms from modal verbs could, would, should, might in indirect speech are preserved.

6. Modal verb must in indirect speech may not change, or may take the form of the past tense from the construction have to = had to.

7. and adverbs of time and place in direct speech are replaced in indirect speech by meaning with other words, as in the Russian language.

Examples: He said, “I shall do it tomorrow" - He said he would do it tomorrow.
He said that he would do it the next day. - He said he would do it the next day.

8. and direct speech are replaced by meaning, as in the Russian language.

Examples: He says, “I have your T-shirt.” - He says: “I have your T-shirt.”
He says that he has my T-shirt. - He says he has my T-shirt.