DIRECT - INDIRECT THEORY

DIRECT - INDIRECT SPEECH

                    Indirect Speech (also known as Reported Speech) refers to a sentence reporting what someone has said. It is almost always used in spoken English.
f the reporting verb (i.e. said) is in the past, the reported clause will be in a past form. This form is usually one step back into the past from the original.

For example:

• She said her job was interesting.
• She said she went to the library each day.
• Our new colleague said he spoke French every day.

If simple present, present perfect or the future is used in the reporting verb (i.e. says) the tense is retained. For example:

• She says that her job is interesting.
• She says that she goes to the library each day.
• Our new colleague will say that he speaks French every day.

If reporting a general truth the present tense will be retained or even the future tense can be used. For example:

• She said that her country is very beautiful.
• They said that trust is vital for any business.
• My wife said that she will always love me no matter what.

When using indirect or reported speech, the form changes. Usually indirect speech is introduced by the verb said, as in I said, Bill said, or they said. Using the verb say in this tense, indicates that something was said in the past. In these cases, the main verb in the reported sentence is put in the past. If the main verb is already in a past tense, then the tense changes to another past tense; it can almost be seen as moving even further into the past. Verb tense changes also characterize other situations using indirect speech. Note the changes shown in the chart and see the table below for examples. With indirect speech, the use of that is optional.

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
simple present He said, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	simple past He said (that) he went to school every day.
simple past  He said, “I went to school every day.”	Þ	past perfect He said (that) he had gone to school every day.
present perfect  He said, “I have gone to school every day.”	Þ	past perfect  He said (that) he had gone to school every day.
present progressive He said, “I am going to school every day.”	Þ	past progressive He said (that) he was going to school every day.
past progressive He said, “I was going to school every day.”	Þ	perfect progressive He said (that) he had been going to school every day,
future (will) He said, “I will go to school every day.”	Þ	would + verb name He said (that) he would go to school every day.
future (going to) He said, “I am going to school every day.”	Þ	present progressive He said (that) he is going to school every day.
		past progressive He said (that) he was going to school every day
Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
auxiliary + verb name He said, “Do you go to school every day?” He said, “Where do you go to school?”	Þ	simple past He asked me if I went to school every day.* He asked me where I went to school.
imperative He said, “Go to school every day.”	Þ	infinitive He said to go to school every day.

*Note than when a Yes/No question is being asked in direct speech, then a construction with if or whetheris used. If a WH question is being asked, then use the WH to introduce the clause. Also note that with indirect speech, these are examples of embedded questions. The situation changes if instead of the common said another part of the very to say is used. In that case the verb tenses usually remain the same. Some examples of this situation are given below.

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
simple present + simple present He says, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	simple present + simple present He says (that) he goes to school every day.
present perfect + simple present He has said, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	present perfect + simple present He has said (that) he goes to school every day.
past progressive + simple past He was saying, “I went to school every day.”	Þ	past progressive + simple past He was saying (that) he went to school every day.
		past progressive + past perfect He was saying (that) he had gone to school every day.
future + simple present He will say, “I go to school every day.”	Þ	future + simple present He will say (that) he goes to school every day.

Another situation is the one in which modal constructions are used. If the verb said is used, then the form of the modal, or another modal that has a past meaning is used.

Direct Speech	Þ	Indirect Speech
can He said, “I can go to school every day.”	Þ	could He said (that) he could go to school every day.
may He said, “I may go to school every day.”	Þ	might He said (that) he might go to school every day.
might He said, “I might go to school every day.”
must He said, “I must go to school every day.”	Þ	had to He said (that) he had to go to school every day.
have to He said, “I have to go to school every day.”
should He said, “I should go to school every day.”	Þ	should He said (that) he should go to school every day.
ought to He said, “I ought to go to school every day.”	Þ	ought to He said (that) he ought to go to school every day.

While not all of the possibilities have been listed here, there are enough to provide examples of the main rules governing the use of indirect or reported speech. For other situations, try to extrapolate from the examples here, or better still, refer to a good grammar text or reference book. Some other verbs that can be used to introduce direct speech are: ask, report, tell, announce, suggest, and inquire. They are not used interchangeably; check a grammar or usage book for further information.

Time change

        If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in with the time of reporting.
For example we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different meanings at the time and place of reporting.

Today : Today's lesson is on class
+24hours - indirect : he said yesterday's lesson was on class

Expressions of time if reported on a different day ;

> this (evening)                             > that (evening)
> today                                          > Yesterday
> these (days)                               > those (days)
> now                                            > then
(a week) ago                                 > (a week) before
                                                        The weekend before last/the previous
> here                                            > there
> next (week)                                 > the following (week)
> tomorrow                                    > the next/following days

In addition if you report something that someone said in a different place to where you heard it you must change the place (here) to the place (there).
For example:-

At work : "how long have you worked here"
At home : he asked me how long i'd worked there

How to Identify Direct and Indirect Objects?

A direct object is most easy to identify. Just asking a question - 'What?' to a verb, will provide you with the direct object. Like in the example above (The iceberg impact sunk the Titanic.), if you ask the question 'what was sunk?', you get the answer as 'Titanic', which is the direct object.

The indirect object is trickier to identify. If you ask the question 'For whom?' or 'To whom?', to the verb and direct object combination, you may get the indirect object. Like in the above example, (I relayed you a message), if you ask the question 'To whom was the message sent', you get the answer 'me', which is the indirect object.

Hope this article has eliminated most of your doubts about what are direct and indirect objects and how can they be identified. The key to understanding and identifying indirect and direct objects is to analyze and break up a sentence into is constituent parts. As mentioned before, all you have to do is see the causal flow of the sentence and identify the object on which an action is directed towards to know the indirect and direct objects. Practice is the key to identifying grammatical constructs like direct and indirect objects that complete the causal description of a real world event, described by a sentence.