We use direct speech when we are speaking. But we have to use indirect speech if we want to report what someone else said. To do that, we go a tense back to report it. There is an exception to this rule: when we report something that is always true. Check out this video and start learning now! I’ll show you a few examples of using it and two diagrams showing how to change from direct to indirect speech.
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Mr. P. is a Canadian English Teacher/Coach from Toronto, Canada, who has been teaching English since 1997. He taught English to adults in Rome for 20 years.
He is an Honorary Fellow in the English Language at UNITELMA La Sapienza University in Rome. In the past, he was also a Language Monitor at the University of Toronto. He has also taught English to many important politicians and celebrities in Italy. He is a certified English Teacher specializing in TEFL, TESL, TESOL (Arizona State University) & TOEFL. Marc's channel aims to make his lessons concise and effective for everyone. Subscribe for weekly updates, and please make comments and requests.
Hello everyone, this is Marc from www.englishmarc.net.
She said she wanted to visit Italy one day.
I answered I would be waiting for her visit.
In this video, I'm going to talk about the direct and indirect speech.
The direct speech is saying what someone has just said.
So, I could say I'm talking to you in quotation marks.
The indirect speech instead is reporting what someone has said.
So, it's used a lot in journalism.
But how do we make the indirect speech?
We make it with the sentence without quotation marks
because it's indirect speech and we use the tense back.
So, for example, in the introductory sentence I gave you at the beginning.
She said she wanted to visit Italy one day.
So, it's in past simple.
We have here a list of the tenses,
of how the tenses change from direct speech to indirect speech.
So, we have first, as you can see, the present simple.
It changes to the past simple.
Then we have the present continuous.
It changes into the past continuous.
The present perfect changes into the past simple.
The past simple changes into the past perfect.
The past continuous changes into the past perfect continuous.
Then we have also must changes to had to.
Will changes into would.
Can changes into could.
Shall changes into should.
And may changes into might.
These are the tenses that change from the direct speech into the indirect speech.
Now, let's look at the expressions that change.
So, this, for example, changes into that.
Today changes into yesterday.
These changes into those.
Now changes into then.
A week ago, for example, changes into a week before.
Last week changes into the previous week.
Here changes into there.
Next changes into the following.
And tomorrow changes into the following or next day.
Okay, the following day or next day.
An important thing to remember is that if the sentence is always true,
it remains with the same tense.
So, for example, water boils at 100 degrees.
So, I know that this sentence is always true.
So, when you when you want to report it,
you can say Mark said water boils at 100 degrees.
So, it doesn't change.
Okay, this is important to remember.
So, let's recap now.
The direct speech is saying what exactly someone said.
Okay, like in my example, I am talking to you with quotation marks.
The indirect speech instead is to report.
Okay, also called the reported speech.
Okay, to report what someone had said.
It is used in journalism a lot.
Okay, and don't forget that we need to take one tense back.
Okay, so the present simple changes into the past simple.
The present continuous changes into the past continuous and so on.
Okay, you need to learn this.
Okay, ah, one other thing.
Don't forget that if the sentence we want to report is always true,
like in the example I gave you, water boils at 100 degrees.
When you report it, it stays the same.
Can you report the whole video under this video?
Okay, don't worry.
It's just, I'm just kidding.
Okay, so if you want, you can write your own sentence.
Okay, reported speech or indirect speech under this video.
I hope you enjoyed the video and I see you next time.
Take care.
Have fun.
Bye-bye.
