Change of Speech (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 5 Sep, 2025

The "Change of Speech" means the way we speak changes depending on who we're talking to, where we are, or when we're repeating someone else's words. It’s about adjusting our language to fit the situation, like speaking more formally at work or casually with friends, quoting someone’s exact words, or summarizing what they said.

**Types of speech

**1. Direct Speech

If the sentence spoken or written by the speaker is reported without any changes, it is called direct speech.

**Example: Ram says, "I work hard".

**2. Indirect Speech

If the narrator changes the sentence spoken or written by the speaker according to certain rules, it is called the Indirect Speech.

**Example: Ram says that he works hard.

Direct vs Indirect Speech

Below are some key differences between direct and indirect speech:

Important Rules for Direct and Indirect Speech

**1. Tense Change

• Present simple → Past simple → Past perfect → No change
• Present continuous → Past continuous → Past perfect continuous → No change
• Future → Would

**Example:

• **Direct: She said, "I am eating lunch."
• **Indirect: She said that she was eating lunch.

**2. Time Expression
The following words change in indirect speech.

• Today → that day
• Tomorrow → the next day
• Yesterday → the previous day or the day before
• tonight → that night
• Last → the previous
• here → there
• this → that
• these → those
• ago → before
• now → then

**Example:

• **Direct: "I will meet you tomorrow."
• **Indirect: She said that she would meet me the next day.

**3. Pronoun change
Pronouns change when we report someone else’s words.

**Example:

• **Direct: "You are my best friend," she said.
• **Indirect: She said that I was her best friend.

Tips and Tricks

Here are some useful tricks to help you solve direct and indirect speech questions smoothly:

**1. Change of Pronoun

Change of Pronoun trick

Pronouns are changed according to the SON rule: **Subject **Object **No change

1. First-person pronouns changes to subject of the reporting verb.
2. Second-person pronouns changes to the object of the reporting verb.
3. Third-person pronouns remains unchanged.

**Example:

• **Direct: He(sub.) says, "**I (1st Person) work hard."
  Here, ****"I"** changes to "**he" according to subject.
• **Indirect: He says that **he works hard.
• **Direct: He says to me(obj.), "**You (2nd Person) work hard."
  Here, ****"You"** changes to ****"I"** according to the object.
• **Indirect: He tells me that **I work hard.
• **Direct: Hesays to me, "**She works hard."
  Here, ****"She"** is the 3rd person, so there will be ****"no change."**
• **Indirect: He tells me that **he works hard.

**2. Remove Quotation Marks in Indirect Speech

**3. Adjust the time and place words

• Today → that day
• Tomorrow → the next day
• Yesterday → the previous day or the day before
• tonight → that night

**4. Use Reporting Verbs Correctly

• Say/Said remain unchanged in indirect speech.
• Say to change into "tell".
• "Says to" changes into "told".

**Note: "To" is not used after "tell" and "told".

**5. Change Question and Commands Properly

• Change "said to" into asked, questioned, inquired, or interrogated when reporting questions.
• The question mark(?) should be changed into a " full stop" in indirect speech.
• For **yes/no questions, use **if or **whether in indirect speech.
• For "wh-" questions, do **not use auxiliary verbs or change the verb tense unnecessarily.

**6. Use Modal Verbs Carefully

• shall/will → should/would
• may → might
• can → could

Also Check:

➣ Change of Speech Solved Question- Refer Here!

➣ Test your knowledge- Quiz!