Indirect speech: They say (that) they’re cold.Direct speech: “We’re quite cold in here.”.When we want to report what someone said without speech marks and without necessarily using exactly the same words, we can use indirect speech (also called reported speech). The boss was angry and shouted, “Why isn’t he here? He hasn’t finished that report yet!”.She replied, “No, I haven’t seen him since lunchtime.”.When Mrs Diaz opened the door, I asked, “Have you seen Lee?”.But you can also find other verbs used to indicate direct speech such as ‘ask’, ‘reply’, and ‘shout’. The local MP said, “We plan to make this city a safer place for everyone.”Īs you can see, with direct speech it is common to use the verb ‘to say’ (‘said’ in the past).It is very common to see direct speech used in books or in a newspaper article. Paul came in and said, “I’m really hungry.”.We use direct speech when we simply repeat what someone says, putting the phrase between speech marks: When we want to describe what someone said, one option is to use direct speech. Read on to find out more about these forms and improve your English storytelling skills. In order to describe what people said there are two different types of speech – direct speech and indirect speech (or reported speech). Such occasions can include a social situation as well as in a work email or presentation. There are many occasions in which we need to describe an event or action that happened, and very often that includes repeating what someone said.

Reported speech exercises pdf with key