Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on direct and indirect speech. So,
what do I mean by that? So, this is whenever you're either talking about or you're writing
about what somebody said, and there are two different ways of doing it. So, you might
be just having a conversation with a friend, and you're telling them about a previous time
with a person who was speaking and what they said. Or you could be writing something, and
you need to write down what somebody said, and there are two different ways of doing
it. So, they're called direct speech and indirect or reported speech, whether you're speaking
about it or writing it down. But here, I'm showing you... Obviously, I've written some
examples down, so this is written, but these could just as easily be spoken face-to-face
with another person. Okay. So, the first example here is the direct speech. "He said", quotation
mark, "I'm going to the office", full stop, quotation mark. So, this is direct speech
because you're quoting exactly the words the person said. Okay? So, if you remember exactly
what the person said, you can quote them. Sometimes people aren't quite sure, but they
might say, "Oh, he said something like", and then put something in quotation marks, sort
of approximately what they said, but usually between the quotation marks. Also, if you're
writing an essay and you're quoting from another source with quotation marks, you can't change
anything; you have to quote exactly what it is. So, it is... In quotation marks, it should
really be exactly what the person said. But, of course, if you can't remember what they
said or if you prefer to say it in a more indirect way or reporting more loosely what
the person said, you would say, "He said that he was going to the office." Or you don't
have to use "that", that's why it's in brackets. "He said he was going to the office." You
don't have to use that little word, "that". It's a bit more formal to use "that". So,
you can see the difference here is that there are no quotation marks, because we're not
quoting directly. It's just a sort of an approximation of what the person said. But you can also
see that there's a difference in the tense, because at the time he said this, he was speaking
in the present tense. He said, "I'm going", "I am going", at now, at this moment, "I am
going to the office." So, he may have been answering a question if the person said, "Oh,
hello, John. Where are you going?" "I'm going to the office." So, he may have been answering
a question, but in that moment he's speaking in the present tense, so obviously you quote
in the present tense. But in the indirect reported speech, you're talking about something
that's happened in the past when you saw him. So, "He said he was going to the office."
We've gone into the past tense here, because it was in the past by the time you're talking
about it. Okay. And then we'll find this all the way through the different examples, the
tense has to change to go further back into the past. Right, so here's another example,
then. So, "The director said", quote, "The meeting will begin at 2pm", unquote. So, when
people say this out loud, quote, unquote, that's quite a useful thing to know. Quote,
unquote, beginning of quotation, end of quotation. Right. So, here, the director is speaking
in the future. "The meeting will begin at 2pm." So, maybe the director is speaking at
12 o'clock, lunchtime. You know, have your lunch, take your time. "The meeting will begin
at 2pm." Okay, so future tense. So, how does that change if you then move to indirect reported
speech? So, "The director said that the meeting would begin at 2pm." So, we've gone from "will",
future, to "would" in the past. Much later now, later, probably after the meeting has
taken place. Okay. And again, we've got that, but it's optional. "The director said the
meeting would begin at 2pm." It may be that everyone's sitting around the table waiting
and it's 10 past 2. "The director said the meeting would begin at 2pm." Well, why hasn't
it started yet? Where is the director to start this meeting? So, that's possible as well.
That's the kind of context you could have for that. Okay. But there's the change from
"will" to "would" there. Okay.
And then another nice, simple one going from present to past. "She said, quote, 'I live
in London.'" Unquote. But then if you're reporting this later indirectly, "She said she lived
in London." She said that she lived in London. That's what she said. Even if she still lives
in London now while you're speaking, the following day or the following week, she still lives
in London as far as you know, but it goes into the past tense because she said it in
the past. So, "She said she lived in London." Okay. So, from "live", present, to "lived",
past. Right.
And then a slightly different one. We've got the present perfect here, and then it changes
to the past perfect. So, whatever tense you're in for the quotation, you have to go further
back in the past for the indirect reported version. So, "The artist said, quote, 'I've
- I have finished the painting.'" And then in the indirect version, "The artist said
he had finished the painting." So, we've gone from "have finished" to "had finished". Okay.
And then finally, another verb, modal verb, "He said, quote, 'I can't swim.'" So, if you've
invited somebody to go swimming in the local swimming pool, and they say, "Oh, I'm sorry.
I can't swim. I would better go and do something else, go for coffee or something instead.
I can't swim." So, then in reported speech, indirect speech, "He said he couldn't swim."
"Can't" and "couldn't". So, "couldn't", "could not" is the past form of "can". "Can", "could",
"can't", "couldn't". Okay.
So, the... So, this can be used either in speaking or in writing. So, it sounds the
same in speaking. Of course, the difference in writing is that you have to use all the
punctuation and the quotation marks, so it's good to know, you know, best to put a comma
after "said". Or you could have other verbs, like "He answered" or "He mentioned", different
verbs, but "said" is the usual one. And so it's important to know how to write it, the
actual quotation marks. But in speaking as well, you would use the same change in the
verbs going further back into the past when you're using the indirect speech.
So, just to clarify, then, all the tense changes that will happen depending on what tense you're
using in the direct speech version, which tense you will use in the indirect version.
So, we have on the board here all the different tenses and how they will change from direct
to indirect. So, from present simple, it will go to past simple, and so if you were saying
in the direct form, "He said", quote, "I'm busy", in the indirect version, you would
say, "He said he was busy." So, "I am busy", present simple; "He was busy", past simple.
Okay? From "am" to "was" for the verb "to be". Okay?
So, similarly for every tense, I'll just read through them. From the present continuous,
you would change to the past continuous. From present perfect to past perfect. From present
perfect continuous to past perfect continuous. From past simple to past perfect. From past
continuous to past perfect continuous. Past perfect, there's no change, so if someone
says, "I had seen that", "I had seen that", "Yes, I had seen that", in the indirect speech,
you'd say, "He said that", "He had seen that", so it stays the same. Okay?
And then past perfect continuous, again, there's no change. So, if someone says... She said,
quotes, "I had been cooking that day", when there was a knock at the door, "I had been
cooking", and that's direct speech. And then in the indirect speech, "She said that she
had been cooking that day", so it stays the same. Okay.
So, then as we saw on the previous board, "will" changes to "would"; "can" changes to
"could"; "must" changes to "had to", because you can't have "must" in the past form. You
can have "have to" and then "had to", but if you use "must", you then have to use "had
to" in the indirect form. Okay.
And then "may" changes to "might", and then all of these, "might" or "to", "could", "should",
and "would", there's no change. So, for example, with "might", "She said", quotes, "I might
be going on holiday next week." Okay? "I might be going on holiday next week." And then in
the indirect, "She said that she might be going on holiday next week", or the following
week, if you're talking about it sometime later. So, that is an example of how all of
these stay the same, except you change it from "I" to "she" or "he". "I might be going
on holiday" is the direct one. "She said she might be going on holiday", or "He said he
might be going on holiday". So, the personal pronoun changes, but not the verb.
Okay, so I hope that's been a helpful explanation for you on the difference between direct and
indirect speech, how you write it with quotation marks for direct, how you have to change the
verb tense quite often with most of these, but some of them don't change. So, if you'd
like to test your knowledge on this, there's a quiz. If you'd like to go to the website,
www.engvid.com, and try the quiz, see how you do. So, thanks for watching, and hope
to see you again soon. Bye for now.