Back to: Direct and Indirect Speech (Narration)
Table of Contents
Introduction
The process of changing Direct speech to Indirect speech or Indirect speech to Direct speech without changing the core meaning of the speaker’s words is known as Narration change. Narration change is one of the most complex yet exciting and fun grammatical processes. Narration change has its own set of rules. And by learning the rules properly you can easily change the speech of narration.
Today, instead of directly jumping into the rules, we are going to see some examples of narration change (direct to indirect, indirect to direct) and observe what type of changes are made in the speech. Notice how the reporting clause, verbs and reported clause change in the process.
Direct to Indirect speech:
Generally narration change happens mostly from direct to indirect speech. We convert direct speech to indirect speech by changing the actual quoted words of the speaker to an indirect reporting of the same of words.
Examples:
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| The boy said to me, “Please, help me.” | The boy requested me to help her. |
| Jaggu said, “I love banana.” | Jaggu said that he loved banana. |
| Gopal told Ashok, “Let’s go home.” | Gopal proposed to Ashok that they should go home. |
| Mother said to Dipa, “You are a good girl.” | Mother said to Dipa that she was a good girl. |
| Balaram said, “I am very ill.” | Balaram said that he was very ill. |
Indirect to Direct speech:
Narration change can also happen from Indirect to Direct speech. It is the opposite of the process of narration change from Direct to Indirect speech. Here the indirect reporting of a speaker’s speech is converted and expressed in the actual words of the speaker.
Examples:
| Indirect Speech | Direct Speech |
|---|---|
| Kajal said that it was going to rain then. | Kajal said, “It is going to rain now.” |
| Rahul said that he could run very fast. | Rahul said, “I can run very fast.” |
| The king told the rebel that he was going to punish him. | The king told the rebels, “I am going to punish you. |
| I requested mother to let me play with my friends. | I said to mother, “Please, let me play with my friends.’’ |
| Kabita said that she was reciting a poem. | Kabita said, “I am reciting a poem.” |
