Meritnation|Mar 15th, 2012 02:59pm
Dear Students,
We hope that you all are busy preparing for the exam. As the countdown to the Board Exam has begun, we wish to provide you with some handy tips on certain topics in Grammar like Reported Speech, Voice Change etc. The Grammar section, if properly dealt with, can fetch you very good score. In this article we will throw some light on the exceptions in the rules of narration, i.e., reported speech. We will also present a table showing the various conversions that occur while transforming a speech from direct to indirect and vice-versa. We suggest that you should be aware of these exceptions so that any question based on these exceptional rules can be attempted without any trouble. These exceptions are not difficult to remember, only that you need to understand the logic behind them. You have to understand the situations in which a general rule of narration will not apply. This is very interesting as well.
Exceptions in Reported Speech
Instance:
The teacher said: “The sun rises in the east, the moon causes the tides and Holi is the festival of colours.”
This sentence can be reported as: The teacher said that the sun rises in the east, the moon causes the tides, and Holi is the festival of colours.
For instance,
Professor said: We will find a solution soon.
This sentence can be reported as: Professor said that we will find a solution soon.
Boss said: “The world conference will be held next summer.”
This sentence can be reported as: Boss said that the world conference will be held next summer.
For instance,
He said: “I am glad to be here this evening.”
This sentence would change to: He said that he was glad to be there that evening.
Also,
She said: “These are the books I had been looking for.”
This sentence would change to: She said that those were the books she had been looking for.
For instance,
She said: “When I was driving, Joe called me.”
This sentence changes to: She said that when she was driving, Joe called her.
Also,
She said: “If I had more time I would learn Spanish.”
This sentence changes to: She said that if she had more time she would learn Spanish.
For instance,
– If you are travelling in a bus and haven’t heard what the conductor just said, you might as well ask your friend: “What did the conductor say?”
The instant reply to this would be: The conductor said that the next stop is Surajkund.
Another instance of the same can be:
– If you are late for a cinema and ask the ticket checker: “When will the movie begin?”
To this the instant reply would be: The ticket checker said that the movie will begin in 5 minutes.
Conversion of Certain Terms in Reported Speech
Now | Then, at that time |
Today | That day |
tomorrow | The following day, the next day, a day later |
yesterday | The previous day, the day before |
Next month | The following month, the next month, a month later |
Next year | The following year, the next year, a year later |
Last month | The month before, the previous month, the preceding month |
Last year | The year before, the previous year, the preceding year |
In two days, two weeks, etc. | Two days from then, two weeks from then, etc. |
Five days ago | Five days before, five days earlier |
Five weeks ago | Five weeks before, five weeks earlier |
Here | There |
Hope our endeavour in providing you with these handy tips will be fruitful in ensuring you to tackle any level of question on reported speech.
Wishing you all the very best! 🙂
Add Comment Total Comments (25)
1. n.shruthika | March 6th, 2014 at 12:54 pm
it is very clear about reported speech,thank u very much for puting this
2. swapna | March 5th, 2014 at 7:09 pm
good it helpe me a lot
thanks meritnation
3. Shivani | March 3rd, 2014 at 4:13 pm
fantastic
4. angel | January 30th, 2013 at 6:28 am
Isn’t this evening supposed to change to- the previous evening???
5. syeda noor | January 7th, 2013 at 9:17 pm
thnx for the info……..
6. pavit | August 12th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
it helped me !
7. pavit | August 12th, 2012 at 6:38 pm
good!
8. Aditya | July 16th, 2012 at 10:44 am
Thankyou….!! It helped me to an extent….!!
9. harshit | July 7th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
very nice explanation
10. Atique | July 3rd, 2012 at 12:45 pm
excellent
11. Atique | July 3rd, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Thank you!!!very much!!!
12. suryansh | June 2nd, 2012 at 7:21 am
The explanation is just better than excellent
13. fariya | May 2nd, 2012 at 12:07 pm
very nice and very easy
14. sand | April 29th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
🙂
15. sand | April 29th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
🙂
16. anushka | April 29th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
very very helpfull
17. himanshi | April 19th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
this site has really helped me allot………….
even increased my interest in studies…………….:-)
18. Aishwarya | March 20th, 2012 at 11:42 pm
VERY NICE EXPLANATION !! GOOD ONE !! (Y)
19. aparna siva | March 15th, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Thnx a lot … it really helped me a lot .. 🙂
20. Pooja | March 15th, 2012 at 8:24 pm
Thnx 4 the information 🙂
21. NANDANA | March 15th, 2012 at 7:04 pm
thanks….
22. NANDANA | March 15th, 2012 at 7:02 pm
its very helpful….i follow these….
23. Devi | March 15th, 2012 at 6:29 pm
very helpful……….thank you
24. shammi | March 15th, 2012 at 6:22 pm
fantabulous explanation
25. praveen | March 15th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Could plz explain this to me….
In the reported speech, if ‘will’ is the modal used to express a future time and the situation holds true even at the time of the report, the modal doesn’t change its form to ‘would’ even though the reporting verb is in the past tense.
And
in the below example
Professor said: We will find a solution soon.
This sentence can be reported as: Professor said that we will find a solution soon.
if we write the above sentence as : Professor said that we would find a solution too.
will we get marks or will we lose them……….
Comment