Page 53 - New Medley 5 Semester 2

Changes in tenses
 From simple present to simple past – is changes to was, am changes to was and are

changes to were.

 From present continuous to past continuous – is meeting changes to was meeting.
 From simple past to past perfect – went changes to had gone.

 Will changes to would and shall changes to should or would.

 No inverted commas are used in indirect speech.

Changes in pronouns

 First person pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘we’ and second person pronouns like ‘you’ undergo
appropriate changes, as explained below. Third person pronouns like ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’

and ‘it’ remain the same.

Example: 1. The King of Persia said to Birbal, “I have arranged for a feast, specially
for you.” (Direct speech)

2. The King of Persia told Birbal that he had arranged for a feast, specially
for him. (Indirect speech)

You can see that we do not use inverted commas in
indirect speech. The pronoun I in sentence 1 changes REMEMBER
to he because it refers to the speaker, ‘King of Persia’. We also use ‘that’ in indirect
speech usually when reporting
The pronoun ‘you’ changes to ‘him’ because it refers to the words of the speaker.
the object, ‘Birbal’.
Changing Interrogative Sentences

 When we change an interrogative sentence from direct to indirect form, we remove

the inverted commas and change the person of the pronoun used, as discussed above.
Example: 1. The teacher said, “Why are you late?” (Direct)

2. The teacher asked why I was late. (Indirect)

 The tense of the verb also changes accordingly.

Example: 1. Meena asked Anil, “Why did you take the raincoat?” (Direct)

2. Meena asked Anil why he had taken the raincoat. (Indirect)

Using ‘said’ and ‘told’

 We use the reporting verb told and not said when the reporting verb (said) is
transitive, and both the speaker as well as the listener are mentioned.

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