Reported Speech

2. Interrogative, or questions. No "that". The question becomes a statement in word order, and the question mark goes. Reporting verb: asked, inquired, demanded.

Yes-or-no questions take if or whether.

Direct: He said to me, "Have you filed the reply?"

Indirect: He asked me if I had filed the reply.

Wh-questions keep the question word.

Direct: The judge said, "Who represents the defendant?"

Indirect: The judge asked who represented the defendant.

Direct: He said to her, "Where did you find the document?"

Indirect: He asked her where she had found the document.

The commonest error. Keeping the interrogative word order. Not "He asked me had I filed the reply" but "He asked me if I had filed the reply".

3. Imperative, commands and requests. The verb becomes an infinitive with to, and the reporting verb changes to fit the force of the words: ordered, commanded, told, asked, requested, advised, urged, warned, forbade.

Direct: He said to the clerk, "File the reply."

Indirect: He ordered the clerk to file the reply.

Direct: She said to me, "Please help me."

Indirect: She requested me to help her.

Direct: He said to me, "Do not sign it."

Indirect: He advised me not to sign it. (Negative: not to.)

Direct: The officer said, "Do not enter."

Indirect: The officer forbade them to enter.

4. Exclamatory. The exclamation is turned into a statement, and the reporting verb becomes exclaimed with joy, exclaimed with sorrow, exclaimed with surprise, or applauded, lamented, regretted. The interjection disappears.

Direct: He said, "Alas! I have lost the case."

Indirect: He exclaimed with sorrow that he had lost the case.

Direct: She said, "What a fine judgment!"

Indirect: She exclaimed that it was a very fine judgment.

Direct: They said, "Hurrah! We have won."

Indirect: They exclaimed with joy that they had won.

Note the pattern for "what a" and "how". They become "a very" and "very".

5. Optative, wishes and prayers. The reporting verb becomes wished, prayed, blessed.

Direct: He said, "May you succeed."

Indirect: He wished that I might succeed.

Direct: She said, "God bless you."

Indirect: She prayed that God might bless me.

Mixed passages

Where a passage contains sentences of different kinds, report each according to its own rule and join them with suitable words: and, further, then, thereupon.

Direct: He said to me, "I have read your draft. Do you want me to file it? Please tell me by evening."

Indirect: He told me that he had read my draft, asked whether I wanted him to file it, and requested me to tell him by that evening.

Note the economy. One reporting verb per kind, joined into a single sentence. That is how a court records evidence and how a lawyer takes instructions.

Where a law student meets this every day

In a judgment. "The learned counsel submitted that the notice had not been served" is reported speech, and its accuracy is the difference between a correct record and a misquotation.

In evidence. A witness's deposition is recorded in the third person and the past tense, which is exactly this conversion applied for hours at a time.

And the rule that connects it to Module I. In Pudd'nhead Wilson, in Murder!, and in the trial of Bardell against Pickwick, what a witness said in the box and what the record says he said are the same event seen through this grammar. Reported speech is the machinery by which speech becomes a document.

A worked answer

Question. "Change into indirect speech: (a) He said to me, 'I shall meet you tomorrow.' (b) The judge said to the witness, 'Where were you on the night of the fourth?' (c) She said to him, 'Please do not disturb me.' (d) He said, 'Alas! I have failed.'"

(a) He told me that he would meet me the next day. Tense: shall becomes would. Person: I becomes he, you becomes me. Time: tomorrow becomes the next day.

(b) The judge asked the witness where he had been on the night of the fourth. A wh-question keeps its question word, loses the interrogative order and the question mark, and the past becomes the past perfect.

(c) She requested him not to disturb her. A request becomes an infinitive with "to", the negative is "not to", and the reporting verb "requested" carries the word "please", which is then dropped.

(d) He exclaimed with sorrow that he had failed. The interjection disappears, the reporting verb carries the emotion, and the present perfect becomes the past perfect.

Quick revision

Four changes: reporting verb and conjunction; person, by SOSO; tense, one step back if the reporting verb is past; time and place words.

No tense change for universal truths, statements of law in force, still-true habits, or when the reporting verb is in the present or future.

Statements take that. Yes-or-no questions take if or whether. Wh-questions keep their question word. Commands and requests take an infinitive with to, negative not to. Exclamations become statements with an emotion-carrying reporting verb. Wishes take wished or prayed.

Word order in a reported question is that of a statement, and the question mark goes.

What a very becomes: "What a fine judgment!" becomes "that it was a very fine judgment".

Test yourself

1. State the four changes made in converting direct into indirect speech. The reporting verb and the conjunction; the person of the pronouns, changed by the subject-to-subject and object-to-object rule; the tense, moved one step back if the reporting verb is in the past; and the words of time and place, so that today becomes that day and here becomes there.

2. When does the tense not change? When the reporting verb is in the present or future, and when the reported words state a universal truth, a rule of law still in force, or a habit that is still true. So "He said, 'A minor's agreement is void'" becomes "He said that a minor's agreement is void".

3. Convert: The judge said to the witness, "Did you see the accused that night?" The judge asked the witness whether he had seen the accused that night. A yes-or-no question takes if or whether, the word order becomes that of a statement, the question mark is dropped, and the simple past becomes the past perfect.

4. How are commands, requests and prohibitions reported? The verb becomes an infinitive with "to", and the reporting verb is chosen to match the force of the words: ordered, told, requested, advised, urged, warned or forbade. A prohibition takes "not to", as in "He advised me not to sign it".

5. Convert: She said, "What a fine judgment this is!" She exclaimed that it was a very fine judgment. An exclamation becomes a statement, "what a" becomes "a very", the emotion is carried by the reporting verb, and the exclamation mark disappears.