LAST week, we talked about general punctuation starting with the use of capital letters. When we write the actual words spoken by people, we are using direct speech. In writing, we use quotation marks (inverted commas).
All the words and punctuation marks, which would be inside the speech bubbles, also go inside the quotation marks.
Some rules for writing direct speech: Only the actual words spoken are written inside quotation marks. The first word of direct speech begins with a capital letter. The quotation marks at the end are placed after the punctuation mark which comes at the end of the spoken words. (,” .” ?” !”).
Direct speech is always separated from the rest of the sentence (said Leon) by a comma, full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. Begin a new paragraph each time a different person speaks.
Indirect speech: The actual words spoken by a person are called direct speech. When we retell or report something which has been said, we use indirect speech. Compare the following examples of direct and indirect speech: “I am coming to see you this evening,” said Laura. Laura said that she was coming to see me this evening.
Sihle asked, “Am I too late to put my name down for the young farmers club?” Sihle asked if she was too late to put her name down for the young farmers club. Why is there no question mark? “Put your bicycle in the garage, Simon,” said his mother. Simon’s mother told him to put his bicycle in the garage.
Punctuation
Did you notice? No quotation marks are used in indirect speech. We need to use extra words like that, asked if and told when reporting what has been said. The pronouns change, for example “I” becomes “he” in the first sentence. When using indirect speech, we usually change the verbs to past tense because we are reporting something that has already been said.
Look at these examples: “I am going shopping,” said Bill’s mother. (present tense) Bill’s mother said that she was going shopping. (becomes past tense) He said “I saw you all there,” (already past tense) He said that he had seen us all there. (Saw becomes had seen) Will you help me? Asked Rita. (future tense) Rita asked if I would help her. (will becomes would)
These are some of the words, which can change to past tense in indirect speech: “am” changes to was, is –was, are –were, shall – should, will – would, can –could, may – might. have –had, may – might, has – had, today – yesterday, that day, etc., this morning – that morning, last week – the previous week – next week – the following week and tomorrow – the next day, the following day.
Change these sentences to indirect speech, using the past tense. “I am getting new jeans for the party”, said Ludo. “My dad said, the surprise will be here soon.” “I bought my mother a plant for Christmas,” said George. “I’ve asked my aunt if you can come with us,” said Sineke. “Can you tell me where the library is?” she asked. “I may go to visit my niece in Maputo in December,” said Irene.
Reflexive pronouns (myself/yourself) The reflexive pronouns are: singular: myself, plural – ourselves. Yourself (one person) yourselves (more than one person) himself/herself/itself and themselves. We use the reflexive pronoun when the subject and the object are the same: Peter cut himself while he was chopping firewood. (Not Peter cut him).
I don’t want you to pay for me. I’ll pay for myself. The old man sat in a corner talking to himself.
Don’t get angry. Control yourself! (said to one person) If you want more to eat, help yourselves. (said to more than one person. The party was great. We enjoyed ourselves very much. But we do not use “myself” after “bring/take something with . . .”
I went out and took an umbrella with me. (not with myself). We do not normally use “myself” after “wash/dress/shave”. I got up, shaved, washed and dressed (not shaved myself). But we say: I dried myself.
Both/both of, neither/ neither of, either/either of: We use both, neither and either when we are talking about two things. You can use these words with a noun: Both students are very good. (not “the both students”) Neither restaurant is expensive. We can go to either restaurant. I don’t mind. (either = one or the other, it doesn’t matter which one). I didn’t’ like either restaurant. (not the one or the other).
You can use both/neither/either with “of. . .” When you use these words with “of,” you always need the/these/those/ my/your/his etc. You cannot say “both of restaurants.” You have to say “both of the restaurants”. Both of these restaurants are very good. Neither of the restaurants we went to was very expensive. We can go to either of those restaurants. I don’t mind.
Learn how to use these expressions.
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