What is Direct Speech | Rules and Examples
The two ways of composing a spoken sentence are direct speech and indirect speech. Direct speech is the reporting text exactly in the same way by a speaker. We keep a person’s speech as it is to make the direct form within quotation mark. For enclosing the spoken words into quotation mark it is also called quoted speech. Direct speech is used by us for speaking and writing when we want to repeat the words of the speaker. The following article will present everything related to direct speech including all general rules, examples and further explanation.
A direct speech is typically formed with the speaker and reporting verb used with it. When we have to compose some conversation in a text, story, drama or novels then we need to depend on direct speech. To know details about direct speech we will discuss the general formation rules below:
Structure of direct speech:
The speaker+ reporting verb+ reported speech
Ex.
He said, “I am alright”.
She said, “Are you ill?”
The captain said to the team members, “come with me”.
She said, “Can I go with you?”
Formation rules of direct speech:
There are some basic rules which students have to keep in mind for forming any direct speech irrespective of tense, person, views, meaning etc. to make direct speech correct students must follow the formation rules of direct speech. The rules are:
i) Quotation marks:
The primary sign of identifying any direct speech is quotation mark. All words spoken by a speaker will entirely be within a quotation mark in written text. From this form we will find out if a sentence is in direct speech or not.
Ex.
She said, “I love pizza”.
She said to me, “can I sit next to you?”
ii) Use of reporting verb:
There will certainly be a reporting clause including a noun or pronoun and a verb which will be placed before or after the reported speech. The first word will not be in capital letter of the reporting clause if it comes after the reported speech except proper noun. When the reporting clause sits before the reported speech it starts with capital letter. Only the spoken part will be in quotation mark. If reporting clause is placed in the middle of direct speech then we have to make sure that any part of it should not come within quotation.
Ex.
Father asked his son, “where were you last night?”
“I prefer going to walk in evening”, said the girl.
iii) Placing a comma:
Reporting verb and reported speech cannot sit together in a sentence. For that we have to separate them by using a comma in between them. If the reposting verb is placed before the reported speech then comma will be used before starting the quotation mark. After comma there will be a space before starting quotation mark to put direct speech in it.
Ex.
He says, “I want to buy some groceries”.
They said, “We will wait for you here”.
FAQs:
1.) What is direct speech?
Answer. When we use some other person’s speaking or spoken words in written text and want to keep the speech as it is then we use direct speech.
2.) Where we can find usage of direct speech?
Answer. We can see direct speech in conversation, news report, drama, novels etc.
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