What is Direct Speech in English?

In English, there are two types of speeches we use to report something: direct and indirect speech. Direct speech is used when we report something word by word statement of someone. These are the actual words spoken by someone.

In this article, I will explain what direct speech is, structure, rules and examples to help you understand this concept of English grammar.

What is Direct Speech?

Direct speech refers to the actual words of someone when we report those words. In other words, when we report someone’s words, we say the exact or actual words spoken by someone else. We don’t change the words. Instead we, simply report the exact words said by someone.

Examples:

• He said, “he must come to the meeting.”
• She said, “she can’t find her keys.”
• They exclaimed, ” the won the match.”
• She shouted, “don’t touch my computer.”

Structure of Sentences

When we use make sentences using direct speech, we simply add what speaker said at the start of the sentence followed by comma, and the actual words of the speaker in quotations marks. here are some examples:

Examples:

• She said, “she loves chocolate.”
• They shouted, “Hurray.”
• He asked, “Would you like some tea.”
• The inquired, “Where are you going tomorrow?”

For expressions in the sentence, words like asked, inquired, questions, exclaimed, shouted, and screamed can also be used. 

For example:

• She shouted, “Where are my keys?”
• They exclaimed, “Hurray, we won the match.”

In the first part of the sentence, we usually used past tense. For example;

• She said, 
• They exclaimed, 
• He apologized, 

Punctuation Rules 

1. The actual words are describe inside the quotations marks which means that these words are the exact words that someone said or spoken. there is no modification or changes in the words. 

Examples:

• “Would you join us?”, asked Sarah.
• “Would you take tea”, She asked.

2. The first letter of the quoted words is always capitalized. For example:

• She asked, “Have you seen my keys?”

3. A comma is placed after the first part of the sentence before the quoted statement. See the example below!

• He asked, “Did you finish your homework?”

4. Other punctuations like  comma, period, question mark, or exclamation point are kept inside the quotation marks. See the example:

• He said, “He would go outside for a walk.”
• They inquired, “Would you like to take tea?”
• They shouted, “Hurray!”

Examples:

• He said, “Would you like to go for a walk?”
• She asked, “Could you please pass me the salt?”
• They inquired, “What would you like to eat tonight?”
• She shouted, “Don’t open the door!”
• She screamed, “Watch out!”

Conclusion

Direct speech is a type of speech in English in which the actual words of someone are reported without changing anything in the sentence. The main purpose of using this type of speech is to convey information and maintain authenticity. 

To make sentences, we use the past tense int he first part, followed by a comma and the quoted statement. The punctuation marks are always kept inside the quotation marks.

I hope this article helped you to learn what a direct speech is, the structure of sentences used in direct speech, rules to follow, and examples of everyday use sentences to help you learn how direct speech functions in the English language.

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