Indirect Speech – How do you tell a story?
When you tell a story about something that happened to you, you often want to tell people what someone said. If you use indirect speech, it will be very impressive. You can even include indirect speech in your examples for the TOEFL essay. If you do it correctly, you will get a higher score because it requires more advanced grammar. So, how do you do it?
I’ll explain the three main types of indirect speech and some common mistakes to avoid.
1. Use an infinitive (to + a verb) after ask or tell. ** This is the easiest kind!
For example:
Direct speech – “Can you open the door?” or “Open the door.”
Indirect speech – She asked me to open the door. She told me to open the door.
2. For indirect questions: After the question word, put the subject + the verb in the normal order, not reversed like a direct question.
For example:
Direct speech – “Where is the bathroom?”
Indirect speech – He asked me where the bathroom was.
3. Change the verb into the past if it’s in the present or into the past perfect if it’s in the past.
For example:
Direct speech – “I love popcorn.”
Indirect speech – “She told me she loved popcorn.”
Now you go for it. Tell me a story in the comments and include something someone told or asked you!
Kim