Narration Change — Rules, Examples & Exercise

Narration change (উক্তি পরিবর্তন) means reporting what someone said. Moving from direct to indirect speech, you change four things: the reporting verb, the linker, the pronouns, and the tense of the reported clause. Word order and punctuation follow the sentence type — assertive, interrogative, imperative, optative or exclamatory — and each type takes its own linker and its own reporting verb.

Where it is set: SSC & HSC English 2nd Paper — Grammar

The four things that change

Turning direct speech into indirect speech changes exactly four things, and nothing else. Work through them in order and the sentence rewrites itself.

First the reporting verb: say to becomes tell, and other types of sentence take their own verb. Second the linker: the inverted commas are removed and a joining word takes their place. Third the pronouns. Fourth the tense of the reported clause.

• Reporting verb — say stays say; say to becomes tell; questions take ask; commands take order, tell, request or advise; wishes take pray or wish.
• Linker — that for statements, if/whether for yes-no questions, the question word itself for WH questions, to for commands, that for wishes and exclamations.
• Pronouns — first person follows the subject of the reporting verb, second person follows its object, third person does not change. The old rule is remembered as S-O-S: Subject, Object, Same.
• Tense — if the reporting verb is in the past, the reported verb moves one step back into the past. If the reporting verb is in the present or future, the reported verb does not change at all.

• ✓ Direct: He said to me, “I am ill.” → Indirect: He told me that he was ill.
• ✓ Direct: He says, “I am ill.” → Indirect: He says that he is ill. — present reporting verb, so no tense change

How the tense moves back

When the reporting verb is in the past, every verb in the reported speech moves one step further into the past. The one exception is a universal truth, a habitual fact or a historical event, which keeps its original tense because moving it would make it false.

Tense change when the reporting verb is past

• ✓ He said, “The earth moves round the sun.” → He said that the earth moves round the sun. — a universal truth keeps the present tense
• ✓ She said, “I had finished the work.” → She said that she had finished the work. — the past perfect cannot move back further

Words of time and place also shift

Because the report is made at a different time and often in a different place, words that point to the speaker's situation must be adjusted. This shift applies only when the reporting verb is in the past.

• ✓ He said, “I will come here tomorrow.” → He said that he would go there the next day.
• ✓ She said, “I met him yesterday.” → She said that she had met him the previous day.

Interrogative sentences

A question in direct speech becomes a statement in indirect speech: the auxiliary moves back behind the subject and the question mark disappears. The reporting verb becomes ask (or enquire of).

A yes-no question takes if or whether as its linker. A WH question uses its own question word as the linker, so nothing extra is added.

• ✓ He said to me, “Are you ill?” → He asked me if I was ill.
• ✓ He said to me, “Where do you live?” → He asked me where I lived. — note the word order: where I lived, not where did I live
• ✗ He asked me where did I live. ✓ He asked me where I lived. — an indirect question keeps statement word order

Imperative, optative and exclamatory sentences

These three types drop their verb into an infinitive or a that clause and take a reporting verb that names the speaker's intention. Choosing that verb accurately is where most of the marks are.

• ✓ He said to me, “Please help me.” → He requested me to help him.
• ✓ He said, “Alas! I am undone.” → He exclaimed with sorrow that he was undone.

Practice

Work through these before you check the answers — the reasoning matters more than the answer.

1. He said to me, “I am reading a book.”
2. She said, “The sun sets in the west.”
3. He said to me, “Do you know him?”
4. The teacher said to us, “What are you doing?”
5. Father said to me, “Do not waste your time.”
6. He said, “May Allah help you!”
7. She said, “How beautiful the flower is!”
8. He said to me, “I saw her yesterday.”

Answers

1. He told me that he was reading a book.
2. She said that the sun sets in the west — a universal truth keeps its tense.
3. He asked me if I knew him.
4. The teacher asked us what we were doing.
5. Father told me not to waste my time.
6. He prayed that Allah might help me.
7. She exclaimed with wonder that the flower was very beautiful.
8. He told me that he had seen her the previous day.