Narration or The Reported Speech

Narration or The Reported Speech

When we communicate with other, we deliver our speech in our own language or we say directly. These speeches are called Narration or the reported speech. As: Mr. Ahmed says to us ," You are still child."  This is a direct speech because hence we quote the speech of Mr.Ahmed.If we say it our own word it will replace thus , Mr. Ahmed  tells us that we are still child. If we analyse the above sentences, we'll be able to know  that  reporting verb and  person change here. Thus  narration is part and parcel of our life.

Now  we should know the process of speech with other. In English grammar actually there are eleven  rules for changing narration. The rules follow the fundamental five sentences. So to know narration firstly everybody should know the fundamental (primary)  five sentences. These will help you a lot. Next we should follow the use of tense. Especially primary structure  of  tense  will help us a lot.

The Rules of  Changing Narration:

Rules of Assertive  Sentence:

1.In a sentence, if reporting verb uses with present  or future, there the tense of reported speech remain unchanged.

As: a) D= Hena says , "My mother helps me in my work." 

      ID= Hena says that her mother helps her in her work.

 b) D= Kabir says, "I shall help you."   ID = Kabir says that he will help. 

2. If the reporting verb is in the past tense, the  verb of  the reported  speech changes into the corresponding past form.

D= Hasan said to Lima, "I am fine."   ID= Hasan  told Lima that he was fine.
D= He said,  "I am reading a book."   ID= He said that he was reading a book.
D= She said, "I shall do it."   ID= She said that she would do it.
NB. If the reporting  verb follows an object then  reporting verb turns into 'said' to 'told'.

3. If  the  reporting verb contains past tense and  the reported speech remain past indefinite  or  past continuous  then they respectively change into past perfect or past perfect continuous .

D= Panna said , " I went to school." ID= Panna said that she had gone to school.
D= Kabir said to me, "I was writing a book." ID= Kabir told me that he had written a book.

NB: But where reported speech have two or more verbs occurring  at the  same time past  tense of the verbs remain unchanged. D= Mrs Amin said, " Mr. Ant worked hard while  Mr. Grasshopper  slept." ID = Mrs. Amin said that Mr. Ant worked hard while  Mr. Grasshopper slept.

4. If the  reported speech represents  a universal truth, constant fact, habitual fact, geographical fact and  quotations, The verb in the reported speech remain unchanged.
D= The teacher said, " The earth moves round the sun." ID= The teacher said that the earth moves round the sun. D= Keats said, "A thing of beauty is joy for ever." ID= Keats said that  a thing  of beauty is joy for ever.

NB: If the reported speech has two or more verbs occurring at the same time the past tense of the verbs is not changed. D= The teacher said, “Mr. Ant worked hard while Mr. Grasshopper slept.” ID= The teacher said that Mr. Ant worked hard while Mr. Grasshopper slept. On the other hand “ for would or, should” no past perfect/ perfect continuous is used. .  Follow that D=Direct, ID= Indirect.

Words that express nearness are often changed into the words expressing remoteness:

Words in direct  Speech	Words in Indirect Speech
Here	There
This	That
Ago	Before
These	Those
Hence	Thence
Come	Go
Hither	Thither
Thus	So, in that way
Today	That day, the same day
Tomorrow	The next day, the following day
Yesterday	The previous day,  the day before
Last night	The previous  night, the night  before

Rule of Interrogative sentence:

5. If the reported speech of an interrogative sentence begins with auxiliary verb, conjunction “ if or whether”  will use, and reporting verb turns into “ask, inquire of , demand of” At last the sentence turns into assertive.

D= Hasan said to Lubna, “Are you reading now?” ID= Hasan asked Lubna if she was reading then.  D= The boy said to Hafiz, “Will you help me?” ID= The boy asked Hafiz whether he would help him.

6. If the reported speech begins with who, which, what, how, when, where, why etc. then the “wh” words are not changed, it means “if or whether” will not use. And the sentence will turn into an assertive like the previous one.

D= The man said to me, “What is your name?” ID= The man asked me what my name was. D= Karim said to Asif, “When will you return to me?” ID= Karim asked Asif when he would return to him.

Rule of Imperative sentence:

7. In imperative sentence reporting verb turns into tell, order, request, beg, forbid, command etc, “to” is used for conjunction. The sentence becomes assertive.

D= Mrs. Amin said to me, “Do it now.”  ID= Mrs. Amin told me to do it then. D= Mother said to me, “Never go to Cinema.” ID= Mother forbade me  to go to cinema. D= The teacher said to us, “Do not tell a lie.” ID= The teacher advised us not to tell a lie. Or, The teacher forbade us to tell a lie. D= The man said to me, “Please help me.” ID= The man requested me to help him.

NB: Remember that when there is no object after the verb then object will consider according to reported speech. [They said, “Come again.” ID= They told me or someone to go again.] Follow that in the above sentence there is no object, here me or someone uses.

8.  When reported speech begins with “Let us”, it indicates proposal or suggestion. Hence ‘should’ uses after the subject for “let” in the sub-ordinate clause, ‘that’ uses as conjunction and the sentence becomes assertive.

D= Nazu said to me, “Let us do it.”  ID= Nazu proposed or, suggested me that we should do it. D= He said, “Let us do it.” ID= He proposed that they should do it.

9. When reported speech take another ‘Pronoun’ instead of ‘us’ then it does not indicate proposal. In this case reporting verb turns like rule-7‘that’ uses as conjunction and ‘might or might be allowed to ’uses for ‘Let.

D= Mina said, “Let me finish the talk.”  ID= Mina said that she might (might be allowed to) finish the talk.                                     
                              Rule of Optative Sentence:

10. In Optative sentence reporting verb turns into wish or pray, ‘that’ uses as conjunction. The Optative sentence turns into statement or assertive.

D= He said to me, “May you be happy.” ID= He wished that I might be happy. D= Father said to his son, “May Allah bless you.” ID= Father prayed that Allah might bless his son. D= The Children sang, “Long live the country.” ID= The children wished singing that the country might live long. D= He said, “Good morning, my friend.” ID= He wished good morning to his friend. D= The man said, “Farewell my friend.” ID= The man bade farewell to his friend. D= Riya said, “Good bye, friend.” ID= Riya bade her friend good bye.
                             Rule of Exclamatory Sentence:

11. In exclamatory sentence reporting verb changes into exclaim, cry out, shout according to the sense. We have to add some new words or phrases like “with joy, in joy, with sorrow, in sorrow, in wonder etc. to express the meaning of exclamation. If the sense does not clear, we only use exclaim. As a conjunction we use ‘that’ overall we make it statement. D= Moinul said, “Alas! I am undone.” ID= Moinul exclaimed with sorrow that he was undone. D= Lubna said, “Hurrah! We have won the game.” ID= Lubna exclaimed with joy that they had won the game. D= She said to me, “What a funny person you are!” ID= She exclaimed with wonder that I was a very funny person. D= He said, “Had I the wings of a bird!” ID= He wished that he had the wings of a bird.