Narration — Direct to Indirect Speech — Full Lecture

Basic Conversion Steps:

1. Remove inverted commas (" ")
2. Change reporting verb (said → told/said that)
3. Change tense (if reporting verb is past)
4. Change pronouns
5. Change time/place words

Tense Changes (when reporting verb is Past):

Direct (inside " ")	Indirect
Present Indefinite (V1)	Past Indefinite (V2)
Present Continuous (is/am/are + V-ing)	Past Continuous (was/were + V-ing)
Present Perfect (has/have + V3)	Past Perfect (had + V3)
Past Indefinite (V2)	Past Perfect (had + V3)
Past Continuous (was/were + V-ing)	Past Perfect Continuous (had been + V-ing)
will/shall	would
can	could
may	might
must	had to

No Tense Change if:

• Universal truth: He said, "The earth moves round the sun." → He said that the earth moves round the sun.
• Habitual fact: He said, "I get up at 6." → He said that he gets up at 6.

Pronoun Change (S-O-N Rule):

• 1st person → follows Subject (reporting verb-এর subject)
• 2nd person → follows Object (whom was said to)
• 3rd person → No change

Time/Place Changes:

Direct	Indirect
now	then
today	that day
tomorrow	the next day / the following day
yesterday	the previous day / the day before
here	there
this	that
these	those
ago	before
last night	the previous night
next week	the following week

Sentence Types:

Assertive: He said, "I am happy." → He said that he was happy.

Interrogative (Yes/No): He said, "Are you happy?" → He asked if/whether I was happy.

Interrogative (Wh-): He said, "Where do you live?" → He asked where I lived.

Imperative (order/request): He said, "Open the door." → He ordered/requested me to open the door.

Imperative (negative): He said, "Don't go." → He forbade me to go / told me not to go.

Exclamatory: He said, "What a beautiful day!" → He exclaimed with wonder that it was a very beautiful day.

Optative: He said, "May you be happy!" → He prayed/wished that I might be happy.