6th Class English Voice and Narration Direct Speech

    Direct Speech

Definition: When the actual or exact words of a speaker is presented, it is called Direct Speech.

•   Anita said, "she will go to New York."
•   Anita said that she would go to New York.

The two sentence given above refer to the two ways of reporting the words of a speaker. In sentence 1, the actual or exact words of the speaker is presented. This speech is called Direct Speech.  

      Remember it

•   In Direct Speech the actual words of the speaker are put within Inverted Commas (" ")
•   The sentence within Inverted Commas begin with a Capital Letter.  

There are two parts of a sentence in Direct Speech. They are the following:  

1.       Reporting Verb: The first part of the sentence in Direct Speech is called Reporting Verb.  

Anita said  

2.       Reported Speech: The actual words of the speaker put within Inverted Commas is called Reported Speech.  

"She will go to New York."