Introduction

In English grammar, narration refers to the way of telling a story or an incident. There are two types of narration available in English grammar: Direct speech and Indirect speech. In direct speech, the exact words of the speaker are quoted whereas, in indirect speech, the speaker's words are reported without using their exact words. In this practice exercise, we will convert a sentence from direct speech to indirect speech.

Example Sentence

Ram said to Rahim, "We are playing football."

Conversion of Direct to Indirect Speech

To convert the sentence from direct to indirect speech, we need to follow a few rules.

Step 1: Change the tense of the reporting verb (said) according to the tense of the reported speech.

In this sentence, the reporting verb said is in the past tense. Therefore, we need to change the tense of the verb according to the tense of the reported speech. The reported speech is in the present continuous tense ("We are playing football"). So, we need to change the tense of the reporting verb to the past continuous tense.

Step 2: Change the pronouns and adverbs according to the subject of the reporting verb.

In this sentence, the pronoun "we" refers to Ram and some other people who are playing football. We need to change this pronoun according to the subject of the reporting verb. In this case, the subject of the reporting verb is Ram. Therefore, we need to change the pronoun "we" to "they" because Ram is not a part of the group playing football anymore.

Step 3: Change the word order and use conjunctions.

In indirect speech, we need to change the word order and use conjunctions to make the sentence grammatically correct. In this sentence, we can use the conjunction "that" to introduce the reported speech.

Final Sentence:

Ram told Rahim that they were playing football.

It's indirect is ....
Ram said that he is a boy.
hey ! I hope it helps you..