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Reported Speech: Remember: Reported Speech Reports What The Characters Have Said, Rather Than Quoting

The document provides an example of direct speech that needs to be rewritten in reported speech. It also asks why authors use a mixture of direct and reported speech. Reported speech uses past tense and no quotation marks, while direct speech conveys a sense of being present.

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283 views2 pages

Reported Speech: Remember: Reported Speech Reports What The Characters Have Said, Rather Than Quoting

The document provides an example of direct speech that needs to be rewritten in reported speech. It also asks why authors use a mixture of direct and reported speech. Reported speech uses past tense and no quotation marks, while direct speech conveys a sense of being present.

Uploaded by

rubab
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reported speech

Rewrite the following text in reported speech. It has been started for you. Continue on
✩
a separate sheet of paper if necessary.
Remember: Reported speech reports what the characters have said, rather than quoting
their actual words. Reported speech is in the past tense and has no quotation marks.
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, “You may rest a little, now.”
Alice looked round her in great surprise. “Why, I do believe we’ve been under this
tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!”
“Of course it is,” said the Queen: “what would you have it?”
“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get
to somewhere else – if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see,
it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you
want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
“I’d rather not try, please!” said Alice. “I’m quite content to stay here –
only I am so hot and thirsty!”
“I know what you’d like!” the Queen said good-naturedly,
taking a little box out of her pocket. “Have a biscuit?”
From Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Most authors use a mixture of reported and direct speech. Why do you think they do this?

© Dorling
© Dorling Kindersley
Kindersley Limited
Limited [2010]
[2010]
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Reported speech ✩
Rewrite the following text in reported speech. It has been started for you. Continue on
a separate sheet of paper if necessary. A
Remember: Reported speech reports what the characters have said, rather than quoting
their actual words. Reported speech is in the past tense and has no quotation marks. m
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, “You may rest a little, now.”
Alice looked round her in great surprise. “Why, I do believe weve been under this O
tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!”
“Of course it is,” said the Queen: “what would you have it”?
“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get
to somewhere else - if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see,
b
it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you
want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
“I’d rather not try, please!” said Alice. “I’m quite content to stay here -
only I am so hot and thirsty!”
A
“I know what you’d like!” the Queen said good-naturedly,
taking a little box out of her pocket. “Have a biscuit?” t
From Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

could rest a little . Alice looked around her and said


F
with surprise, that she believed they had been under that tree all the time and
everything had stayed just as it was. The Queen replied that of course it had and
g
asked Alice what else she would want it to be. Alice explained, still panting slightly,
that in her country people generally reached somewhere else if they ran fast for a
w
long time as they had. The Queen declared that Alice’s must be a slow sort of

y
country . In hers, you had to run as fast as you could just to stay in one place and
you needed to run twice as fast to get anywhere else. Alice said that she would
rather not try and she was happy to stay where she was except that she was hot
and thirsty. The Queen said she knew what Alice w ould like and asked her if she
I
wanted a biscuit.

Most authors use a mixture of reported and direct speech. Why do you think they do this?
Using reported speech can help the story to flow and save space. Direct speech s
gives a sense of “being there.”

n 23
F k d
x
b

s
S

This page provides your child with practice in converting direct speech into
L

reported speech and examines the stylistic reasons for choosing one form or the
other. Check that your child’s rewriting of the passage is grammatically correct.

©
© Dorling Kindersley Limited
Dorling Kindersley Limited [2010]
[2010]

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