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Narrations Part-1

The art of reporting the words of a speaker is called Narration. It is of two types:-

Direct Speech: We quote the actual words of the speaker in inverted commas: He said to me , "I am playing."
Indirect Speech: We quote the words or speech of the speaker in our own words, without inverted commas: He told me that he was playing.

In Narration a sentence has two parts:-
a) Reporting verb: He said to me,
b) Reported speech: "I am playing."

Rules of Changing Pronouns

The pronoun of First Person is changed according to the subject of Reported speech.
The pronoun of Second Person is changed according to Object.
The pronoun of Third Person is not changed at all.(The formula to change pronoun is 123/SON.)

SON: S - subject, O - object, N - no change
Persons : There are three types of persons:-

First Person (I, we, my, me, our)
Second Person (You, your)
Third Person (He, she, it, his, they, them etc.)

Part-I

(Assertive Sentences in Present or Future)
Rules

If Reporting Verb is in Present or Future Tense the tense of Reported speech is not changed.
(" ") inverted commas are replaced with the conjunction 'that'.
Say to is replaced with tell, says to with tells and said to with told.

Examples:-

The boys say, "We have learnt the lesson".
The boys say that they have learnt the lesson.
Reena will say, "I am going to America".
Reena will say that she is going to America.
The servant says to me, "The manager will come in the evening".
The servant tells me that the manager will come in the evening.
He has said to them, "You were playing cricket yesterday."
He has told them that they were playing cricket yesterday

Part-II

(Assertive Sentences in Past)

Rules:-

'said to' is changed into 'told'.
Use conjunction 'that' to connect
If Reporting Verb is in Past Tense the tense of the Reported Speech is changed according to the rules given below:-

Present Indefinite...changes into...Past Indefinite
Present Continuous ...............Past Continuous
Present Perfect .....................Past Perfect
Present Per. Cont ..................Past Per. Cont.
Past Indefinite ...................... Past Perfect
Past Continuous ................... Past Per. Cont.
Will/Shall .............................Would/Should
Can .................. Could
May ................. Might.

In Reported Speech words showing nearness changes into words showing distance:-

This .......becomes...... That
These ....................... Those
Now ......................... Then
Today ....................... That day
Tonight ..................... That night
Yesterday .................. The previous day
Last night ................. The previous night
The next day ............. The following day
Here .......................... There
Ago ........................... Before

Examples:-

He said, "I am going to college today."
He said that he was going to college that day.
Sunny said to me, "You will get good marks in this test."
Sunny told me that I would get good marks in that test.
She said to her mother, "My teacher awarded me yesterday."
She told her mother that her teacher had awarded her the previous day.
Rajani said to her friends, "You were shopping in the market."
Rajani told her friends that they had been shopping in the market.
I said, "Ritu, you will learn very fast."
I told Ritu that she would learn very fast.
"I may go to London next month," he said.
He told that he might go to London the following month.

Note: If Reported Speech has an explanation of Universal Truth, Habitual Fact or Historical Fact its Tense is not changed at all.

Examples:-

He said, "The earth moves round the sun."
He said that the earth moves round the sun.
She said to me, "Mohan plays with left hand."
She told me that Mohan plays with left hand.
The teacher said to the students, "India became independent in 1947."
The teacher told the students that India became independent in 1947.

Part-III

(Interrogative Sentences)

Rules:-

There are questions asked in Interrogative sentences so the said or said to of reporting verb are replaced with asked or enquired.
If the interrogative(question) begins with Helping Verb or Modal(is, am, are, do, does, was, were, has, have, had, will, shall, would, can, could, should, may, might, must etc.) the inverted commas(" ") are replaced with the conjunction if or whether.
If the interrogative(question) begins with WH-family(Why, what, which, when, whose, who, whom, how etc.) the inverted commas(" ") are not replaced with any conjunction at all.
If there are no interrogatives(questions) in indirect speech we place helping verb or modal after the subject.

Examples:-

The teacher said to us, "Have you completed your home work?"
The teacher asked us if we had completed our home work.
He said to me, "Did you finish your work yesterday?"
He asked me if I had finished my work the previous day.
Rocky said, "Meena, do you want to go to Shimla?"
Rocky asked Meena if she wanted to go to Shimla.
I said to him, "Will you return tomorrow ?"
I asked him if he would return the next day.
Ravi said to him, "What have you learnt?"
Ravi asked him what he had learnt.
She said, "Which train will go to Jaipur?"
She enquired which train would go to Jaipur.

Interrogative Sentences in present or future:-

She says to them, "Have you taken money?"
She asks them if they have taken money.
He will say to me, "What can I do for you?"
He will ask me what he can do for me.

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