Pariksha Saathi Start studying
← Home हिंदी में पढ़ें

Direct and Indirect Speech Questions with Solutions

Converting direct speech to indirect (reported) speech is another mechanical transformation, like Active and Passive Voice — tense shifts back a step, pronouns and time words change to match the new perspective, and questions lose their question-word-order. Here’s the approach, four fully worked examples, and a few to try yourself.

The approach, quickly

  • Direct speech quotes a speaker’s exact words. Indirect (reported) speech reports them without quotation marks, usually introduced by "that" (statements), "if/whether" (yes/no questions), or a wh-word (wh-questions).
  • When the reporting verb is in the past ("said", "told"), the tense inside the quoted speech generally shifts one step back: present simple → past simple, present continuous → past continuous, "will" → "would", "can" → "could".
  • Pronouns and time/place words shift to match the reporting perspective: "I" becomes whoever is speaking in the reported version, "here" → "there", "now" → "then", "today" → "that day", "tomorrow" → "the next day", "yesterday" → "the day before".
  • Questions convert differently from statements: the word order reverts to normal statement order (no more question-style inversion), a yes/no question gains "if"/"whether", and an imperative (a command) becomes "told...to + base verb" instead of "said that".

Worked examples

1. Change to indirect speech: He said, "I am tired."

Solution

  1. The reporting verb "said" is past, so present simple "am" shifts back to past simple "was".
  2. "I" refers to the person who said it, so it becomes "he" in the reported version.

Answer: He said that he was tired.

2. Change to indirect speech: She said, "I will finish the work tomorrow."

Solution

  1. "Will" shifts back to "would" since the reporting verb is past.
  2. "Tomorrow" is relative to the moment of speaking, so it becomes "the next day" in reported speech.
  3. "I" becomes "she" to match the reporting subject.

Answer: She said that she would finish the work the next day.

3. Change to indirect speech: He asked me, "Do you like coffee?"

Solution

  1. A yes/no question introduces "if" or "whether" in place of "that".
  2. The word order reverts to normal statement order ("you like" instead of "do you like") — the question-style inversion disappears.
  3. "You" refers to the person being asked ("me" in the original), so it becomes "I" in the reported version.

Answer: He asked me if I liked coffee.

4. Change to indirect speech: She asked, "Where do you live?"

Solution

  1. A wh-question keeps its wh-word ("where") in place of "that"/"if".
  2. The word order reverts to normal statement order ("you live" instead of "do you live"), and the question mark is dropped.

Answer: She asked where I lived.

Try these yourself

Work through these the same way, then check against the answer.

1. Change to indirect speech: He said, "I am going to the market now."

Answer: He said that he was going to the market then.

2. Change to indirect speech: She asked, "Did you complete the assignment?"

Answer: She asked if I had completed the assignment. (simple past shifts back to past perfect)

3. Change to indirect speech: The teacher said to the students, "Submit your homework today."

Answer: The teacher told the students to submit their homework that day. (an imperative becomes "told...to + base verb")

Where this comes up

Direct and Indirect Speech is a regular topic in the English Language section of every exam Pariksha Saathi covers — SSC CGL, SSC MTS, SSC CHSL, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, SBI PO and SBI Clerk.

Practice more Direct and Indirect Speech questions

This page covers the approach and a handful of worked examples. Pariksha Saathi has full topic-wise practice sets for Direct and Indirect Speech (and every other English/Reasoning/Quant topic) with instant scoring and explanations — free, no account required.

Practice Direct and Indirect Speech free →