direct discourse
Verbatim spoken words
Direct discourse is the exact words someone spoke or wrote, presented verbatim rather than paraphrased.
In writing, it typically appears in quotation marks: She said, "I'm leaving tomorrow".
The alternative is indirect discourse, which reports speech without quoting it exactly: She said she was leaving the next day.
Also called direct speech.
- saySpeak words aloud
- quotation marksPunctuation framing cited text
- quote unquoteVerbal air quotes
- wordLinguistic meaning unit
- verbatimIn identical wording
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