indirect speech
Secondhand quoted statement
Indirect speech reports what someone said without quoting their exact words.
Where direct speech uses quotation marks—She said, "I'm leaving"—indirect speech paraphrases: She said she was leaving.
The shift typically requires adjustments to pronouns, verb tenses, and time references.
Also called reported speech.
- restatedExpressed again differently
- quotationCited passage or price
- paraphrasedRestated using different words
- backshiftTense adjustment in reporting
- recountedNarrated past events
that-clause · focalization · embedded clauses · sequence of tenses · subordinate clauses · report · storytelling · narrative voice · narrative technique · dialogue · rumor · word of mouth · secondhand · according to sources · tone · interpretation · relay · messenger
- English grammarnouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns
- conversation in 18th century English literaturedialogue, discourse, wit, repartee, epistolary
- grammar practicegrammar worksheets, grammar games, verb conjugation, sentence diagramming, subject-verb agreement
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- innuendoinnuendo, sexual innuendo, double entendre, double meaning, implied meaning
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