Direct and indirect speech: rules, conversions and reported speech in legal writing
LUG-105 English and Legal Language, Unit II: Direct and indirect speech. · LLB · 60 min
How to report what somebody said: the reporting verb, the shift of tense, the change of pronouns and of words of time and place, and the separate rules for statements, questions, commands and exclamations - both from direct to indirect and back. Every sentence the papers set (2017-18 A Q11-13 and Q15, 2024-25 Q2(c), 2025-26 Q2(c)(a)) is converted and explained. The lecture ends where lawyers use the skill daily: witness statements, FIRs, judgments reporting counsel, and the words that must be kept verbatim.
Objectives
- Explain the difference between direct and indirect speech and name the parts of a reported sentence
- Apply the rules of tense shift, pronoun change and change of time and place words
- Convert statements, questions, commands, requests and exclamations into indirect speech and back
- Answer every direct / indirect speech item set in the past papers with the rule applied
- Use reported speech correctly in a deposition, an FIR and a judgment, and know when exact words must be kept
Slides
- Direct and indirect speech: the two ways of reporting
- Rule 1: the shift of tense
- Rule 2: pronouns change by person
- Rule 3: words of nearness become words of distance
- Statements
- Questions
- Commands, requests, advice, suggestions
- Exclamations, wishes and the indirect-to-direct method
- Reported speech in legal writing
- Exercise with answers
- How the examiner asks it
Loading the lecture…