Direct and indirect speech
Are we repeating someone's words or telling what they said?
المعنى
We can repeat someone's words or report their message in our own words. Repeating the words is direct speech; reporting the message is indirect speech, which can also report thoughts or questions. Languages differ in how they mark these reports, and some have no special verb forms for them. Unlike According to whom, which identifies whose view a statement expresses, this block is about how we report words or thoughts.
طريقة التعرّف عليه
Look for words or thoughts presented as someone else's, and check whether they are quoted or fitted into the reporter's own sentence.
في اللغة الأم
Direct speech repeats someone's words and is commonly introduced by a form of qāla, meaning say. Indirect speech reports the message: statements often use ʾinna after qāla, while questions keep a question word or use hal. Pronouns and time expressions change as the situation requires, but a past reporting verb does not automatically move every reported verb into an earlier tense.
قَالَتْ مَرْيَمُ: «سَأَعُودُ غَدًا». (qālat maryamu: «saʾaʿūdu ghadan».)
The quoted words keep Maryam's first-person form.
قَالَتْ مَرْيَمُ إِنَّهَا سَتَعُودُ غَدًا. (qālat maryamu ʾinnahā sataʿūdu ghadan.)
The report changes I to she but keeps the Arabic future form; tomorrow fits a same-day report.
سَأَلَنِي أَحْمَدُ مَتَى يَبْدَأُ الدَّرْسُ. (saʾalanī ʾaḥmadu matā yabdaʾu al-darsu.)
The reported question keeps the question word matā.
في اللغة قيد التعلم
English quotes direct speech and uses verbs such as say or ask to introduce indirect speech. After a past reporting verb, the reported verb often shifts into a past form, though this is not always needed if the message is still true. Reported questions normally use statement word order, not the order of a direct question.
Anna said, "I am tired."
The quotation presents Anna's words directly.
Anna said that she was tired.
I becomes she, and am shifts to was after the past reporting verb.
Ben asked where I lived.
The reported question puts the subject before the verb and does not use did.
Learners whose language keeps the original tense in reports may miss the usual tense change after a past reporting verb. Learners whose language keeps direct-question word order in reports may use an English question form where statement order is needed.