Narration is the speech of a speaker. It can also be called the process of narrating.
Example:
Sumi said to Shilla, “Have you completed your assignment?”
“Yes, I will submit it tomorrow,” said Shilla.
Or,
Sumi asked Shilla if she had completed her assignment.
Shilla replied in the affirmative and said that she would submit that the next day.
There are two processes for narrating a speech.
1) Direct speech
2) Indirect speech
What is direct speech?
Direct speech: Nelson Mandela said to his countrymen, “Don’t call me. I’ll call you.”
Nelson Mandela said to his countrymen —- Here, this part of the sentence is spoken by the speaker.
“Don’t call me I’ll call you.” —– This part of the sentence is the speech of Nelson Mandela.
The speaker said the speech of Nelson Mandela in exact words. This speech is kept in an inverted comma (“ ’’)
That means, the speaker directly said the speech of other. He doesn’t change the speech in his own language. This process of narrating the speech is called direct narration or direct speech.
What is indirect speech?
But if the sentence is told in the following way——
Indirect speech: Nelson Mandela told his country not to call him and he would call them.
Here the speaker has told the speech in his own language. The quotation has gone out and the sentence is not as it was. This process of narrating the speech is called indirect narration or indirect speech.
Formation of direct speech or direct narration:
What is reporting verb?
Reporting verb: English grammar, a reporting verb is a verb which is used in reporting. It is the verb of indirect speech where the speaker uses to tell something. Reporting verbs are many such as announce, answer, explain, mention, promise, reply, say, suggest, tell, warn. The most common of these are say and tell.
Tell or say
Tell: Tell is used when we need to mention the hearer.
John told her he could leave early.
Say: We use say when we do not mention the hearer.
John said he could leave early.
Difference between direct speech and indirect speech:
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