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Change in Pronoun in Indirect Speech - Rules

To convert direct speech into indirect speech, the pronoun (subject) in the sentence is changed. See the following example.

Direct speech:
He said, “I write a letter”.
Indirect speech:
He said that he wrote a letter.

In the above example, pronoun (I) has been changed into pronoun (He). To learn the rules for changing pronoun, we should first understand the two parts of the sentence. The first part of the sentence (e.g., he said, she said) is called reporting verb. The second part of sentence, which is enclosed in inverted commas, is called reported speech. For instance, in the above example, “I write a letter” is the reported speech.

The pronoun of the reported speech is changed according to the pronoun (subject or object) of the reporting verb.

There are four easy rules for changing pronouns indirect speech, as follows:

   Rule 1. If the reported speech has 1st person pronoun (e.g., I, we, me, my, mine, us, our), and the reporting verb has 3rd person pronoun (e.g., he, she, they, it, his, her, their, its), the pronoun of the reported speech is changed according to the pronoun (subject) of the reporting verb.

Remember, that pronoun can be used as subject and also as object in reporting verb and reported speech. The pronoun (whether subject or object) of the reported speech will change according to the pronoun (only the subject, not the object) of the reporting verb. Here is an example: He said to me, “I will wash my car”. In this example, in the reporting verb part, ‘He’ is the subject pronoun and ‘me’ is the object pronoun. Therefore, the pronouns of the reported speech (I, my) will be changed according to subject pronoun of the reporting verb (He) and not according to the object pronoun (me). The indirect speech of this sentence is: He said to me that he would wash his car.

In such case, whatever the object pronoun is in reporting verb, the pronouns of reported speech will be changed according to the subject pronoun of reporting verb.

Examples:

Direct Speech
Indirect Speech
He said, “I will buy a camera”.
He said that he would buy a camera.
She said, “I work in a hospital”.
She said that she worked in a hospital.
They said, “We have won a prize”.
They said that they had won the prize.
He said, “I like the music”.
He said that he liked the music.
She said, “I am eating an apple”.
She said that she was eating an apple.
He said, “My teacher is a nice man”.
He said that his teacher was a nice man.
She said, “My son is ill”.
She said that her son was ill.
They said, “We have studied our books”.
They said that they had studied their books.
She said, “I am cleaning my room”.
She said that she is cleaning her room.


   Rule 2. The 1st person pronoun (e.g., I, we, my, our, me, us) of reported speech is not changed, if the reporting verb has also 1st person pronoun (e.g., I, we) as its subject.

Examples:

Direct Speech
Indirect Speech
I said, “I write a letter”.
I said that I wrote a letter.
We said, “We saw a joker”.
We said that we had seen a joker.
I said, “I finished my work”.
I said that I had finished my work.
We said, “We are decorating our house”.
We said that we were decorating our house.

 

   Rule 3. The 2nd person pronoun (e.g., you, your) of the reported speech is always changed according to the ‘object pronoun’ of the reporting verb. In such cases, a pronoun is given which act as an object in reporting verb. The following examples are intentionally given with a common sentence for learning the rule.

Examples:

Direct Speech
Indirect Speech
He said to me, “You won a prize”.
He said to me that I had won a prize.
He said to her, “You won a prize”.
He said to her that she had won a prize.
He said to them, “You won a prize”.
He said to them that they had won a prize.
She said to him, “You won a prize”.
She said to him that he had won a prize.
He said to me, “Your shirt is nice”.
He said to me that my shirt was nice.
He said to her, “Your shirt is nice”.
He said to her that her shirt was nice.
He said to them, “Your shirts are nice”.
He said to them that their shirts were nice.
She said to him, “Your shirt is nice”.
She said to him that his shirt was nice.

   Rule 4. The 3rd person pronoun (e.g., he, she, they, it, his, her, their, its, them) of the reported speech is not changed in indirect speech.

Examples:

Direct Speech
Indirect Speech
She said, “He works in a factory”.
She said that he worked in a factory”.
They said, “He has passed the exam”.
They said that he had passed the exam.
He said, “She will buy a car”.
He said that she would buy a car.
They said, “She likes coffee”.
They said that she liked coffee.
He said, “They are playing football”.
He said that they were playing football.
He said, “She is washing her shirt”.
He said that she was washing her shirt.
She said, “He finished his task”.
She said that he had finished his task.
He said, “She made tea for them”.
He said that she had made tea for them.

 

 


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