In English, as in our mother tongue, we need to report messages, speeches, comments, requests etc. of a person to others.
আমাদের মাতৃভাষার মতো ইংরেজীতেও কোন একজনের সংবাদ, বক্তব্য, অনুরোধ ইত্যাদি অন্য কাউকে report করতে হয় বা জানাতে হয়।
We may report the words of a speaker in two ways.
(আমরা দু’ভাবে বক্তার কথাকে report করতে পারি।)
1. We may quote his actual words. This is called Direct Speech.
(বক্তার নিজস্ব কথা উদ্ধৃত করলে তাকে বলা হয় Direct Speech)
2. We may report what he said without quoting his exact words. This is called Indirect.
(বক্তার নিজস্ব কথা উদ্ধৃত না করে আমরা তার বক্তব্যকে report করতে পারি। একে বলা হয় Indirect Speech)
Direct Speech : Rahul says, “I am ill.”
Indirect Speech : Rahul says that he is ill.
Features of Direct Speech
(প্রত্যক্ষ উক্তির বৈশিষ্ট্য)
The speech which is under Quotation marks or Inverted commas in writing is called Reported Speech and the verb by which it is expressed, is called Reporting Verb.
[যে উক্তিটি লেখার সময় Quotation Marks বা Inverted comma -র মধ্যে উদ্ধৃত করা হয় তাকে Reported Speech এবং যে Verb -এর সাহায্যে ঐ উক্তিটি প্রকাশ করা হয়, তাকে Reporting Verb বলে।]
Three features of Reported Speech (Reported Speech -এর তিনটি বৈশিষ্ট্য):
i. In writing, the Reported Speech is put within Inverted commas (“…”) to mark off the exact words of the speaker.
(লেখার সময় Reported Speech -টি Inverted comma -র মধ্যে থাকে।)
ii. A comma is used after Reporting Verb.
(Reporting Verb এর পর একটি কমা বসে।)
iii. The first letter of the Direct Speech is a Capital letter.
(Direct Speech -এর প্রথম অক্ষরটি Capital letter হয়।)
Now look at the following table. (নিচের table -টি দেখ) :
Direct Speech
| Speaker Imtiaz | Reporting Verb said | Direct Speech “I am very busy.” |
Indirect Speech
| Speaker Imtiaz | Reporting Verb said | Linker that | Indirect Speech he was very busy. |
It will be noticed that in changing the Direct Speech into Indirect certain grammatical changes have been made. (লক্ষ্য কর, উপরের Direct Speech -কে Indirect করার জন্য কিছু পরিবর্তন করা হয়েছে।)
i. We have used the linker that before the Reported Speech or Indirect Statement. [Reported Speech বা Indirect Statement (পরোক্ষ উক্তি)-এর পূর্বে আমরা একটি linker (সংযোজক) that বসিয়েছি।]
ii. The pronoun I is changed to he. [I সর্বনামটি he -তে পরিবর্তিত হয়েছে।]
iii. The verb am is changed to was. [am ক্রিয়াটি was -এ পরিবর্তিত হয়েছে।]
Rules for changing Direct Speech into Indirect Speech
[Direct Speech থেকে Indirect -এ পরিবর্তনের নিয়ম।]
1. We use linker before the Indirect Speech. (Indirect Speech -এর পূর্বে একটি linker বা সংযোজক ব্যবহার করতে হয়।)
Direct : He said, “I am unwell.”
Indirect : He said that he was unwell.
N.B. : The linker that is often omitted in spoken English.
Chart of Linker
| Sentence | Linker |
| Assertive | that |
| Interrogative | yes/no হলে, if/whether wh question হলে অপরিবর্তিত থাকবে |
| Imperative | Let বিহীন হলে, to Let যুক্ত হলে, that |
| Optative | that |
| Exclamatory | that |
2. The pronouns are changed according to sense. (অর্থ অনুযায়ী pronoun -এর পরিবর্তন হয়।)
Direct : Tahsan said to his friend, “You are ill.”
Indirect : Tahsan told his friend that he was ill.
Direct : Habib said to me, “You are ill.”
Indirect : Habib told me that I was ill.
Direct : I said to you, “I don’t believe you.”
Indirect : I told you that I didn’t believe you.
Person/ pronoun change -এর নিয়ম:
- Reported Speech -এ যদি 3rd person থাকে, তবে তার কোন পরিবর্তন হয় না। অর্থাৎ, 3rd person Direct Speech -এ যেমন থাকে, Indirect Speech -এ ও তেমনি থাকবে।
- Reported Speech -এ যদি 1st person থাকে তবে তা Reporting Verb -এর subject অনুযায়ী পরিবর্তিত হয়।
- Reported Speech -এ যদি 2nd person থাকে তবে তা Reporting Verb -এর object অনুযায়ী পরিবর্তিত হয়।
Person Change -এর ব্যতিক্রম :
- Reported Speech -এ ‘we’ দ্বারা যদি মানব জাতি বোঝায়, তবে Indirect -এ ‘we’ অপরিবর্তিত থাকে।
যেমন : Direct : The teacher said, “We are all immortal.”
Indirect : The teacher said that we are all immortal.
- Reported Speech -এ ‘we’ দ্বারা speaker ও listener -কে একত্রে বোঝালে, ‘we’ অপরিবর্তিত থাকে।
যেমন : Direct : They said to me, “We should buy a cricket bat.”
Indirect : They said to me that we should buy a cricket bat.
Person এর বিভিন্ন রূপ
| Person | Subject form | Object form | Possessive form |
| 1st Person | I We | me us | my our |
| 2nd Person | You | You | your |
| 3rd Person | He, She, It They | him, her, it them | his, her, its their |
3. If the Reporting Verb is in the past tense, we must make the following changes. (যদি Reporting Verb -টি past tense -এ থাকে, তাহলে আমাদের নিম্নলিখিত পরিবর্তনগুলি করতে হয়।)
| Tense in Direct Speech | Tense in Indirect Speech |
| Present Indefinite | Past Indefinite |
| Present Continuous | Past Continuous |
| Present Perfect Past Indefinite Past Perfect | Past Perfect |
| Present Perfect Continuous Past Continuous | Past Perfect Continuous |
| Future (shall/will) | Future (should/would) |
Conditional এর ক্ষেত্রে
| Direct | Indirect |
| Would, could, should, might, *must, ought | Unchanged |
* কিন্তু সাময়িক বাধ্যবাধকতা বুঝালে must, had toতে রূপান্তরিত হয়।
Direct : Nafisa said, “I must write a letter.”
Indirect : Nafisa said that she had to write a letter.
Unreal Past পরিবর্তি হয় না। যেমন:
Direct : He said, “I wish I were a bird.”
Indirect : He exclaimed that he wished he were a bird.
