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English Grammar Drills

English Grammar Drills

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260 Sentences<br />

• The indirect quotation uses that to introduce the quoted material. Direct quotation cannot<br />

use that in this manner.<br />

• In the direct quotation, the quoted material begins with a capital letter; in the indirect<br />

quotation, the paraphrased material begins with a lowercase letter.<br />

• The tenses in the two quotations are different. The direct quotation is in the present tense.<br />

The indirect quotation is in the past tense.<br />

• There is a difference in pronouns. The my in the direct quotation shifts to his in the indirect<br />

quotation.<br />

The use of that is especially significant because sometimes it is the only way we can tell the<br />

difference between direct and indirect quotation. For example, could you use quotation marks<br />

with the following sentence?<br />

Bill said that his parents had enjoyed their trip to Malta.<br />

The answer is that you could not because that signals an indirect quotation. We can never use<br />

that with direct quotation. One of the characteristics of that clauses (including that clauses used<br />

in indirect quotation) is that we may optionally delete that. However, deleting that in indirect<br />

quotation is a really bad idea because that is one of the best ways to distinguish direct and indirect<br />

quotation. Accordingly, in the following discussion, we will always retain that in indirect<br />

quotation.<br />

Compare the following direct and indirect quotations:<br />

Direct:<br />

Indirect:<br />

She said, “I am going home soon.”<br />

She said that she was going home soon.<br />

The direct quotation is in the present progressive tense (am going). In the indirect quotation,<br />

the verb has shifted to the past progressive tense (was going). The standard name for this is backshifting.<br />

Moving from direct quotation to indirect quotation involves a surprisingly elaborate set<br />

of backshifts from present tenses to past tenses, and from past tenses to past perfect tenses. The<br />

basic rule is this:<br />

Present tenses ⇒ past tenses<br />

Past tenses ⇒ past perfect tenses<br />

Here are some examples of present tenses backshifting to past tenses:<br />

Present tense ⇒ past tense<br />

Direct:<br />

He said, “I have to go.”<br />

Indirect:<br />

He said that he had to go.

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