ইংরেজিতে ডাইরেক্ট স্পিচ বনাম ইনডাইরেক্ট স্পিচ: TOEIC® এর জন্য সম্পূর্ণ গাইড

Direct speech quotes words exactly as they were spoken, using quotation marks.

Indirect speech reformulates them without quotation marks.

In the TOEIC®, you will encounter these transformations mostly in Parts 6 and 7: emails, reports that rephrase oral instructions.

The classic trap? Forgetting to change pronouns and verb tenses, which creates grammatically incorrect sentences.

Why the TOEIC® tests this point

The test evaluates your ability to understand how information flows within a company. A manager says something in a meeting. A colleague rephrases it via email. This rephrasing follows precise rules that you must master in order to:

• Understand meeting minutes (Part 7)
• Identify rephrasing errors (Parts 5/6)
• Grasp who said what in professional conversations

Typical contexts include managerial directives, rephrased client requests, or communicated company policies.

What changes every time: from direct to indirect speech

When you switch from direct speech to indirect speech, three elements systematically change.

Verb tenses shift back one step

If the introductory sentence is in the past tense, the verb tenses of the quotation move backward:

Direct:

• She said, "I work on the project every day."
  সে বলল, "আমি প্রতিদিন প্রোজেক্টে কাজ করি।"

Indirect:

• She said that she worked on the project every day.
  সে বলল যে সে প্রতিদিন প্রোজেক্টে কাজ করত।

Pronouns adapt to the narrator

The "I" of the speaker becomes "he/she" when someone else reports their words.

Direct:

• Tom said, "I will send my report tomorrow."
  টম বলল, "আমি আগামীকাল আমার রিপোর্ট পাঠাব।"

Indirect:

• Tom said that he would send his report the next day.
  টম বলল যে সে পরের দিন তার রিপোর্ট পাঠাবে।

Time markers change perspective

Direct:

• The manager said, "We need the data today."
  ম্যানেজার বললেন, "আমাদের আজ ডেটা প্রয়োজন।"

Indirect:

• The manager said they needed the data that day.
  ম্যানেজার বললেন যে তাদের ঐ দিন ডেটা প্রয়োজন ছিল।

Recurrent traps in Parts 5 and 6

Trap 1: Forgetting to change modals

Many candidates correctly transform main verbs but leave "will" or "can" unchanged.

Common mistake:

• He said that he will attend the meeting.

Correction:

• He said that he would attend the meeting.
  সে বলল যে সে মিটিংয়ে যোগ দেবে।

Trap 2: Keeping quotation marks with "that"

Indirect style never uses quotation marks. If you see "that," the sentence must not contain any direct punctuation.

Common mistake:

• She mentioned that "the deadline is Friday."

Correction:

• She mentioned that the deadline was Friday.
  সে উল্লেখ করেছিল যে সময়সীমা ছিল শুক্রবার।

Trap 3: Mixing up time markers

As soon as you see "said" or "told" in the past, check for words like "today" or "tomorrow" that follow. In reality, this is where many get caught.

Common mistake:

• The director announced yesterday that the office will close tomorrow.

Correction:

• The director announced yesterday that the office would close the next day.
  পরিচালক গতকাল ঘোষণা করেছিলেন যে অফিসটি পরের দিন বন্ধ হয়ে যাবে।

Questions and commands in indirect speech

Questions become affirmative propositions

The word order changes completely: you switch from subject-verb inversion to the normal order.

Direct:

• She asked, "Where is the conference room?"
  সে জিজ্ঞাসা করল, "কনফারেন্স রুম কোথায়?"
• He asked, "Do you have the files?"
  সে জিজ্ঞাসা করল, "আপনার কাছে কি ফাইলগুলো আছে?"

Indirect:

• She asked where the conference room was.
  সে জিজ্ঞাসা করেছিল কনফারেন্স রুমটি কোথায় ছিল।
• He asked if/whether I had the files.
  সে জিজ্ঞাসা করেছিল আমার কাছে ফাইলগুলো আছে কিনা।

Use "if" or "whether" for closed questions (yes/no answer), and the interrogative word (what, where, when, why, how) for open questions.

Commands use infinitive structures

Direct:

• The supervisor said, "Submit your timesheet by Friday."
  সুপারভাইজার বললেন, "শুক্রবারের মধ্যে আপনার টাইমশিট জমা দিন।"

Indirect:

• The supervisor told us to submit our timesheet by Friday.
  সুপারভাইজার আমাদেরকে শুক্রবারের মধ্যে টাইমশিট জমা দিতে বললেন।

Note: with commands, you use "told + person + to + infinitive," never "said."

Cases where tenses do not change

If the introductory sentence is in the present tense or if the information remains true, the tenses can stay the same.

Direct:

• He says, "I work in marketing."
  সে বলে, "আমি মার্কেটিংয়ে কাজ করি।"

Indirect:

• He says that he works in marketing.
  সে বলে যে সে মার্কেটিংয়ে কাজ করে।

General or permanent truths often retain their original tense:

Direct:

• The trainer said, "Practice improves performance."
  প্রশিক্ষক বললেন, "অনুশীলন কর্মক্ষমতা উন্নত করে।"

Indirect:

• The trainer said that practice improves performance.
  প্রশিক্ষক বললেন যে অনুশীলন কর্মক্ষমতা উন্নত করে।

Quick method for Part 6

When you spot indirect speech in a gap-fill passage:

1. Identify the introductory verb (said, told, asked, mentioned) and its tense
2. Determine the sentence type (statement, question, command)
3. Check three points: verb tense, pronouns, time markers
4. Eliminate options with incorrect punctuation or word order

Among the candidates we coach, those who progress fastest create flashcards with direct/indirect pairs in business contexts typical of the exam. They master the theory but lose points on details. "This" becoming "that" or "here" becoming "there." These small changes often make the difference between a good and an excellent answer in Part 5.

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