Question

Convert the following into Indirect Speech :
“Peg!" she said, “let me see your picture.”
"What's the matter?” asked Peggy, as they clattered up to her room.
“Look! She drew you. That's you!” she exclaimed.​

Answer 1

Hint: When something is repeated exactly as it was – typically between two inverted commas – it is referred to as direct expression. Indirect speech can still convey the same content, but instead of explicitly repeating someone's statements or speech, it will report or describe what was said. The indirect expression does not use inverted commas, which is an obvious distinction.

Complete answer:
Direct or quoted speech is spoken or written text that reports speech or thought in the original form phrased by the original speaker; in the narrative, it is usually enclosed in quotation marks, but it may also be enclosed in guillemets. The inquit mentions or implies the cited speaker.

Indirect speech is a grammatical device used in linguistics to report the content of another utterance without explicitly quoting it. The English sentence Jill said she was coming, for example, is the indirect discourse, while Jill said "I'm coming" is direct discourse.

- She asked Peg to let her see her picture. Or Peggy inquired what the matter was as they clattered up to her room.
- Peggy inquired what the matter was as they clattered up to her room.
- she exclaimed that she had drawn his picture.

Note: The following are some general guidelines for converting direct speech to indirect speech.
- Both inverted commas and quotation marks should be removed. We add a full stop at the end of the sentence.
- Shift the present tense of the verb within the inverted commas/quotation marks to the corresponding past tense. Shift it to the past perfect tense if it's in the plain past tense.