Narration

1. 13.1 Introduction
Mother said to me ,"I am here". In this example "I am here" is the speech of
the mother and is under quoted marks. So it is direct narration. Here the
actual words are quoted without any change. But when the same idea is
conveyed to the other in this way, i.e. Mother told me that she was there; it is
indirect narration. Here the saying of the mother is reported not in her actual
words; but in a changed form though the idea or saying or sense has been
kept unchanged. So it is indirect narration.
13.2 Rules for narration change
There are some rules of changing narration from direct to indirect or vice
versa. Now, we are to go into the rules. Here, you see that the rules in Table
13.1 to 13.3 (page 2, 3) have been arranged to make it easy. But before going
into the table or chart we are to know some terms in this regard. For example,
consider the following sentence. The teacher said to me, "I am
here". Here "said" is a reporting verb, as it reports the saying quoted above. "I
am here" is reported speech, as this is reported. "Am" is the verb in the
reported speech. First of all we are here to identify the class of the sentence in
the reported speech and according to the class of the sentence, the rules laid
down in the Tables 13.1 to 13.3 (page 2, 3) to be followed to change the
speech from direct to indirect.
Rules to change the narration (direct to indirect speech) are summarized in
Table 13.1 to 13.4 (page 2, 3). Students are requested to follow the tables and
accordingly change the narration. They should also keep in mind that, any
question mark or exclamatory mark in direct speech should be removed while
converting to indirect speech. By this statement we mean to say that all
sentences in the reporting speech must be in the form of assertive
sentence i.e. subject + verb + object.



13.2 Rules for narration change (cont'd...)
Table 13.1 Rule of narration change

2. Sentence Identification Reporting Verb Connective
Assertive/statement Sub+verb+obj
Say, tell, state,
report,narrate, reply,
answer etc.
That
Interrogative
Marks of
interrogation
ask/enquire/want to
know
W/H when
sentence
begins with
W/H,
otherwise
if/whether
Imperative
(expressing order,
command, advice,
request etc.)
Begins with
verb or
begins with
let
When there is no
‘let’, accord. to sense
use beg/command/
order/request/advise/
entreat etc. if let and
it expresses
proposal/ suggestion
use propose/suggest
To before
verb in
reported
speech;
don’t use
‘not to’
Optative
(expressing
desire/blessing)
Begins with
‘may’
wish/pray That
Exclamatory
(expressing
emotion)
Mark of
exclamation
(!)
Exclaim/cry, omit
exclamatory word,
use with sorrow/ joy/
hatred/ repentance/
fear/ anger/
sorrowfully/ joyfully.
That




13.2 Rules for narration change (cont'd...)
Table 13.2 Change of personal pronouns
Direct Indirect

3. I me/my/mine/myself
you you/ your/ yours/ yourself/ yourselves
he him/his/himself
she her/hers/herself
they them/ their/ theirs/ themselves
Table 13.3 Change of Tense
Reporting Verb Verbs in Reported speech
Present no change
Future no change
Past corresponding past
Past indefinite Past Perfect
Past continuous Past perfect continuous
Table 13.4 Other changes
Direct Indirect
Near Distance (not vice versa)
This That
These Those
Here There
Now Then
Ago Before
Hence Thence
Today That day
Yesterday The previous day/the day before
Tomorrow The next day/the following day
Thus The way/so
Come Go (based on sense)

4. 13.2 Rules for narration change (cont'd...)
Let us observed the following sentences as for the examples. Please try to
correlate how the Tables 13.1 - 13.4 are used to change a sentence from
direct speech to Indirect speech.
Direct narration: Ramu says, “Shyam is a good boy”. Here ‘Shyam is a good
boy’ it is in the quoted marks. It is an assertive sentence. So we will change it
accordingly to the table of the assertive sentence. In indirect narration the
sentence will be, Ramu says that Shyam is a good boy.Here, we see that
reporting verb ‘say’ remains the same as the chart allows it. Then the
quotation marks and comma after reporting verb are removed and to connect
the first part i.e. `Ramu says' with the second part ‘Shyam is a good
boy’, ‘that’ is placed after the reporting verb. No other changes are necessary
here according to the tables. Let us see another example as follow:
Direct: Hari says, “I am ill and weak.”
Indirect: Hari says that he is ill and weak.
Here ‘I’ refers to Hari, third person singular number, masculine gender and
nominative case. So the pronoun ‘I’ has been changed into ‘he’ as it refers to
Hari. Let us take another example:
Direct: Nabin says, “My mother teaches me Bengali.”
Indirect: Nabin says that his mother teaches him.
Please note that here ‘my’ has been changed into ‘his’ and ‘me’ has been
changed into ‘him’ according to person ‘Nabin’ speaking. Now let us take
another example:
Direct: The king said to his minister, “We are the body guards of this
kingdom.”
Indirect: The king told his minister that they were the body guards of that
kingdom.
Here we note the change of reporting verb from ‘said’ to ‘told’,
connective ‘that’, ‘we’ to ‘they’ and ‘are’ to ‘were’ (according to the rules of
sequence of tenses) and ‘this’ to ‘that’ (i.e. from near sense to far sense). If
we minutely observe the tables, we might have no obstacle to understand the
changes. In this way we are to follow the changes in the examples of different
cases.

5. 13.3 Assertive sentences
Take more examples for assertive sentences:
Direct: Shyamal will say, “I have done this work.”
Indirect: Shyamal will say that he has done that work.
Direct: He said, “My sister is singing a song.”
Indirect: He said that his sister was singing a song.
Direct: Mother said, “God is merciful.”
Indirect: Mother said that God is merciful.
Direct: The boatman said, “It will rain tomorrow.”
Indirect: The boatman said that it would rain the following day.
Direct: The doctor said to them, “The man dies last night.”
Indirect: The doctor said to them that the man had died the previous night.
Direct: He said to me, “I was reading a drama yesterday.”
Indirect: He told me that he had been reading a drama the previous day/ the
day before.
13.4 Interrogative sentences
Direct: He said to me, “Are you ill ?”
Indirect: He asked me if (or whether) I was ill.

Here reporting verb ‘said’ has been changed into ‘asked’ and instead of
that ‘if’ connects the two parts of the sentence as the interrogative sentence
does not begin with W/H. We note that interrogative sentence becomes
assertive in form.
Direct: He said to me, “Will you go home on Saturday?”
Indirect: He asked me if (or whether) I should go home on Saturday.
Direct: I said, “Why do you put this question to me?”
Indirect: I asked why he put that question to me. (Here connective is not
needed)
Direct: He said to me, “What was your intention?”
Indirect: He asked me what my intension was.
Direct: He said to me, “Who are you?”
Indirect: He asked (inquired of) me who I was.

6. Direct: He said to me, “What makes you laugh?”
Indirect: He asked me what made me laugh.



13.5 Imperative sentence
Direct: I said to him, “Go home at once.”
Indirect: I told (advised) him to go home at once.
Direct: He said to me, “Do not run in the sun.”
Indirect: He told/advised me not to run in the sun. Or, he forbade me to run in
the sun.
Direct: He said to me, “Please give me a glass of water.”
Indirect: He requested me to give him a glass of water.
Direct: I said to my teacher, “ Excuse me, sir.”
Indirect: I begged my teacher to excuse me.
Direct: I said to him, “Let us do the sum.”
Indirect: I proposed (or suggested) to him that we should do the sum.
Direct: He said, “Let me come in sir.”
Indirect: He requested that he might be allowed to come in.
Direct: The girl said to her mother, “ Let me have a toy.”
Indirect: The girl requested her mother that she might have a toy.
Direct: I told to my friend, “Let me go.”
Indirect: I asked my friend to let me go.
13.6 Optative sentence
Direct: My mother said to me, “May God bless you.”
Indirect: My mother wished that God might bless me.
Direct: Her grandmother said to her, “May you live long.”
Indirect: Her grandmother wished that she might live long.
Direct: God save the Prime Minister.
Indirect: We pray that God may save the Prime Minister.




13.7 Exclamatory sentence

7. Direct: The children said, “How happy we were there!”
Indirect: The children exclaimed that they had been very happy there.
Direct: He said, “Alas! what a pitiful sight it was!”
Indirect: He exclaimed with sorrow that it had been a great pitiful sight.
Direct: He said to me, “What a beautiful garden it is!”
Indirect:He told me with joy that it was a very beautiful garden.
Here please note that the exclamatory word ‘alas’ has been removed
with ‘with sorrow’. Practically during narration change all exclamatory words
must be removed. Some other words expressing their meaning and the
exclamatory sentence will be transformed into assertive sentence. The Table
13.5 - 13.6 express the exclamation sense.
Table 13.5 Exclamation sense
Exclamation Sense
Ah regret
Hurray joy
Tut-tut/bosh/fool/fie contempt
Ah/ alas/alack sorrow
Ugh disgust
Pooh/pshaw ridicule
Ha ha amuse
Bravo/capital applause




13.7 Exclamatory sentence (cont'd...)
Table 13.6 Reporting Verb for different senses
In the sense Reporting Verb
Sure agree
Hello greet
No disagree/deny

8. Yes agree
Ha, ha! laugh
Sorry apologize
Careful warn
Very good appreciate
Well done congratulate
Heavens is astonished
Hah! strange was surprised
A few more examples
Direct: He said, “Good bye, my friends!”
Indirect: He bade good bye to his friends. Or, he bade his friend good bye.
Direct: He said to me, “Thank you.”
Indirect: He thanked me.
Direct: He said to me, “Good morning! How do you do?”
Indirect: He wished me good morning and asked how I was.
Direct: The soldier said, “ For shame, you coward.”
Indirect: The soldier cried shame and told him coward.




A few more examples (cont'd...)
Direct: “ Curse it!” exclaimed the driver, “who could have foreseen such ill
luck?”
Indirect: The driver exclaimed with an oath that nobody have foreseen such ill
luck.
Direct: Gobind said, “ This is my coat.”
Indirect: Gobind said that this was his coat.
Direct: He said, “I will do it now or never.”
Indirect: He said that he should do it then or never.
13.8 Reporting verbs used in different sentences

9.  Assertive: Say, tell, reply, answer, remark, comment, observe, inform, state, mention, declare,
report, relate, narrate, explain, affirm, deny, refuse, assert, assure, retaliate etc.
 Interrogative: Ask, inquire, demand, want to know, wonder, urge etc.
 Imperative: Advise, command order, ask, beg, request, forbid, implore, solicit, beseech, tell,
etc.
 Operative: Wish, pray, earnestly, desire, long for etc.
 Exclamatory: Exclaim with joy/ sorrow/ surprise/ disgust/ joyfully/ sorrowfully/ surprisingly/
disgustingly, cry out, wish, applaud, confess, with regret/ regretfully/ with repentance etc.
according to the case/ sense/ emotion.
Remark: To summarize, we say, three things are to be given special attention
in this regard. First is to mind the rules of sequence of tenses as the sentence
in the reported speech becomes sub-ordinate clause in almost all the cases.
Second is to take care of changing personal pronouns, as they refer to
according to their cases, person, number and gender. Thirdly, whatever the
sentences are in the reported speech, they become in the form of assertive
sentence (i.e. sub+verb+object) in almost all cases and they are connected
with the reporting verbs with proper connectives.


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Nurani-42/7-B,
Subid Bazar,sylhet
The Headmaster 1
st
November-2015
Piyaingul Kalim Ullah High School
Salutikor Bazar,Guyainghat, Sylhet.
Subject: Application for the post of an Assistant Teacher (English)
Sir,
In response to your advertisement published in “The Daily Sylheterdak” of 20 October-2015, I would like
to apply for the post of an Assistant Teacher (English) in your esteemed School. My CV has been stated
below.

10. 1. Name : MD. IQBAL HUSSAIN
2. Father’s name : MD.ZILU MIAH
3. Mother’s name : MORIOM BIBI
4. Permanent Address : Vill-Sharpinpara,P.O-Chonbari Bazar, Upazila-Duara Bazar, Dist-
Sunamgonj.
5. Mailing Address : Nurani-42/7-B, Bonkolapara, Subid Bazar, Sylhet.
6. Date of birth : 05/11/1983
7. Nationality : Bangladeshi
8. Marital status : Married
9. Religion : Islam
10. Contact No : 01712-258867
11. Educational Qualification :
SL Exam name Division/Class Passing Year Board/University
1 M.A (English) Second 2008 National University
2 B.A (Pass) Second 2006 National University
3 H.S.C Third 2002 Sylhet
4 S.S.C First 2000 Comilla

Extra Curriculum: a) 9
th
Teachers’ Registration Examination 2013
b) Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Course Examination-2008

I hope you will consider me a suitable candidate for the position mentioned above.


Enclosed:
1.All academic Certificate’s Photocopy attested. Yours faithfully,
2. Two copies Photography attested. Md. Iqbal Hussain