Tenses Questions Medium
Direct speech refers to the exact words spoken by someone, while indirect speech is when we report what someone said without using their exact words. In terms of tenses, the main difference between direct and indirect speech lies in the shift of tenses.
In direct speech, the tenses used in the reported speech remain unchanged. For example, if someone says, "I am going to the store," in direct speech, we would report it as, "He said, 'I am going to the store.'" Here, the present continuous tense "am going" remains the same in the reported speech.
On the other hand, in indirect speech, the tenses are usually shifted to reflect the time of reporting. This means that the tense used in the reported speech is often changed to match the tense of the reporting verb. For example, if someone says, "I am going to the store," in indirect speech, we would report it as, "He said that he was going to the store." Here, the present continuous tense "am going" is changed to the past continuous tense "was going" to match the reporting verb "said."
In summary, the difference between direct and indirect speech in tenses is that direct speech maintains the original tenses used in the reported speech, while indirect speech often requires a shift in tenses to match the reporting verb.