Available Answers

1. 1.

   Change into indirect speech.

   1. He said to me, 'I have often told you not to play with fire.'
   2. 'You have all done it very badly,' remarked the teacher.
   3. They wrote, 'It is time we thought about settling this matter.'
   4. The teacher promised, 'If you come before school tomorrow, I will explain it.'
   5. She wrote, 'I am waiting and watching and longing for my son's return.'
   6. The examiner's orders were, 'No one is to bring books into the room nor ask me questions about what I have told you to do.'
   7. The dwarf said to her, 'Promise me that when you are Queen you will give me your first-born child.'
   8. That is my horse,' said he, 'and if I do not prove it in a few minutes I will give up my claim.'
   9. I will avenge your wrongs,' he cried. 'I will not enter Athens until I have punished the king who had so cruelly treated you.'
   10. He wrote and said, 'I am unable to come just now because I am ill, but I will certainly start as soon as I am well enough to do so.'
2. 2.

   Change into indirect speech.

   1. He said, 'How's your father?'
   2. 'Which way did she go?' asked the evil monster
   3. "What do you want?' he said to her.
   4. Aladdin said to the magician, 'What have done to deserve so severe a blow?'
   5. "Have you anything to tell me, little bird?' asked Ulysses.
   6. The young sparrow said, 'Mother, what is that queer object?'
   7. "Who are you, sir, and what do you want?' they cried.
3. 3.

   Change into indirect speech.

   1. 'Sit down, boys,' said the teacher.
   2. 'Halt!' shouted the officer to his men.
   3. Take off your hat,' the king said to the Hatter.
   4. The teacher said to him, 'Do not read so fast.'
   5. He said to me, 'Wait until I come.
   6. 'Bring me a drink of milk,' said the Swami to the villagers.
   7. 'Hurry up,' he said to his servant, do not waste time.'
   8. 'Run away, children,' said their mother.
   9. He said, 'Daughter, take my golden jug, and fetch me some water from the well.
   10. 'Go down to the market. Bring me some oil and a bag of ice,' ordered his master.
4. 4.

   Change into indirect speech.

   1. 'What a rare article milk is, to be sure, in London!' said Mr Squeers with a sigh.
   2. 'What a stupid fellow you are!' he angrily remarked.
   3. He said, 'My God! I am ruined.
   4. He said, 'Alas! Our foes are too strong'.
   5. He said, 'What a lazy boy you are! How badly you have done your work.'
   6. 'What awful weather!' she said.
   7. He said, 'Oh! That's a nuisance!
   8. He said, 'How cruel of him!
   9. He said, 'What a pity you did not come!'
   10. 'Ah me!' exclaimed the Queen. 'What a rash and bloody deed you have done.'
5. 5.

   Change into direct speech.

   1. He asked Rama to go with him.
   2. Rama replied that he could not do so.
   3. I wrote that I would visit him the next day.
   4. I told them to be quiet.
   5. He asked me if I had anything to say.
   6. He advised his sons not to quarrel amongst themselves when he was dead but to remain united.
   7. The lion told the fox that he was very weak, that his teeth had fallen out, and that he had no appetite.
   8. Mr Pickwick said that he wanted to know why he and his friends had been brought there.
6. 6.

   Report the following in indirect speech.

   1. 'I do not practise,' Goldsmith once said, 'I make it a rule to prescribe only for my friends.' 'Pray, dear doctor,' said Beauclerk, 'alter your rule, and prescribe only for your enemies.' 
   2. 'How very well you speak French!' Lady Grizzel said. 'I ought to know it,' Becky modestly said. 'I taught it in a school, and my mother was a French-woman.
   3. 'What are you going to do with the tinder-box?' asked the soldier. That's no business of yours,' said the witch, you've got your money, give me my tinder-box!
   4. 'I am a dead man, Hardy,' said Nelson; 'I am going fast; it will be all over with me soon. Come nearer to me. Let my dear Lady Hamilton have my hair, and all other things belonging to me.'
   5. "Why don't you settle the case out of the court?' said the judge to the litigants before him. 'That's what we were doing, my lord, when the police came and interfered,' said one of them.
   6. The hen bird was just about to lay, and she said to her mate: 'Cannot you find me some place convenient for laying my eggs?' 'And is not this,' he replied, 'a very good place for the purpose?' 'No,' she answered, 'for it is continually overflowed by the tide.' 'Am I, then, so feeble,' he exclaimed, 'that the eggs laid in my house are to be carried away by the sea?' The hen bird laughed and said, 'There is some considerable difference between you and the sea.'