ESL Blogs

Dear friends, as you all like writing different stories using the direct speech and quotations, I decided to tell you how to do it correctly. Here are a few easy rules we should follow.

1. We should always quote the direct speech, the quotations and the words we use in some figurative sense.

She said, “I am leaving.” (The direct speech)

I believe “there is no place like home.” (A proverb)

Mishaikh said, “I have been “run over” by Danny’s task” (TO RUN OVER has been used in figurative sense. Sure, I didn’t drive over his body lying on the ground! Hahaha!).

2. If we start a sentence with the direct speech, we always start it from the new line.

“Is she a student?” (he asked.)

“I am not sure.” ( ,“ I replied.)

However, if we place the introduction before the direct speech we can write:

He asked, “Is she a student?” and I replied, “I am not sure.”

3. We always capitalize the first word of the direct speech if it is a new sentence like in examples given above. But if we divide a sentence in two parts and place a reporting verb between them, we don’t have to capitalize the first word of the second part:

“I have to think it over,” he thought, “maybe, for a few days.”

4. I’d like to say a few words about the reporting verbs. If there is no indirect object, we use TO SAY while we use TO TELL with the indirect object:

He said, “I am tired.”

He told me, “I am tired.”

5. Introducing the reported speech with the words He said, My friend asked, etc., we use the direct word order. However, if we use these words after the quotation and the subject is a noun, we should use the inversion:

He said, “I am leaving.”

My friend said, “I am leaving.”

But

“I am leaving,” he said.

“I am leaving,” said my friend.

6. Now, a few words about the punctuation.

Introducing a quotation with the words like He said, She whispered, I thought, we usually use a comma before the direct speech.

I thought, “It is too much for me!”

However, we can also use a colon.

I thought: “It is too much for me!”

In modern writing the choice mostly depends on the desired flow of the text, i.e., how much the writer wants the reader to pause. A colon expects the longer pause than that after a comma.

However if the introduction is an independent clause, we always use a colon before the direct speech.

The guides always gave the same advice: "Leave them alone, and they will leave you alone."

He though it over and said the following: “I will be there whenever you may need me!”

7. We never use a colon after the quotation and always start with a small letter.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

“Just a moment!” she shouted.

“You’re right,” he said.

“You’re right,” he said. “It feels strange.”

“Thinking back,” she said, “he didn’t expect to win.”

“No!” he cried. “You can’t leave now!”

8. We sometimes use the quotations without any introduction as a part of our sentence meaning that we read or heard it somewhere. In this case, we use nothing before the quotation and don’t capitalize it. The same is about the words or expressions we use in some figurative sense.

If this is the "best skiing resort in France," I would hate to see the worst.

However, if we introduce a quotation, the rules are the same as for the direct speech.

President John Kennedy said: "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."

I sincerely hope you will find this information useful, learn these easy rules and will not make me correct the direct speech in your stories any longer! Hahaha!

I am ready to answer your questions if there are still any.