Direct speech and indirect speech:

What are “direct speech and indirect speech? And when do we use them?

1. We use direct speech to report what exactly has been said. If we write the speech down, the words will usually appear in quotation marks.

e.g. Tom said, “I have previewed Grammar and usage.”

↘

Tom

2. We often use indirect speech to report the meaning of what has been said without using the exact words.