Punctuate Direct Speech

Direct speech is when the words spoken by somebody are written inside inverted commas.

 

 

Read the sentence below:

 

Beth exclaimed that she couldn’t wait to go on holiday.

 

We can turn this into direct speech:

 

“I can’t wait to go on holiday!” exclaimed Beth.

 

 

How to Punctuate Direct Speech

1. The words spoken by Beth are the direct speech and these go between inverted commas with a capital letter at the start.

"I can't wait to go on holiday

 

2. We must put a comma, an exclamation mark or a question mark before we close the direct speech. 

 

-  We use a comma (,) if the person is saying a statement.

-  We use a question mark (?) if the person is asking a question.

-  We use an exclamation mark (!) if the person is shouting or exclaiming.

 

As Beth is exclaiming how excited she is, there’s an exclamation mark (!) before the inverted commas close the direct speech.

"I can't wait to go on holiday!" exclaimed Beth.

 

Reporting Clauses

The reporting clause in this sentence is exclaimed Beth. Reporting clauses tell us who said the speech and how they said it.

 

We can move the reporting clause to the start of the sentence to look like this:

Beth exclaimed, “I can’t wait to go on holiday!”

 

If the reporting clause goes at the start of the sentence, we must put a comma afterwards.

 

What would this sentence look like as direct speech?

 

Jan asked where the salt was.

 

 

It would look like this:

 

“Where is the salt?” asked Jan.

 

If we moved the reporting clause to the start of the sentence, it would look like this:

Jan asked, “Where is the salt?”

 

In this activity, you’ll be punctuating direct speech.

 

Remember the rules from this introduction to help you - you can read it again at any time by clicking on the red help button on the screen.