Practise Punctuating Direct Speech

Using Direct Speech

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

Read the sentence below which is written in indirect speech:

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.

The words spoken by Beth are the direct speech and they go between inverted commas.

We must put a comma, an exclamation mark or a question mark before we close the direct speech. You must decide which punctuation suits the words being said.

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

A capital letter must be used at the start of the direct speech.

The reporting clause in this sentence is exclaimed Beth and we can move this 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.

“Where is the salt?” asked Jan.

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

Remember the rules from this introduction to help you. If you need to look back at the introduction again, just click on the red help button on the screen at any point.