Narration Change Rules with Examples, Sentences & Exercises

Narration change is one of the most important — and most frequently tested — grammar topics for Pakistani students from Class 6 all the way up to CSS and PMS competitive exams. Whether your teacher just introduced direct and indirect speech or you are cramming for a board exam at midnight, understanding how and why we change narration will save you marks you didn’t even know you were losing. This guide covers every rule, every tense shift, every pronoun trick — with worked examples, tables, and exercises.

Many students learn narration change by rote — they memorise a few rules and hope for the best. That approach fails the moment the sentence gets even slightly unusual. What you need is a clear, logical framework so you can handle any sentence confidently. That’s exactly what this guide gives you, step by step, in plain English (and a little Urdu logic where it helps).

1. What Is Narration Change?

When we report what someone else said, we have two options: we can repeat their exact words, or we can report the meaning in our own sentence structure. Narration change is the grammatical process of converting between these two modes — from direct speech to indirect speech, or vice versa.

Think of it this way: if your friend Ahmed says “I am going to Lahore tomorrow,” you can either quote him exactly (direct) or tell someone else “Ahmed said that he was going to Lahore the next day” (indirect). The meaning stays the same; the form changes. That form-change, governed by a clear set of rules, is what narration change is all about.

2. Types of Narration: Direct vs Indirect Speech

Before diving into the rules, you need to understand the two forms clearly.

3. The Reporting Verb & Reporting Clause

Every narration sentence has two parts. The reporting clause is the part outside the quotes — it tells us who spoke. The reported clause is the message itself, originally inside the quotes.

The reporting verb (said, told, asked, ordered, requested, etc.) is the most important word in the reporting clause. It tells us the nature of the speech act and determines which conjunction to use when converting to indirect speech.

• said / said that — for statements
• asked / inquired whether/if — for yes/no questions
• asked + question word — for wh-questions
• told / ordered / commanded — for imperatives
• requested / begged — for polite requests
• exclaimed / cried out — for exclamatory sentences

4. Tense Change Rules (Full Table)

This is the heart of narration change. When the reporting verb is in a past tense (said, told, asked), the verb inside the reported clause shifts one step back into the past. This is called backshift. Memorise this table — it is your best friend in any exam.

5. Pronoun Change Rules

Pronouns inside the quoted speech change to match the logical relationship between the speaker, the listener, and the person you’re reporting to. There are three rules, one for each person.

A quick memory trick: the three rules can be remembered as S-O-S, S-O-O, N-C — Subject of Subject, Subject of Object, No Change. Work from these and you will almost never make a pronoun error again.

6. Time & Place Word Changes

When speech is reported later (or in a different place), words like “now,” “here,” and “today” no longer make sense from the reporter’s perspective. They must be replaced with more neutral time and place expressions.

7. Narration Change for Different Sentence Types

Different sentence types require different reporting verbs and conjunctions. Here’s a quick breakdown of each.

A. Assertive / Declarative Sentences (Statements)

• Use: said / said that / told + that
• Remove the comma and quotation marks; add “that” as conjunction
• Example: “I love cricket.” → He said that he loved cricket.

B. Interrogative Sentences (Questions)

• Yes/No questions: use asked if / whether
• Wh-questions: use asked + the question word (what, where, why, how…)
• Word order becomes normal (subject before verb — no inversion)
• Example: “Are you tired?” → She asked if I was tired.
• Example: “Where do you live?” → He asked where I lived.

C. Imperative Sentences (Orders / Requests)

• Orders: use ordered / commanded + object + to + verb
• Requests: use requested / begged + object + to + verb
• Negative orders: use ordered / told + object + not + to + verb
• Example: “Sit down.” → The teacher ordered me to sit down.
• Example: “Please help me.” → She requested him to help her.

D. Exclamatory Sentences

• Use: exclaimed with joy / sorrow / surprise / anger
• Convert to a statement using “that”; remove the exclamation mark
• Example: “What a beautiful day!” → She exclaimed with joy that it was a very beautiful day.
• Example: “Alas! I have failed.” → He exclaimed with sorrow that he had failed.

8. 20 Solved Examples of Narration Change

These examples cover all sentence types and are the kind of sentences that appear in Matric and Intermediate board papers across Punjab, Sindh, and Federal boards.

Notice example 19 — when a sentence states a universal or scientific truth (“water boils at 100°C”), the tense does not change even in indirect speech. This is an important exception that the board examiners love to test. You can also explore more English grammar guides on Alvipedia to sharpen your exam preparation further.

9. Fill in the Blanks

Complete each sentence by filling in the blank with the correct word(s) for narration change. Answers are given below.

1. She said, “I am happy.” → She said that she ______ happy. (a)
2. He said, “I will come tomorrow.” → He said that he would come ______. (b)
3. She asked, “Are you ready?” → She asked if I ______ ready. (c)
4. The teacher said, “Open your books.” → The teacher ______ us to open our books. (d)
5. He said, “I can solve this problem.” → He said that he ______ solve that problem. (e)
6. She said, “Alas! My mother is ill.” → She exclaimed ______ sorrow that her mother was ill. (f)
7. He asked, “Where does she live?” → He asked ______ she lived. (g)
8. They said, “We have been waiting here for an hour.” → They said that they had been waiting ______ for an hour. (h)

10. MCQ Practice

Choose the correct answer for each MCQ. These are typical of Matric and Intermediate English paper formats.

11. Practice Problems

Convert these sentences from direct to indirect speech on your own. Suggested answers are below each question — but try it yourself first!

If you want to practise more examples of English grammar exercises for Pakistani board exams, the interactive grammar games on SplashLearn are a fun and effective way to reinforce what you’ve learned here. You might also benefit from reading about informal letter writing format and examples on Alvipedia, since letter questions often involve reported speech.

12. Summary

Conclusion

Mastering narration change is less about memorising a list of rules and more about understanding why each rule exists — and once you grasp that logic, the rules become almost automatic. The tense shifts because time has passed since the speech was made. The pronouns shift because the person reporting the speech is different from the person who originally spoke. The time words shift because “today” and “here” mean different things to a reporter speaking hours or days later. Work through these examples regularly, test yourself with the exercises in this post, and narration change will quickly become one of your strongest areas in English grammar — not just for board exams but for CSS, PMS, and every English test that comes your way.

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