Rajesh jain Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Direct/indirect

Direct- He swore in the name of god that he was ignorant of the matter.
Indirect- 1. he declared ," god knows I was ignorant of the matter."
2. He said," By god ! I'm ignorant of the matter."
Which indirect speech is more correct to use ?
  

Top answer

You have "direct" and "indirect" the wrong way round: the literal version with quotes is the direct one. It isn't possible in this case to determine with certainty the exact words spoken. He may have said "I swear in the name of *** that I am ignorant of the matter", or "I swear by *** that I am ignorant of the matter", or some other variation.

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3 Answers
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You have "direct" and "indirect" the wrong way round: the literal version with quotes is the direct one.

It isn't possible in this case to determine with certainty the exact words spoken. He may have said "I swear in the name of *** that I am ignorant of the matter", or "I swear by *** that I am ignorant of the matter", or some other variation. Your versions may be possible too, though (1
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Thank you .
Isn't " I am ignorant" more proper to use than "I was ignorant" in direct speech as we see that in indIrect speech it is "was ignorant " and not "had been ignorant?"
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Yes, that's right ... sorry, I may not have been paying sufficient attention to your use of different tenses.