Change the narration, the tense or the voice exactly as the question asks, the way a Matric paper does. Every narration rule on one card, three games, 24 exercises that tell you at once if you are right, and two free PDFs. For Class 9 and 10, Grade 9 and 10, Year 10 and 11.
Every topic keeps its own colour the whole way down the page: the same colour on the lesson, the game and the exercises.
Direct speech gives the exact words, inside inverted commas. Indirect speech, also called reported speech, gives the same message in your own sentence with no inverted commas. Turning one into the other is what a paper calls change the narration. Four moves do the whole job. Tap a number to jump to it.
Look at the words inside the inverted commas first. Are they telling, asking, ordering, begging or wishing? That decides which verb takes the place of said, and which word joins the two halves together.
A reported question is not a question any more. The subject goes back in front of the verb, do, does and did disappear, and the question mark goes. Where is Ali becomes where Ali was, never where was Ali. An order or a request never takes that. It takes to, or not to.
The words were spoken before you report them, so every verb inside them moves one step into the past.
Somebody else is telling the story now, so I, you and we have to point at the right person again.
Ali said, 'I lost my pen.'
becomes Ali said that he had lost his pen.
He said to me, 'You are late.'
becomes He told me that I was late.
She said, 'They have gone.'
becomes She said that they had gone.
The easy way to hold it. First person follows whoever is the subject of said. Second person follows whoever was spoken to. Third person stays where it is.
Words like now, here and tomorrow belong to the moment the words were spoken. Reported later, they have to change.
| Direct | Indirect | Direct | Indirect |
|---|---|---|---|
| now | then | here | there |
| today | that day | this | that |
| tonight | that night | these | those |
| tomorrow | the next day | ago | before |
| yesterday | the day before | thus | so |
| last night | the previous night | hence | thence |
| next week | the following week | come | go |
Some papers set the narration as a short conversation to be told as one paragraph, not as single sentences. The four moves are exactly the same. What changes is that the paragraph has to read smoothly, so each speech gets its own reporting verb and the pronouns stay the same from the first line to the last.
The teacher said to Sara, 'Why are you late today?' Sara said, 'Sir, I missed the bus.' The teacher said, 'Sit down and open your book.' Sara said, 'Thank you, sir. I will not be late again.'
The teacher asked Sara why she was late that day. Sara replied respectfully that she had missed the bus. The teacher told her to sit down and open her book. Sara thanked him and promised that she would not be late again.
Three short rule cards. Each one is the whole rule, with the pattern to build and an example.
When the instruction names a tense, keep the subject and the object exactly as they are and rebuild only the verb. The 1st form is the plain verb (write), the 2nd form is the past form (wrote) and the 3rd form is the past participle (written).
Check the subject before you pick a helper. Had and will never change shape. Is, am, are, was, were, has and have do, so he has written but they have written.
In the active voice the doer comes first. In the passive voice the thing the action lands on comes first. Put be into the tense the sentence already has, add the 3rd form, and move the doer to the end after by. If the doer is somebody or someone, leave it out. A paper usually asks for this with the instruction change the voice, and it means exactly this and nothing else.
Two things to watch. Only a verb with an object can change voice, so sleep, arrive and laugh have no passive. And a pronoun changes shape when it moves: I becomes me, he becomes him, she becomes her, we becomes us, they becomes them.
A modal is a helping verb that adds a job to the main verb. The verb after it is always the 1st form, with nothing added: she can swim, never she can swims or she can to swim. Have to and ought to carry their own to, and the verb after them is still the 1st form.
May I come in?
Allowed to. May is the more formal of the two.
She can speak three languages.
Able to. Could is the past: he could swim at five.
You must wear a seatbelt.
No choice. A rule or a deadline.
You should see a doctor.
A good idea, freely given, not an order.
These are not four new grammar rules. They are four things to do to a question before, during and after you answer it.
Every transformation question carries an instruction, usually in brackets at the end. That instruction names one machine and one only. Read it first, because it decides what you are looking for in the sentence.
So here is the test. Underline the instruction. Say out loud what is about to change and what is not. If you cannot say what is staying the same, you are not ready to write yet.
A transformation is judged on two things at once: whether the new sentence is grammatical, and whether it still means what the old one meant. The second is the one that quietly costs marks.
Both sentences are correct English. Only one of them answers the question that was asked.
So here is the test. Before you write, say the keep list. After you write, check that both sentences could be true of the same moment. If they could not, the answer is wrong however neat it looks.
When the narration changes, the tense is only the first thing to move. Three other groups of words move with it, and forgetting them is the single commonest slip on this question.
He said, 'I will meet you here tomorrow.'
becomes
He said that he would meet me there the next day.
He said that he would meet me here tomorrow. Four words changed and two were left behind.
So here is the test. After you change the tense, sweep the sentence twice more: once for people, once for time and place. Anything that pointed at the speaker has to point somewhere else now.
You already own four levels of tests. The fastest way to catch your own mistake is to use one of them on the sentence you just wrote, rather than on the sentence you were given.
So here is the test. Read your answer once more, on its own, as though somebody else wrote it. A sentence that sounds odd read aloud is almost always a sentence with something left behind in it.
Check the four habits straight away. These can be read on screen, printed, or worked through on paper. Tap Show the answer, and the reason is given every time.
1. She said, 'I am writing my paper.' Change the narration.
B. She said that she was writing her paper. Present continuous steps back one row to past continuous, and I becomes she because somebody else is telling it now. A leaves the tense where it was. C jumps two rows and changes the meaning from an unfinished job to a finished one.
2. He said, 'I met her yesterday.' Change the narration.
C. He said that he had met her the day before. Two things travel here, not one. Past simple steps back to past perfect, and yesterday has to move as well, because the day the speaker meant has already gone. B changes the tense and leaves the time word behind, which is the commonest slip on this question.
3. The peon rang the bell. Change the voice.
A. The bell was rung by the peon. Rang is past simple, so be goes into the past simple as well and gives was, then the third form rung. The instruction said change the voice, so the tense must stay exactly where it is. B and C are both correct English and both answer a question nobody asked.
4. The girl sings beautifully. Rewrite it in the past continuous tense.
B. The girl was singing beautifully. The instruction names the tense, so there is nothing to guess. Past continuous is was or were plus the -ing form. A is the past simple and C is the past perfect continuous, and both are the right shape for a different instruction.
5. She said to me, 'Do not touch the wires.' Change the narration.
B. She told me not to touch the wires. A negative command is reported with told or forbade and the words not to, never with that. C turns an order into a question, which changes what actually happened in the room.
6. He said, 'Where does Ali live?' Change the narration.
A. He asked where Ali lived. A reported question stops being a question. The word order goes back to subject then verb, the helping verb does disappears, and there is no question mark. B keeps the question word order. C uses said, which cannot introduce a question.
7. You ____ wear a helmet on a motorcycle. Insert the modal that shows obligation.
C. must Must is the modal for something there is no choice about. May is permission and might is possibility, and both would turn a rule into an option.
8. The teacher said, 'Water boils at 100 degrees.' Change the narration.
B. The teacher said that water boils at 100 degrees. This is the exception worth learning. A fact that is still true does not step back, because stepping it back would suggest it has stopped being true. The pronouns and time words still follow the normal rules when there are any.
9. Somebody has stolen my bicycle. Change the voice.
B. My bicycle has been stolen. Present perfect gives has been plus the third form. Somebody names nobody, so the by phrase is dropped rather than kept. A quietly changes the tense to past simple, which the instruction did not ask for.
10. He said, 'I will come here tomorrow.' Change the narration.
A. He said that he would come there the next day. Three sweeps in one sentence. Will steps back to would, here becomes there because the reporter is somewhere else, and tomorrow becomes the next day because that day has passed. B changes the tense and leaves both pointing words behind.
The part that has been moved or changed is highlighted, with the working underneath. Cover the working and see whether you get there first.
She said that she had lost her keys the day before.
The order was change the narration, and the original was she said, 'I lost my keys yesterday.' Past simple steps back to past perfect, so lost becomes had lost. Then the sweep: I becomes she, my becomes her, and yesterday becomes the day before. Four changes from one instruction, which is why the sweep is a habit and not an afterthought.
He asked me whether I had finished the assignment.
The original was he said to me, 'Have you finished the assignment?' A yes or no question is joined with if or whether, because there is no question word to reuse. Said becomes asked, the word order goes back to subject then verb, and the question mark goes. Present perfect steps back to past perfect.
The letters are delivered at nine every morning.
The order was change the voice, and the original was the postman delivers the letters at nine every morning. Delivers is present simple, so be goes into the present simple too. Letters is more than one, so it is are rather than is. The postman is dropped because he is not the point, and every morning does not move at all.
By next Friday the roof will have been repaired.
Two things are stacked here. The tense is the future perfect, so the passive keeps all of it: will, then have, then been, then the third form. Notice that the instruction had to name the tense. Left as a gap, by next Friday would also allow will be repaired, and a question that allows two answers is a badly written question.
She exclaimed with joy that it was a wonderful match.
The original was she said, 'What a match!' An exclamation loses its exclamation mark and gains a reporting verb that carries the feeling, so exclaimed with joy or exclaimed with sorrow depending on what was meant. What a match becomes an ordinary statement joined with that.
You should see a doctor if you are feeling unwell.
The clue said advice. Should is the modal that offers a course of action without forcing it. Must would make it an order, may would make it permission, and will would turn it into a prediction. The job in the brackets decides the word, not how serious the sentence sounds.
No score here and no pressure. Read the instruction first, then say the keep list, then answer. Press Hint whenever you are stuck.
A sentence appears with an instruction above it. It might say change the narration, change the voice, or rewrite it in a named tense. Read the instruction first, then tap the answer that makes that one change and nothing else. Sixty seconds. Three correct in a row doubles your points and the combo climbs to four times, and a wrong tap costs three seconds.
Each round shows what somebody said and how somebody else reported it. One thing was left behind: a tense that did not step back, a pronoun that did not swap, or a time or place word that did not move. Tap what went wrong. Now and then nothing is wrong at all, so read carefully. Twelve rounds.
Read the sentence and decide which job the modal is doing: permission, ability, obligation or advice. The job you pick lights up on the board, so all four stay in front of you. Twelve rounds.
No seals broken yet. Each one is broken when its part of the exercises is finished.
Four parts, six questions each, one part per seal. Every right answer earns 25 XP, which is simply a points score for this level, and fills the bar above until the badges unlock. A wrong answer costs nothing, so try again.
Think first, then tap to check.
I take the words somebody said out loud and I carry them into your mouth instead. Everything I touch steps back one row, and the words that pointed at the speaker have to point somewhere else once I have finished. What am I?
Indirect speech, also called reported speech or narration. The stepping back is the tense shift, and the pointing words are the pronouns and the time and place words.
I live inside a pair of brackets at the end of the question and I am the shortest thing on the page. Students read me last and lose more marks that way than on any rule. What am I?
The instruction. Change the narration, change the voice, or the name of a tense. Read it first, because it decides what changes and, more importantly, what does not.
I am one word long. I can hand you permission, or take away your choice, or offer you advice, and I never change my shape for he, she or they. The verb that follows me always stays plain. What am I?
A modal verb. May, can, must, should, will, might. No s on the third person and no to after it, which is why he must to go is wrong.
By the time you reach a board paper you already know the grammar. What the paper actually tests is whether you can read a short instruction and do exactly what it says, once, without disturbing anything else. Change the narration means move the speech and nothing but the speech. Rewrite in the past perfect means change the tense and leave the voice alone. Most marks at this level are lost twice over: once by changing something nobody asked about, and once by changing the tense and forgetting that the pronouns, the time words and the place words all have to travel with it. So this level is not a fifth topic. It is four habits you run on every question, a game that gives you a different instruction every few seconds, a game that shows you a rewritten sentence with one thing left behind, and a game about picking the modal that matches the job. Four habits, six worked examples, three games, 24 marked exercises with a progress meter, three riddles and two free printables.
There is no difference. They are two names for the same thing. Narration is the word used most often in Pakistani and Indian classrooms, and direct and indirect speech is the name used in most British and American books. Reported speech is a third name for the same topic. If a question says change the narration, it is asking you to move the sentence between direct and indirect speech.
No, and this is the exception most worth learning. The tense stays exactly where it is when the reporting verb is in the present or the future, when the words reported are still true, such as a fact of science, and when the sentence carries a fixed past date. It also cannot step back when it is already in the past perfect, because there is no row below that one.
Told is handed a person immediately after it, as in he told me. Said is not, unless you add to, as in he said to me. Asked introduces a question, and it also introduces a request. If you find yourself writing said me, the word you wanted was told.
The rules do not change, but consistency starts to matter. Across a paragraph the same person may be quoted several times, so every pronoun has to keep pointing at the same person from the first line to the last. Decide who is telling the story before you start, write that down, and check the last sentence against the first when you have finished.
No. Changing the voice moves the object to the front and puts be into the tense that is already there. The tense itself does not move. If the original was past simple, the passive is built on the past simple of be. Changing both is the single most expensive mistake on this question, because the sentence you produce is perfectly correct English and still earns nothing.
Drop it when the doer is unknown, obvious or unimportant. Somebody has stolen my bicycle becomes my bicycle has been stolen, because somebody names nobody. Keep it when the doer is the interesting part of the sentence, as in the biscuit was snatched by a crow.
Changing between direct and indirect speech is listed in the current FBISE assessment framework as a summative learning outcome at both Grade 9 and Grade 10, which means it can appear in the annual examination, and at Grade 10 it is set across a narrative paragraph. Using all the tenses correctly, and using gerunds, infinitives and participles, is also listed. Active and passive voice is not listed as a separate outcome in that framework, although rewriting a sentence to a given direction is examined and the voice can be one of those directions. Check the current framework yourself before you revise, because patterns change.
Level 3 if the twelve tenses are still shaky, because everything here is those tenses being moved around. Level 4 if you want active and passive voice, reported speech and conditionals taught one at a time before you meet them mixed up. This level assumes you can already build the tenses and is about doing it to an instruction, under time.
Yes. Every Numrahedu worksheet carries a full answer key, and on this one the key gives the reason as well as the answer, because on a transformation question knowing why an answer is wrong is most of the learning.
Numrahedu is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. The board name is used here only to describe the course these free materials support. All explanations, questions, games and worksheets on this page are original work produced by Numrahedu, and no question paper, marking scheme or syllabus document is reproduced anywhere on this site. FBISE publishes its own assessment frameworks and model question papers, and they are free to download from the FBISE curriculum and model papers page.