ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN MODERN SCIENCE
International scientific-online conference
171
PECULIARITIES OF DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
(DISCOURS DIRECT ET INDIRECT) IN FRENCH LANGUAGE
Nilufar Juraeva
Assistant professor, PhD
French Philology Department
Bukhara State University
Ismoilov Samoydin
Student of Bukhara State University
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14937480
Annotation.
The use of someone else’s opinion in the form of an
independent sentence together with the author’s speech while preserving the
lexical, grammatical and semantic features of the opinion of other people is
called an indirect sentence. On the other hand, a direct speech is when the
author restates someone else’s words while retaining the content, but adopting
their lexical, grammatical, and semantic characteristics. This article discusses
the specific features of direct and indirect speech in French.
Keywords:
reported speech, direct speech, indirect speech, author’s words,
syntactic units, personal pronouns, possessives, verb tense adaptation, personal
pronoun changes, use of conjunctions.
Introduction.
Reported speech is the statement of another person included
in the author’s speech. Reported speech devices are considered as independent
structures in terms of function, tone and structure of speech. Reported speech is
used in both oral and written speech. In written speech, they mostly appear as
dialogues. In such sentences, someone else’s speech can be used, and these
sentences can be directly incorporated into the speech without any changes, or
they can be used in a slightly modified form. Even when reported speech is
incorporated into the speech with modifications, the meaning remains
unchanged In French, there are two different ways to express the words of
another person: direct speech (or direct style) and indirect speech (indirect
style). In direct speech, we repeat someone’s exact words. In indirect speech, we
summarize or refer to what someone has said without using their exact words.
Main part.
In French, direct speech (le style direct) and indirect speech (le
style indirect) are important grammatical concepts used to convey someone
else’s words or thoughts. In indirect speech, the sentence structure changes,
verb tenses are adjusted, and personal pronouns are transformed according to
the new context.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN MODERN SCIENCE
International scientific-online conference
172
Direct Speech (Discours direct)
Direct speech is very simple. We will use
it to impart the exact words of the original speaker and report in quotes.
Jacque dit : « J’aime les fraises ». (Jack says, “I like strawberries.”)
Lili répond : « Jean les déteste ». (Lili replies, “Jean hates them.”)
« Jean est stupide » déclare Paul. (“Jean is stupid” Paul declares)
Notice the use of « » around the quoted sentences. The quotation marks
used in English (“ ”) don’t exist in French, instead the guillemets (« ») are used.
Indirect Speech (Discours indirect).
In indirect speech, the original
speaker’s words are reported without quotes in a subordinate clause
(introduced by que).
Jacque dit qu’il aime les fraises. (Jack says that he loves strawberries.)
Lili répond que Jean les déteste. (Lili replies that Jean hates them.)
Paul déclare que Jean est stupide. (Paul declares that Jean is stupid.)
The rules associated with indirect speech are not as simple as they are with
direct speech and this subject requires further examination.
Reporting Verbs for Indirect Speech.
There are many verbs, called
reporting verbs, that can be used to introduce indirect speech:
affirmer - to assert
ajouter - to add
annoncer - to announce
crier - to shout
déclarer - to declare
dire - to say
expliquer - to explain
insister - to insist
prétendre - to claim
proclamer - to proclaim
répondre - to answer
soutenir - to maintain
Switch From Direct to Indirect Speech.
Indirect speech tends to be more
complicated than direct speech because it requires certain changes (in both
English and French). There are three primary changes that may need to be
made.
1)
Personal pronouns and possessives may need to be changed:
D
S
Lola déclare: « Je veux voir ma
mère ».
Lola declares, “I want to
see my mother.”
ILola déclare qu’il veut
Lola declares that he wants to
ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN MODERN SCIENCE
International scientific-online conference
173
S
voir sa mère.
see his mother.
2)
Verb conjugations need to change to agree with the new
subject:
DS Lola déclare: «Je veux voir ma
mère ».
Lola declares, “I want to see my
mother.”
IS Lola déclare qu’il veut voir sa
mère.
Lola declares that he wants to see his
mother.
3)
In the above examples, there is no change in the tense because
the statements are in the present. However, if the main clause is in the
past tense, the verb tense of the subordinate clause may also need to
change:
D
S
Lola a déclaré : « Je veux voir
ma mère ».
Lola declared, “I want to see my
mother.”
I
S
Lola a déclaré qu’il voulait voir
sa mère.
Lola declared that he wanted to see
his mother.
The following chart shows the correlation between verb tenses
in direct and indirect speech. Use it to determine how to rewrite direct speech as
indirect speech or vice versa. Note: Présent/Imparfait to Imparfait is by far the
most common - you don't need to worry too much about the rest.
Main verb
Subordinate verb
may change...
Au passé
Direct speech
Indirect speech
Imparfait
Passé composé or Plus-
que-parfait
Plus-que-parfait
Conditionnel
Futur
antérieur or Conditionnel
passé
Conditionnel passé
Subjonctif
Au présent
no change
Conclusion.
Reported speech devices are syntactic units that arise in the
speech process as a result of the blending of another person’s and the speaker’s
speech when expressing the thoughts and opinions of others. Reported speech
ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN MODERN SCIENCE
International scientific-online conference
174
happens when the speaker uses someone else’s thoughts in their own speech,
that is, it is conveyed through the author’s speech.
Direct and indirect speech are significant methods of conveying someone
else’s speech in French language. The selection of conjunctions, as well as tense
and person adaptations, are important aspects of reported speech in French.
Knowing these specific features in the structure of French is of great importance
in the translation process and, moreover, in language learning.
References:
1.
Hervé-D. Béchade. Syntaxe du français moderne et contemporain
(Fondamental). –Paris : France, 1993. – P. 338.
2.
Маллина Л. Е., Андрейчикова Л. П., Турниёзов Ў. Француз тили
грамматикаси (Морфология, синтаксис). -Тошкент: Ўқитувчи, 1978. – Б.
280.
3.
Маҳмудов Н., Нурмонов А. Ўзбек тилининг назарий грамматикаси.
Синтаксис. – Тошкент: Ўқитувчи, 1995. – Б. 232.
4.
Турсунов У., Мухторов Ж., Рахматуллаев Ж. Ҳозирги ўзбек адабий
тили. Олий ўқув юртлари филология факультетлари талабалари учун
дарслик. – Тошкент: Ўзбекистон, 1992. – Б. 391.
5.
O‘zbek tili grammatikasi. II tom. Sintaksis. – Toshkent: Fan, 1976. – B. 560.
6.
Ғуломов А.Ғ., Асқарова М.А. Ҳозирги ўзбек адабий тили. Синтаксис.
Тошкент: Ўқитувчи, 1965. – Б. 315.
7.
Juraeva N. Pragmatic features of dysphemisms in French
//Академические исследования в современной науке. – 2023. – Т. 2. – №. 17.
– С. 196-201.
8.
Juraeva N., Beshimova D. The phenomena of taboo and euphemism in
french linguistics //Open Access Repository. – 2023. – Т. 9. – №. 7. – С. 67-71.
9.
Juraeva N., Farangiz K. Specific features of adjectives in French and Uzbek
languages //Ethiopian International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. –
2025. – Т. 12. – №. 01. – С. 588-591.
