Year 5 · SPaG · Apostrophes and speech
Year 5 direct and reported speech worksheet and PowerPoint
To punctuate direct speech correctly and to change direct speech into reported speech and back.
Direct and reported speech
Direct speech is the exact words a person says. It goes inside inverted commas with a comma or other punctuation before the closing marks. Reported speech tells you what was said without the exact words. It has no inverted commas.
| direct speech | “I am hungry,” said Tom. |
|---|---|
| reported speech | Tom said that he was hungry. |
| punctuation | a new line for each new speaker; the punctuation goes inside the inverted commas |
Examples
- “Where are you going?” asked Mum.
- Mum asked where we were going.
Key words
- direct speech
- the exact words someone says
- inverted commas
- marks “ ” around spoken words
- reporting clause
- tells us who spoke: said Mia
- speaker
- the person who says the words
- reported speech
- tells what was said without the exact words
- pronoun
- takes the place of a noun: I, he, she, they
- backshift
- moving the verb back into the past
What is on the worksheet
Every sheet for this lesson has a short teaching box and 12 questions that get gradually harder: 8 fluency questions, then 4 reasoning questions that ask pupils to explain or choose. A writing challenge follows. The questions use the same styles as the key stage 2 grammar and punctuation test (circle, underline, tick, fill the gap, add punctuation, rewrite, explain). They are written for this website, not copied from past papers.
All the answers are on the last page of the same editable Word file. New questions are made every time, so you can print a different sheet for every group or for homework. The same sheet code always gives the same sheet.
Writing challenge: Write a conversation of six lines between two friends planning a picnic. Then write it again as reported speech in a short paragraph.
Pupil target: I can punctuate speech and report it.
The PowerPoint
A 20-slide lesson deck for the same lesson: a starter that revisits earlier learning, key words, an I do and a You do question on each slide with a countdown timer, answers that appear one click at a time, and a challenge. Download the direct and reported speech PowerPoint.
Where this lesson fits
This is lesson 43 of 43 in the Year 5 SPaG scheme, in the block “Apostrophes and speech”.
Other lessons in this block
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