Thursday 30rd December 2020

L.C. To understand how direct speech is punctuated.

What piece of punctuation do we used for Direct speech?

When we use Direct speech we use the exact words that the speaker uses. These words are placed inside inverted commas as well as any other punctuation.

Look at the sentences below

"I hate you," she whispered

The man shouted at the dog, "Go home!"

"Did you find it in the tunnel?" she asked.

"Let's find the others," he suggested.

"That's not fair!" he exclaimed

He asked, "How did you know?"

"Mending walls," he said, "is a specialist occupation."

Rules of Direct speech and inverted commas.

• The opening inverted commas go before the first spoken word.
• The first spoken word begins with a capital letter.
• The punctuation after the spoken words goes before the closing inverted commas.
• If the sentence begins with unspoken words, such as, She said, there is a comma before the opening pair of inverted commas, "I am going home."
• If the spoken words are split, with unspoken words in the middle, there is a comma before the second set of opening inverted commas e.g. "I am going home," she said, "and I'm not coming out to play."

On your whiteboard write down the following sentences and punctuate it correctly.

I am going to the party tonight said Jill

Sam said Where is the party

Don't forget your homework said Mr Bradley or you will have to miss your breaktime

Task

The following text is missing the punctuation for direct speech. Your job is to insert the inverted commas and any other missing punctuation from the text.

Home learners please could you take a photo of your English work and email it to Mr Hindman on Purple Mash.