Narration is the grammatical skill of reporting what someone said — either by quoting their exact words (Direct Speech) or by weaving their words into your own sentence (Indirect Speech).
Direct Speech preserves the speaker's original words inside quotation marks:
He said, "I am going to school."
Indirect Speech (also called Reported Speech) drops the quotes and integrates the message:
He said that he was going to school.
Here is the analogy that makes this click: imagine you are a news reporter. A politician says, "I will resign tomorrow." You cannot write that quote in a news article and then wander off — you must report it: "The minister said he would resign the next day." The moment you move from the politician's mouth to your article, three things shift automatically — the tense of the verb, the pronouns, and the time expressions. That is the entire subject of this chapter.
Why does this matter for SSC CGL specifically? The English section regularly tests narration through two question types: (1) convert the given direct speech to indirect speech, choosing from four options, and (2) convert the given indirect speech back to direct speech. The traps are always the same — a wrong reporting verb (told vs said), a missed tense shift, a pronoun left unchanged, or a time word like tomorrow that stays as tomorrow when it should become the next day. You can eliminate three wrong options in under 20 seconds once you internalize the three-step system.
Every narration conversion problem reduces to three mechanical operations: change the reporting verb (if needed), backshift the tense, and swap pronouns and time words. Do them in sequence — never in parallel.
The most tested trap in SSC CGL is the said vs told distinction.
said — no object follows directly. Use it when there is no mention of who was spoken to: He said that...told — always takes an object: He told me that...You cannot write He told that... — this is grammatically wrong and appears as a distractor in almost every PYQ on this topic. If you see told that without an object in between, eliminate it immediately.
For imperative sentences (commands, requests, advice), the reporting verb changes based on the tone:
| Direct Speech Tone | Reporting Verb Used | |---|---| | Request with "please" | requested | | Command / order | ordered / commanded | | Advice | advised | | Prohibition | forbade / warned |
When the reporting verb is in the past tense (said, told, asked), all tenses in the reported clause shift one step into the past:
| Direct (Original Tense) | Indirect (Backshifted Tense) |
|---|---|
| Simple Present (am, go) | Simple Past (was, went) |
| Present Continuous (am going) | Past Continuous (was going) |
| Present Perfect (have gone) | Past Perfect (had gone) |
| Simple Past (went) | Past Perfect (had gone) |
| will | would |
| can | could |
| may | might |
| shall | would |
Exception — Universal truths and habitual facts: If the direct speech contains a scientific truth or proverb, the tense does not backshift. The teacher said, "The sun rises in the east." → The teacher said that the sun rises in the east. (not rose)
Pronoun changes follow a fixed pattern based on three "persons" present in the sentence: the speaker, the listener, and the person being spoken about.
I, me, my, we, us, our) change to match the subject of the reporting verb.you, your) change to match the object of the reporting verb.he, she, they) remain unchanged.Time and place words shift because the physical moment of speaking is now in the past:
| Direct | Indirect | |---|---| | now | then | | today | that day | | yesterday | the day before / the previous day | | tomorrow | the next day / the following day | | here | there | | this | that | | these | those | | ago | before | | last night | the previous night |
Assertive (Declarative) sentences: Use that as the connector. Standard tense backshift applies.
Interrogative (Question) sentences: Two sub-types matter:
asked if or asked whether. He said, "Are you tired?" → He asked if I was tired.asked + wh-word. She said, "Where do you live?" → She asked where I lived.Critical rule: Never use that with reported questions. Never retain the inverted question word order — indirect questions use normal subject-verb order.
Imperative sentences: Drop the quoted words. Use the appropriate reporting verb followed by to + infinitive.
He said to me, "Go away." → He ordered me to go away.She said, "Please help me." → She requested me to help her.Exclamatory sentences: Use exclaimed as the reporting verb. Convert the exclamation into a statement.
He said, "What a beautiful painting!" → He exclaimed that it was a very beautiful painting.Before writing the reporting verb, ask: is there a person mentioned as the listener? If yes, use told + that person. If no, use said that. Test in 2 seconds: scan the sentence for a name or pronoun between the verb and that. No name/pronoun = said. Name/pronoun present = told. This eliminates the most common distractor in SSC CGL narration questions. Standard approach: re-read the rule mentally each time (10s). This test: 2s.
Draw a mental ladder with tenses. When the reporting verb is past, every tense in the reported clause climbs one rung upward (toward the past): Present → Past, Past → Past Perfect, will → would, can → could. For options elimination: if an option retains a present tense verb inside the reported clause (e.g., he said that he is going), eliminate it without reading the rest. This removes 1-2 options in under 5 seconds, leaving you with a 50/50 choice to resolve with pronouns. Standard method: check all four options fully (30s). This method: eliminate 2 options in 5s, decide from 2 remaining (10s). Total: 15s.
The three most tested time-word swaps in SSC CGL are: today → that day, tomorrow → the next day, yesterday → the previous day. Memorize exactly these three. If an option contains tomorrow in the indirect speech (when the reporting verb is past), eliminate it immediately. In PYQ 6a119854a61b6aa7117cb882, option C fails precisely because it retains tomorrow. Spotting this takes 3 seconds vs reading all four options (20s).
Whenever you see please in direct speech, the reporting verb in indirect speech is always requested, and the structure is requested + object + to + base verb. The word please itself disappears. Three wrong patterns appear as distractors: requested that, told to please, and said to please. If any option contains please in the indirect speech, it is wrong. If any option uses requested that (without to + infinitive), it is wrong. Spotting these two eliminators takes under 5 seconds.
For interrogative sentences converted to indirect speech, the connector is always if/whether (yes/no questions) or the wh-word itself (wh-questions). The connector is never that. If any option uses that as the connector for a question, eliminate it in under 3 seconds. Also eliminate any option that retains inverted word order (asked would I help him — wrong; asked if I would help him — correct). This single rule eliminates at least one distractor in every question-conversion PYQ. Standard approach: parse all four options (25s). This test: 5s to eliminate 1-2 options.
In the exam hall, use this decision tree:
Step 1 (3s) — Identify sentence type. Is the direct speech a statement, question, command/request, or exclamation? This tells you what reporting verb to expect and what connector to use.
Step 2 (5s) — Scan options for instant eliminators.
told that with no object between them → eliminatethat as connector for a question → eliminatetomorrow/today/here retained in indirect speech → eliminateStep 3 (7s) — Check tense in remaining options. Apply the one-step-back ladder. Match the tense in the reported clause to what the backshift rule requires.
Step 4 (5s) — Verify pronouns. Check that first-person pronouns from direct speech match the subject of the reporting verb in indirect speech.
If two options survive all four steps, pick the one with the correct time word conversion. Total time: under 20 seconds per question.
Why this question: This is the foundational narration question — it tests tense backshift (present continuous → past continuous) and the said vs told trap simultaneously.
Solving path: Step 1 — Statement sentence, so connector is that. Step 2 — Eliminate option B (told that with no object). Eliminate option C (I was — pronoun not changed). Step 3 — Between A and D, check tense: am going must backshift to was going (not is going). Eliminate A. Answer: D.
Why this question: Imperative sentences with please are one of the highest-frequency subtypes in SSC CGL. This tests whether you know requested + to + infinitive.
Solving path: Step 1 — Please in direct speech = request. Reporting verb must be requested. Eliminate A (wrong structure), eliminate C (requested that — wrong connector for imperative). Between B and D: B has to please help her (redundant please), D has clean to help her. Answer: D.
Why this question: This question combines three traps: tense backshift of will → would, time word change of tomorrow → the next day, and said vs told.
Solving path: Step 2 eliminators — C retains tomorrow → eliminate. B uses told that with no object between → eliminate. Between A and D: A retains will (not backshifted) → eliminate. Answer: D.
Why this question: This tests the today → that day time word swap alongside standard tense and pronoun changes.
Solving path: Eliminate A (pronoun I not changed to she). Eliminate B (today retained, told that construction). Eliminate C (is not backshifted, today retained). Answer: D — she was very tired that day.
Why this question: Reverse conversion (indirect to direct) appears regularly and tests whether you can un-backshift tenses correctly.
Solving path: had finished in indirect speech reverses to have finished (present perfect) in direct speech. The subject he becomes I, and his becomes my. Eliminate A (had finished — not reversed). Eliminate C (He has finished his work — pronoun not changed to first person). Eliminate D (your work — wrong pronoun). Answer: B.
Why this question: Yes/No question conversion — tests if/whether as connector and will → would backshift.
Solving path: Yes/No question → asked if/whether. Eliminate C and D — that cannot be the connector for questions. Between A and B: will must backshift to would. Eliminate B (will retained). Answer: A.
Why this question: A compound sentence with both an imperative clause and a declarative clause — tests whether you can handle two different reporting structures in one sentence.
Solving path: The sentence has two parts: Work hard (imperative — advice) and you will succeed (declarative — promise). The imperative requires advised + to + infinitive. The declarative requires told them that they would succeed (will → would). Only option B handles both parts correctly. Eliminate A (drops the second clause structure), C (uses asked instead of advised), D (retains original words without proper conversion). Answer: B.
Why this question: Present perfect have seen → past perfect had seen is a frequently tested backshift that many candidates miss.
Solving path: have seen (present perfect) backshifts to had seen (past perfect). Eliminate B (has seen — not backshifted). Eliminate C (so a beautiful — grammatically wrong). Eliminate D (pronoun I not changed to she). Answer: A.
Writing told that without an object. This is the single most common error in SSC CGL narration. Told is a ditransitive verb — it always needs both a direct and indirect object. You cannot write He told that he was going. It must be He told me that he was going. or He said that he was going.
Retaining will instead of shifting to would. Candidates who know the tense table often forget that modal verbs also backshift. Will → would, can → could, may → might, shall → would. If you see will inside an indirect speech clause where the reporting verb is past, that option is wrong.
Forgetting to change time words. After correctly backshifting the tense and pronoun, many candidates leave today, tomorrow, or here unchanged. In options, today in indirect speech is always wrong when the reporting verb is in the past tense.
Using that as a connector for questions. Indirect questions never use that. Yes/No questions use if or whether. Wh-questions use the wh-word directly. Writing He asked that would I help him is wrong on two counts — wrong connector and wrong word order.
Not reversing the inversion in indirect questions. Direct questions invert subject and auxiliary: Are you tired? In indirect speech, the normal order is restored: He asked if I was tired. Never write He asked if was I tired.
Applying tense backshift to universal truths. If the reported clause states a scientific fact, a proverb, or a mathematical truth, the tense stays in present tense even in indirect speech. The teacher said, "Water boils at 100 degrees." → The teacher said that water boils at 100 degrees. Backshifting this to boiled is a common intermediate-level error.