AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE
(iii) Imperative sentence also begins with a Negative (i) Rakhi said to her assistant, “Bring a glass of
Command like – Do not or Don’t. water”.
Here are few rules associated with these inferences Rakhi ordered her assistant to bring her a glass of
on Imperative sentence. water.
Rules regarding Order / Request (ii) Raveena said to her brother, “Please, bring me an
(i) According to the meaning of say / said, the Verbs ice cream.”
also change their forms; like – ask / asked, beg / begged, Raveena requested her brother to bring her an
tell /told, order/ordered, request/requested, go/went, etc. ice-cream.
(ii) Inverted commas (“ ”) are removed and ‘to’ is used (iii) My father-in-law said to me, “Join my company
before the Principal Verb. and become the CEO.”
(iii) The Pronouns of the Reported Speech are changed My father-in-law requested me to join his company
as per requirement. and become the CEO.
(iv) The usage of kindly, please, etc. are strictly re-
(iv) The teacher said to the children, “Do not walk in
stricted in Indirect Narration.
the sun.”
Here are the examples on the above laws.
The teacher asked the children not to walk in the sun.
(i) Rakhi said to her assistant, “Bring a glass of wa-
ter”. Or,
(ii) Raveena said to her brother, “Please, bring me an The teacher forbade the children to walk in the sun.
ice cream.” Usage of ‘Let’ in Indirect Narration
(iii) My father-in-law said to me, “Join my company Inferences on ‘Let’.
and become the CEO.” (i) The usage of ‘Let’ is only ‘to suggest’ and some-
(iv) The teacher said to the children, “Do not walk in times ‘to propose’.
the sun.” (ii) ‘Let’ is used to mean ‘to allow’.
Rules regarding Negative Command Here are a few rules on the context when ‘let’ is used
(a) As per requirement, say / said is changed to ask/ to refer ‘to advice’ or to ‘state a proposal’ in Indirect Narra-
asked, tell / told, remind / reminded, etc. in the sen- tion.
tence. Rules
(b) Inverted commas (“ ”) are removed and instead (a) ‘say’ and ‘said’ are changed into propose / pro-
“not + to + Verb1” is used. For example, ‘do not go’ changes posed, suggest / suggested, etc.
into ‘not to go’, ‘do not make’ into ‘not to make’, ‘do not
(b) If there is an Object in the Reporting Verb, ‘to’ is
sing’ into ‘not to sing’, etc.
used after proposed / suggested to make use of the Ob-
Example: ject.
My friend advised me to do not go to Bangalore for
Examples:
joining Yahoo.
He suggested to me.
In this sentence, the usage of ‘to do not go’ is wrong.
It should be ‘not to go’. The correct form of the sentence ̄ ̄ ̄
will be: suggested to Object
My friend advised me not to go to Bangalore for join- They proposed to you.
ing Yahoo. ̄ ̄ ̄
(c) The construction: (forbid / forbade) + Object +
proposed to Object
to + Verb1 is used.
(c) After removing the Inverted commas (“ ”), ‘that’ is
Example:
used before the Reported Speech.
Direct Narration: She said to me, “Don’t watch this
movie”. (d) Verb1 is used by joining ‘should’ after the Subject
in the Reported Speech.
Indirect Narration:
She forbade me to watch this movie. Examples:
Direct Narration: He said to his cousin, “Let’s go to
̄ ̄ ̄ ̄
see the Taj.”
forbade Object to Verb1
Indirect Narration: He proposed to his cousin that he
Again, the construction like – prohibit / prohibited,
should go to see the Taj.
prevent / prevented + Object + from + Verb (+ ing) is
used. Direct Narration: We said to the people, “Let’s punish
the thief.”
Example:
Direct Narration: You said to your brother, “Stop eat- Indirect Narration: We suggested to the people that
ing too much”. we should punish the thief.
Indirect Narration: You prohibited / prevented your Note that, if there is no Object after ‘propose’ or ‘sug-
brother from eating too much. (prohibited / prevented gest’, then directly there is the usage of Verb4 (Verb + ing).
+ Object + from + Verb4) Example:
Now that we have learnt all these rules, let us take a Direct Narration: She said, “Let’s go to the café.”
note of those examples given in Indirect Narration under Indirect Narration: She suggested going to the café.
the topic ‘Rules Regarding Order / Request.’ That is, the constructions will be:
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