She said, "I drink black coffee every morning".

[Rollercoaster1]

When I was reading about 'direct' and 'indirect speech', I learned that habitual, historic, and some famous quotes/sayings can not being changed when making them 'direct speech' except for 'that' right before the 'reported speech'.

Sarah said, "I drink black coffee every morning".

Do you think that above 'direct speech' can be changed into 'indirect speech' as:

Sarah said that she drank black coffee every morning.

I think it's a habitual fact and, therefore, shouldn't not be changed except the 'inverted commas' and 'that'. It should be as:

Sarah said that she drinks black coffee every morning.

 

[jutfrank]

You still have a basic misunderstanding of what direct/indirect speech means.

Sarah: "I drink black coffee every morning".

This is direct speech. These are the exact words that Sarah said. You can tell this by the speech marks.


Sarah said that she drank black coffee every morning.
Sarah said that she drinks black coffee every morning.

These two sentences are not direct speech. They do not quote exactly the words she used. However, these sentences do tell us something about what she said. This is what is meant by 'indirect'. The sentences tell us indirectly what she said.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

You still have a basic misunderstanding of what direct/indirect speech means.

Sarah: "I drink black coffee every morning".

This is direct speech. These are the exact words that Sarah said. You can tell this by the speech marks.


Sarah said that she drank black coffee every morning.
Sarah said that she drinks black coffee every morning.

These two sentences are not direct speech. They do not quote exactly the words she used. However, these sentences do tell us something about what she said. This is what is meant by 'indirect'. The sentences tell us indirectly what she said.

Fair enough, but we have sidetracked the core point that I discussed about in my post #1.

When I was reading about 'direct' and 'indirect speech', I learned that habitual, historic, and some famous quotes/sayings can not be changed when making them 'indirect speech' except for 'that' right before the 'reported speech'.

It's a habitual action, and therefore should not lose its originality when we want to write/say it in 'indirect speech'.