GRADE 9 English LEISURE TIME – READING:INTENSIVE READING - PLAY Notes
English — Intensive Reading: Play (Topic: Leisure Time)
Age: 14 (Kenya) — Focus: grammatical features you meet when reading a short play. Read the short excerpt below closely and use the notes to analyse grammar.
Ali: Shall we go to the field to play football?
Wanjiru: I can't today; I have homework to finish.
Ali: Come on, Wanjiru! You must finish it quickly — then we will still have time.
[They look at each other and smile. They start doing their homework together.]
Wanjiru: I can't today; I have homework to finish.
Ali: Come on, Wanjiru! You must finish it quickly — then we will still have time.
[They look at each other and smile. They start doing their homework together.]
- Direct speech & punctuation in plays — character name + colon, then the spoken line: Ali: Shall we go to the field?. Stage directions are usually in brackets or italics: [They look...].
- Sentence types — in dialogue you find:
- Interrogative (questions): Shall we go…?
- Declarative (statements): I have homework.
- Imperative (commands/suggestions): Come on!
- Modal verbs — show ability, permission, obligation, suggestions:
- Suggestion: Shall we…
- Ability/negation: can / can't
- Obligation/advice: must / should
- Tenses in dialogue — notice which tense speakers use:
- Present simple for habits/facts: We play on Sundays.
- Present continuous for actions happening now: We are playing now.
- Present simple often used in suggestions/questions about near future: Shall we go…? / We will still have time.
- Past simple when reporting past events: They walked home.
- Pronouns & subject-verb agreement — check who is speaking: Ali (he) and Wanjiru (she). Example: She has / He has (not "have" with he/she).
- Contractions & informal speech — in plays you see spoken forms: can't, we'll, don't. Good to recognise them and expand when explaining.
- Stage directions and imperatives — stage directions are not spoken lines; they describe actions and often use imperatives or present participles: [They start doing their homework]. Do not confuse them with dialogue.
When you change spoken lines into reported speech (for writing or summarising), follow these steps:
- Change the reporting verb if necessary: Ali said / Ali suggested / Wanjiru replied.
- Shift the tense back if the reporting verb is in the past: present → past, past → past perfect, will → would. (This is called backshifting.)
- Change pronouns and time/place words as needed: we → they, today → that day.
Examples from the excerpt
Direct: Ali: Shall we go to the field to play football?
Reported: Ali suggested that they go to the field to play football.
Direct: Wanjiru: I can't today; I have homework to finish.
Reported: Wanjiru said that she could not do so that day because she had homework to finish.
Reported: Ali suggested that they go to the field to play football.
Direct: Wanjiru: I can't today; I have homework to finish.
Reported: Wanjiru said that she could not do so that day because she had homework to finish.
Note: "Shall we..." becomes "suggested that they..." or "asked if they should…" depending on the verb you choose.
- Use the character name + colon then the line: AALI: ... or Ali: ....
- Place stage directions in brackets [ ] or in italics and do not use quotation marks for them.
- Use question marks for questions, exclamation marks for exclamations, commas for short pauses and vocative commas: "Come on, Wanjiru!"
- Use dashes for breaks in speech or sudden changes: "You must finish it quickly — then we will…"
- Underline verbs and mark their tenses — this shows time (present, past, future).
- Circle modal verbs (can, could, must, should, may) — they show ability, permission, obligation, or advice.
- Put brackets around stage directions — they are not spoken and often contain verbs in the infinitive or participle form.
- When summarising, convert direct speech to reported speech carefully (check tense and pronouns).
- Identify the sentence type for each line in the excerpt (question / statement / command).
- Convert this dialogue into reported speech:
Ali: "Come on, Wanjiru! You must finish it quickly."
Wanjiru: "Okay. I will try." - Punctuate this as a play line and add a stage direction: she says that she will join after dinner (make it into direct speech spoken by Wanjiru).
- Sentence types:
- Ali: Shall we go to the field to play football? — Question (interrogative)
- Wanjiru: I can't today; I have homework to finish. — Statement (declarative)
- Ali: Come on, Wanjiru! You must finish it quickly — then we will still have time. — Command + statement (imperative + declarative)
- Reported speech:
Ali said that Wanjiru must finish it quickly (or: Ali urged Wanjiru to finish it quickly).
Wanjiru replied that she would try (or: Wanjiru said that she would try). - Direct speech with stage direction (example):
Wanjiru: "I will join you after dinner," she said, smiling. [She closes her notebook and puts it aside.](Or: Wanjiru: "I will join you after dinner." [She closes her notebook.])