ESTILO INDIRECTO (REPORTED
SPEECH)
1º What is it ? What is it used for ?
The reported speech or Indirect speech is a way of
repeating what another person has said.
You can repeat the exact words with inverted
commas and with the exact words with direct
speech :
DIRECT SPEECH : Juan said : " I am very tired"
or you can use the Reported Speech . With it we
don't repeat the exact words and inverted commas
are not necessary .
REPORTED SPEECH : Juan said that he was very
tired.
In reported speech as you can see some changes
take place if the verb say is in the past : in the
personal pronouns, possessive and complement
pronouns .
In the verbs that usually go "one step backwards"
un paso hacia atrás , that is they usually change
into their correspondent past tense : if the verb in
direct speech was in the present in reported speech
changes to the simple past ; if it was in present
continuous in reported changes to past continuous
and so on. We will see this later in detail
In the time adverbs and demonstratives too : today,
yesterday etc. as you will see in the chart later .
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