UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO

FACULTAD DE DERECHO
COORDINACIÓN DE IDIOMAS
INGLÉS VI

Teacher: Luz Alicia Hampshire Santibáñez Moreno.

UNIT 8A
Spanish:

El reported speech, o estilo indirecto, sirve para contar lo que ha dicho alguien
sin emplear las palabras exactas pronunciadas por esa persona.

She said she was coming to class (Ella dijo que iba a venir a clase).
I told you I wouldn’t be able to come (Te dije que no podría venir).
You said you would help me! (¡Dijiste que me ayudarías!).

Reglas

En los siguientes ejemplos verás que al pasar una oración a estilo indirecto se producen
algunos cambios:

Estilo directo:

I am happy to drive you to the airport.

Me alegra llevarte en coche al aeropuerto.
Reported speech o estilo indirecto:
She said she was happy to drive me to the airport.
Dijo que se alegraba de llevarme al aeropuerto.

En primer lugar, es necesario adaptar los pronombres personales, de acuerdo con la persona a
la que se refieran y a la que esté hablando. También se modifica el tiempo verbal en función de
cuál sea su relación con el momento actual, lo que generalmente implica trasladarlo al pasado
(por ejemplo, del presente simple al past simple, como en la oración anterior). Y,
naturalmente, en el estilo indirecto se añade una introducción (“Dijo que…”, “Preguntó si…”)
para presentar lo que esa persona comentó.

Así pues, ¿cómo cambia el verbo en el reported speech? En las siguientes tablas
encontrarás algunos ejemplos:
 Estilo Estilo indirecto
directo(present o reported
simple) speech (past
simple)

I know what to do (Sé She said she knew

lo que hay que hacer). what to do (Dijo
que sabía lo que
había que hacer).

I don’t know what to She said she didn’t

do (No sé qué hay que know what to
hacer). do (Dijo que no
sabía lo que había
que hacer).

Do you know what to She asked if I

do? (¿Sabes lo que hay knew what to
que hacer?). do*(Preguntó si yo
sabía lo que había
que hacer).

Fíjate en el uso de if (‘si’) al trasladar preguntas directas (en las que la respuesta es “Sí” o “No”)
a estilo indirecto, igual que en español.
English:

REPORTED SPEECH:
Sentences and questions

Reported Statements
We use reported speech to report (i.e., to tell another person) what someone said or though in
the past, or what happened.

In reported statements, we can use either 'say' or 'tell'. The meaning is the same, but the
grammar is different. For example:

Direct speech: John: "I'll be late".

Reported speech:
John said (that) he would be late.
John said to me (that) he would be late.
OR
John told me (that) he was going to be late.

With 'tell' we NEED the object (e.g. 'me', 'you', 'her').

With 'say' we CAN'T use the object (e.g. 'me', 'them', 'us') unless we use ‘TO’
before this.

**Some modals verbs change: can-could, may-might, must- had to

**Other modal verbs stay the same: could, might, would

May- might

Reported Commands

There is no backshift of tenses with commands/requests in Reported Speech.

You only have to change the person and shift expressions of time/place.

Form

 affirmative commands → to + infinitive

 negative commands → not + to + infinitive

Affirmative commands

(close the window, don’t smoke, don’t shout, speak louder, don’t cheat)

Juan: “Don’t cheat”

Teacher: Juan told me not to cheat

Juan said (to me) not to cheat

 Direct Speech → Dad: “Do your homework.”

 Reported Speech → Dad told me to do my homework.

Dad said (to me) to do my homework

Negative commands

 Direct Speech → Teacher: “Don't talk to your friend.”

 Reported Speech → The teacher told me not to talk to my friend.

The introductory sentence in commands

The word tell in introductory sentences in Reported Commands can be substituted with other
words, e.g.

 advise

 ask

There is no backshift of tenses, no matter which tense is used in the introductory sentence.

Direct Speech

 Dad: “Do your homework.”

Reported Speech

 Dad tells me to do my homework.

 Dad told me to do my homework.

Reported Questions
 So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative
sentences. But how about questions?

 Direct speech: Where do you live?

How can we make the reported speech here?

In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we
keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to
someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal
positive sentence. A bit confusing? Maybe this example will help:

Are you happy? You are happy

 Direct speech: Where do you live?-

 Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.

TO AFFIRMATIVE
Where do (present) Where you
REPORTED SPEECH (past) Where you
TO WHOM SHE DID ASK? You=I
you live? NO AUXILIARIES live lived
She asked ME = I
(did, do, does)

Where I lived.

She asked me where I lived.

Direct Question Reported Question

Where is the Post Office, please? Where the post office is where the post office was (what?)

She asked me where the Post Office was.

What are you doing? What you are doing what you were doing what I was doing (to
 whom?) You=I

She asked me what I was doing.

Who that fantastic man was Who that fantastic man had been (who)
Who was that fantastic man?
She asked me who that fantastic man had been.

So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't have
any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':

 Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?

 Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

No problem? Here are a few more examples:

Direct Question Reported Question

You love me-) you loved me-)I loved (you-him-her)

Do you love me?

He asked me if I loved him.

You have ever been to Mexico-)You had ever been to Mexico

Have you ever been to Mexico? -) I had ever been in Mexico

She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.

You are living here- You were living here- I was living here
Are you living here?
She asked me if I was living here.

Time Expressions with Reported Speech

Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time
expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the
direct speech and when we say the reported speech.

For example:

It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".

If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".

So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.
Here's a table of some possible conversions:

now then / at that time

today yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June
yesterday the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December
last night the night before, Thursday night
last week the week before / the previous week
tomorrow today / the next day / the following day / Friday