REPORTED SPEECH.

Hay dos formas de repetir lo dicho por otra persona:

§     En estilo directo, que consiste en repetir con exactitud sus palabras. Para ello nos valemos de las comillas (que encierran la frase literal), así como ponemos dos puntos o una coma para separarlas de las otras palabras incluidas en la misma oración.

Ejemplo: “ I’ am ill’, she said “ (‘Yo estoy enferma’, dijo ella “).

·   En el estilo indirecto decimos lo mismo, pero con nuestras propias palabras. Para ello nos valemos de una oración subordinada introducida por la partícula "que" y se efectúan algunos otros cambios.

Ejemplo: “She told me that she was ill” (“Ella me dijo que estaba enferma”).

En una frase en estilo indirecto podemos encontrar dos partes:

§     Una primera parte introductoria que incluye el verbo, que es el que introduce lo que se va a contar: “say” (“decir”), “tell” (“contar”), “mention” (“mencionar”), “order” (“ordenar”), “suggest” (“sugerir”), “ask” (“pedir”, “preguntar”), “wonder” (“preguntarse”), “insist” (“insistir”), “invite” (“invitar”), “offer” (“ofrecer”), “thank” (“agradecer”), “warn” (“advertir”), “remind” (“recordar”), etc. Dicho verbo introductor casi siempre va en pasado.

Por ejemplo: “Peter said that…” (“Pedro dijo que…”),  “Mary told me that...” (“Mary me contó que…”).

·    Una segunda parte que es lo que alguien dijo sobre algo.

Por ejemplo: “…he had suffered a terrible accident that morning” (“…él había sufrido un terrible accidente esa mañana”), “…she was looking for her brother all morning” (“…ella estuvo buscando a su hermano toda la mañana”).

Como puede observarse, al transformar una oración del estilo directo al indirecto se produce una serie de cambios. Lo primero de todo es quitar las comillas, pues ya no son palabras textuales.

Los pronombres personales sujeto también cambian. “I” (“Yo”) pasaría a ser “he” o “she” (“él” o “ella”).

“We” (“nosotros”) queda igual si la persona que habla se encuentra dentro del grupo, si no está dentro del mismo se convierte en “they” (“ellos/as”). “You” (“tú”, “vosotros/as”) podría ser ahora “I”, “we”, “he”, “she”, “they” o “us”.

Igual sucede con los posesivos: “my” se transformarían en “his” o “her”;  “our” en “their” u “our” (si se incluye en hablante); “your” sería “his”, “her” o “your”; “mine”: “his” o “her”; “”ours” pasa a “theirs” u “ours”; etc

 Tiempos verbales:

ESTILO DIRECTO	ESTILO INDIRECTO
Presente simple I am happy I sleep	Pasado simple He said he was happy He said he slept
Presente continuo I am feeling happy I am sleeping	Pasado continuo He said he was feeling happy He said he was sleeping
Presente perfecto I have been happy I have slept	Pasado perfecto He said he had been happy He said he had slept
Presente perfecto continuo I have been feeling happy I have been sleeping	Pasado perfecto continuo He said he had been feeling happy He said he had been sleeping
Pasado simple I was happy I slept	Pasado perfecto He said he had been happy He said he had slept
Pasado continuo He said he was feeling happy He said he was sleeping	Pasado perfecto continuo I have been feeling happy I have been sleeping
Pasado perfecto	Pasado perfecto
Futuro simple I will be happy I will sleep	Condicional simple He said he would be happy He said he would sleep
Condicional simple He said he would be happy He said he would sleep	Condicional perfecto He said he would have been happy He said he would have slept
Futuro continuo I will be flying to Chicago I will be staying at a good hotel	Condicional continuo I will be flying to Chicago He said that he would be staying at a good hotel
Will I will sleep	Would He said he would sleep
Would, Could, Might, Should, Ought to  Jonh: "I would work in the garden"	No change John said that he would work in the garden
Must / Have to I must sleep	Had to / Must He said he had to sleep
May I may sleep	Might He said he might sleep
Can I can sleep	Could He said he could sleep
CONTINUOS FORMS am/are/is        + verb + ing was/were        + verb + ing has been        + verb + ing had been        + verb + ing	was/were + verb + ing had been + verb + ing

Hay sustituciones de unas palabras por otras, tales como demostrativos y expresiones de lugar o tiempo:

ESTILO DIRECTO	ESTILO INDIRECTO
Today	That day
Yesterday	The day before / the last day / the previous day
Tomorrow	The next day / the following day / the day after
This week	That week
Next -----	The following -----
Last -----	The ----- before / the previous -----
----- ago	----- before
Tonight	That night
Now	Then / in that moment
The day before yesterday	Two days before
The day after tomorrow	Two days later
Here	There / that place (o un lugar específico)
This	That
These	Those

Las frases interrogativas no mantienen el orden propio de este tipo de oraciones, sino que se ponen en orden enunciativo (es decir, primero el sujeto y después el verbo). Igualmente, cuando en la respuesta hay que decir sí o no, la segunda oración va introducida por el condicional “if”.

ESTILO DIRECTO	ESTILO INDIRECTO
“How old are you”, he asked	He asked me how old I was
What do you know about animals?	He asked me what I knew about animals
“Do you have a car?”, she asked	She asked me if I had a car

En las oraciones imperativas afirmativas el verbo pasa a infinitivo con “to”. En las negativas, añadimos “not to”. El sujeto no hace falta ponerlo en ninguna de ellas.

ESTILO DIRECTO	ESTILO INDIRECTO
“Do your homework”, the teacher told the class	The teacher told the class to do their homework
He said to me: “close the door”	He said to me to close the door
She said to me, "Buy bread"	She ordered me to buy bread
“Don´t do that!”, she ordered	She ordered not to do that