Reported Speech: He said he had gone

Spanish: El Estilo Indirecto: Dijo que había ido

Level: B2 Upper-Intermediate

Category: discourse

Explanation

Reported speech (indirect speech) is used to tell what another person said without repeating their exact words. Instead of using quotation marks and reproducing the sentence literally (direct speech: "I am going to the market"), we introduce what was said with a verb like decir, comentar, explicar, or preguntar, followed by que: Dijo que iba al mercado (He said he was going to the market). When the introductory verb is in the present (dice que...), the verb tense of the original sentence does not change. However, when the introductory verb is in the past (dijo que..., comentó que...), the verb tenses usually shift one step back into the past. This is called "backshifting" or tense correlation. For example, the present becomes the imperfect, the perfect and preterite become the pluperfect, and the future becomes the conditional. Besides verb tenses, we must change other elements: personal pronouns (yo → él/ella), possessives (mi → su), demonstratives (este → ese/aquel), and expressions of time and place (hoy → aquel día, aquí → allí, mañana → al día siguiente). For questions we use si (yes/no questions) or the corresponding question word (qué, dónde, cuándo): Me preguntó si tenía hambre / Me preguntó dónde vivía. Mastering reported speech is essential at B2 level because it appears constantly in everyday conversation, in the news, and in narration. It allows you to summarize, quote, and report information naturally and fluently.

Examples

• El camarero dijo que el café estaba muy caliente. - The waiter said the coffee was very hot.
• Mi amigo comentó que ya había pagado la cuenta. - My friend commented that he had already paid the bill.
• La recepcionista me dijo que la habitación estaría lista a las tres. - The receptionist told me the room would be ready at three.
• Le pregunté al vendedor si tenía manzanas frescas. - I asked the vendor if he had fresh apples.
• El guía explicó que el museo cerraba a las ocho. - The guide explained that the museum closed at eight.