We explain what direct and indirect speech are, their differences, characteristics and various examples.
In written language, direct speech is marked with quotation marks or hyphens.What are direct and indirect speech?
Direct speech and indirect speech are understood to be the two ways in which we can enunciate a speech referred, that is, in which we can tell someone what a third party has told us or we have heard him say. This occurs, for example, when someone asks us what another has said, when we must relate an event, and when we are telling an anecdote or a story. narration.
In this way, we will speak of direct style or direct speech when we are reproducing exactly the words of another person, that is, in a textual way, just like that person He said them.
At language written, this style differs from the rest of a text by using quotation marks ("") so that the reader knows when the referred words begin and when they end. Hyphens are also commonly used. dialogue, particularly in literary works, to indicate that whoever said something was one of the characters.
Instead, we speak of indirect style or indirect speech when we paraphrase what was said by another, that is, when we say it in our own words, without wanting to quote it verbatim. On this occasion, we change any first person for a third person, we update the verb tenses and in written language it is not necessary to use quotation marks or any typographic sign.
Suppose, for example, a teacher says in class that there will be no homework this weekend. That night one of the students, Miguel, who did not attend classes that day, asked a classmate about it on the phone. The classmate can refer to the teacher's speech in two ways:
- By direct style:
Miguel, the teacher said: "There is no homework for this weekend, guys."
- By indirect style:
Miguel, luckily the teacher said there will be no homework for this weekend.
Let's look at how the student, when citing the teacher through the direct style, even reproduces the "boys" said by the teacher. teacher; While when referring using indirect style, it is allowed to introduce an opinion and add “luckily”, since that was not said by the teacher, but rather by himself.
It is possible to go from direct speech to indirect speech and vice versa, as long as it is taken into account that in the first case we are reproducing the speaks of another, and in the second we are referring to it through our own words.
Examples of direct and indirect speech
Here are some sentences in direct and indirect style as an example:
- My mother always tells me: "take care, Maria."
(direct style)
- The police stopped us and asked us why we were breaking the quarantine.
(indirect style)
- "Are you crazy?" Molly yelled at him.
(direct style)
- In his 2009 speech, the president singled out the Socialists as to blame for the crisis.
(indirect style)