Hola ¿Cómo estáis?

Hoy vamos a practicar más sobre el Estilo Indirecto en español. Today we are going to learn more about the Spanish “Estilo Indirecto” – Indirect or Reported Speech. This is the second part in a series of two Spanish video lessons on the topic. If you haven’t already seen the first video lesson I highly recommend that you go back and watch that lesson before watching this second part.

As I mentioned in the previous lesson, Indirect or Reported Speech is a way of reporting a statement or question. In Spanish and English there are two different ways of expressing the words of another person: Direct and Indirect Speech. Indirect or Reported Speech is different to Direct Speech because it does not phrase the statement or question in the same way as the original speaker; instead, certain grammatical categories are changed depending on the tense (present, past, future, etc). Direct speech is very simple as the exact words of the original speaker are reported in quotation marks.

In the previous lesson we looked at various combinations of Indirect or Reported Speech sentence structures and we will continue in this video lesson with more examples, specifically looking at telling someone what another person said in the past.

Original time (futuro imperfecto): Dijo que + Condicional simple:
• (Silvia dijo) “Iré a Barcelona”: (Silvia said) “I will go to Barcelona”
• Silvia dijo que iría a Barcelona: Silvia said that she would go to Barcelona

Original time (condicional simple): Dijo que + condicional simple:
• (Silvia dijo) “Me gustaría vivir en Perú”: (Silvia said) “I would like to live in Peru”
• Silvia dijo que le gustaría vivir en Perú: Silvia said that she would like to live in Peru

Original time (futuro perfecto): Dijo que + Condicional compuesto:
• (Silvia dijo) “Para finales de año habré terminado mis studios”: (Silvia said) “By the end of the year I will have finished my studies”
• Silvia dijo que para finales de año habría terminado sus estudios: Silvia said that by the end of the year she would have finished her studies

Original time (presente de subjuntivo) : Dijo que + pret. imperfecto de subjuntivo:
• (Silvia dijo) “Cuando vaya a Barcelona os voy a enviar una postal”: (Silvia said) “When I go to Barcelona I am going to send you a postcard”
• Silvia dijo que cuando fuera a Barcelona nos iba a enviar una postal: Silvia said that when she went to Barcelona she was going to send us a postcard

Original time (pret. imperfecto de subjuntivo): Dijo que + pret. imperfecto subj /Prt.pluscuamperfecto subj:
• (Silvia dijo) “Si viviera en Sevilla sería más feliz: (Silvia said) “If I lived in Seville I would be happier”
• Silvia dijo que si viviera en Sevilla sería más feliz: Silvia said that if she lived in Seville she would be happier
• (Silvia dijo) “Si tuviera tiempo estudiaría más”: (Silvia said) “If I had time I would study more”
• Silvia dijo que si hubiera tenido tiempo, habría estudiado más: Silvia said that if she had had more time she would have studied more

Original time (pret. perfecto de subjuntivo): Dijo que + pret. pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo:
• (Silvia dijo) “Cuando haya limpiado toda la casa, me tomaré un café”: (Silvia said) “When I have cleaned all the house I will have a coffee”
• Silvia dijo que cuando hubiera limpiado toda la casa, se tomaría un café: Silvia said that when she had cleaned all the house she would have a coffee

Original time (imperativo): Dice que + presente de subjuntivo:
• “Cuídate.” Dice que me cuide: “Take care of yourself.” He/She tells me to take care of myself

Original time (imperativo): Dijo que + pret. imperfecto de subjuntivo:
• “Cuídate.” Dijo que me cuidara: “Take care of yourself”. He/She told me to take care of myself

Also we have to be aware that when we use Reported Speech we have to change other words in the sentence such as: Yo-él/ella, nosotros-ellos/ellas, mi libro – su libro; este libro – ese libro, hoy – ese día, anteayer – dos días antes, ahora – en ese momento/entonces, anoche – la noche anterior, etc:
• “Nosotros vamos a la playa.” Dijeron que ellos iban a la playa: “We are going to the beach”. They said that they were going to the beach
• “Me gusta este perro.” Dijo que le gustaba ese perro: “I like this dog”. He/She said that he/she liked that dog
• “Anoche vi una película.” Dijo que la noche anterior vio una película: “Yesterday I saw a movie”. He/She said that he saw a movie the night before

There are lots of different combinations of possible Indirect or Reported Speech sentences as you can see so don’t get too flustered trying to remember them all right away. Give yourself time and learn them little by little through regular, daily practice.

I hope that you are all practicing your writing, reading, listening and speaking skills. It is vitally important at this level to be building up your Spanish skills in all four language areas. The internet is a great resource and I strongly recommend that you start regularly reading, listening to and watching Spanish material on the web. You might also want to find a native Spanish speaking language friend or a native online Spanish teacher to put into practice everything you have studied with some real conversation practice.

The key always is to study little and often and to find material that genuinely interests you. Find some Spanish TV shows that you truly want to watch and some Spanish websites that really interest you. Studying a foreign language at this level should be great fun and an integral part of your day to day life as you can push yourself to read and watch everything you normally would want to in Spanish and progress with your studies without even realising it.

Have a great week and see you next time for a new Spanish video lesson.

Hasta luego