Indirect Speech in Spanish Grammar

Indirect speech in Spanish: the basics

Direct speech repeats someone’s utterance word-for-word and is placed within quotation marks (comillas: «…»).

Example:

Juan: «Estoy estupendamente».Juan: “I’m great.”

Indirect speech reproduces something a person has said without quoting them exactly.

Example:

Juan dice que está estupendamente.Juan says he’s great.

Indirect speech is therefore introduced by a reporting verb such as decirsay, afirmarconfirm, contartell, exclamarexclaim, explicarexplain, preguntarask …

Sentences

Sentences in reported speech take the following form: reporting verb + que (= that)

Example:

Juan dijo que estaba estupendamente.Juan said that he was doing great.

Questions

Questions in reported speech do not take question marks.

Yes-no questions (oraciones interrogativas totales) take the following form: reporting verb + si (= if)

Example:

Juan me preguntó si íbamos un día al cine.Juan asked me if we’d go to the cinema one day.

When a question contains a question word (oración interrogativa parcial), we use this in place of si: reporting verb + question word

Example:

Juan me preguntó cómo está mi hermana Cecilia.Juan asked me how my sister Cecilia is.

How to change direct speech to indirect speech in Spanish

There are several parts of speech that we have to change when converting direct speech to indirect speech in Spanish.

Luckily the process is almost exactly the same as it is in English, which means you already know more than you think!

Let’s start off with a simple example in English:

Example:

Juan: “I really like this job.”

→ Juan said that he really liked that job.

In this example, we can see that the following parts of speech have changed:

• personal pronouns (I → he)
• verb (like → liked)
• demonstrative pronoun (this → that)

In Spanish, we change the exact same things (plus a few others). Let’s break them down in detail:

• personal pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella …)
  

  Example:

  Juan: «(Yo) estoy estupendamente».Juan: “I’m great.”

  → Juan dijo que (él) estaba estupendamente.He said that he was great.

  1st person to 3rd

• possessives (mi, tu, su …)

Example:

Juan: «Cómo está tu hermana Cecilia?».Juan: “How is your sister Cecilia?”

→ Juan me preguntó cómo estaba mi hermana Cecilia.He asked me how my sister Cecilia is.

2nd person to 1st

• demonstratives (este, esta, ese …)

Example:

Juan: «Me gusta mucho este trabajo»Juan: “I really like this job.

→ Juan dijo que le gustaba mucho ese trabajo.Juan said that he really liked that job.

• information about place and time

Example:

Juan: «He empezado a trabajar aquí hace una semana».Juan: “I started working here a week ago.

→ Juan dijo que había empezado a trabajar allí hacía una semana.Juan said that he had started working there a week ago.

• the verb changes its person and tense (more info on this below)

  Example:

  Juan: «Estoy estupendamente».Juan: “I am doing great.”

  → Juan dijo que estaba estupendamente.Juan said that he was doing great.

  1st person to 3rd; present tense to imperfect

Changing the tense in indirect speech

When moving from direct to indirect speech, we often have to change the tense of the verb.

Whether we have to change the tense depends on the tense of the reporting verb.

No change in tense

The tense in the indirect speech stays the same if the reporting verb is in the present, future or perfect tense (él cuenta, él contará, él ha contado). The person still changes.

Example:

Juan: «Estoy estupendamente».Juan: “I’m great.” (present tense)

→ Juan dice que está estupendamente.Juan says he’s great. (present tense)

Exception: the imperative

The imperative is a special case. Even if the reporting verb is in the present or perfect, the imperative does not remain the same in the indirect speech; it changes to become the present subjunctive.

Example:

Juan: «Vamos al cine un día de estos».Juan: “Let’s go to the cinema one of these days.”

→ Juan me dice/ha dicho que vayamos al cine un día de estos.Juan says/has said to me that we should go to the cinema one of these days.”

reporting verb in the present/perfect = present subjunctive in indirect speech

However, when the reporting verb is in the past, the imperative behaves like other tenses and changes to the imperfect subjunctive in indirect speech.

Example:

Juan me dijo que fuéramos al cine un día de estos.Juan said to me that we should go to the cinema one of these days.

When to change the tense in indirect speech

When the reporting verb is in the preterite, imperfect or past perfect (él contó, el contaba, el había contado), the tense of the indirect speech moves back one. This is known as backshifting.

Example:

Juan: «Empecé la semana pasada».Juan: “I started last week.” (preterite tense)

→ Juan dijo que había empezado la semana anterior.Juan said that he had started the week before. (past perfect tense)

reporting verb in the preterite = tense change in the indirect speech

The table below shows how to backshift the tense from direct speech to indirect speech when you have a reporting verb in the past.

Changing information about place and time

Time and place references have to be adapted in indirect speech.

Example:

Juan: «Empecé a trabajar aquí la semana pasada».Juan: I started working here last week.

→ Juan dice que empezó a trabajar allí la semana anterior.Juan says that he started working there the week before.

The table below shows how to convert time and place references from direct speech to indirect speech.