This lesson is part of the Upper-Intermediate Spanish Course
(74 Spanish lessons. 4 hours 3 minutes of video or mp3 lessons)
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In this free Spanish video lesson we will learn about Spanish Reported Speech, also known as Spanish Indirect Speech or Estilo Indirecto. This is the first in a series of five Spanish video lessons on the subject. Reported / Indirect 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. Reported or Indirect Speech differs 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, wheras Indirect Speech is not enclosed in quotes and is more complicated, in both Spanish and in English, because of the specific changes it requires. It is these changes that we will highlight and explain in this series of five Spanish video lessons. Try to complete all of the activities that follow my lessons and practice as much as you can writing out lots of practice sentences in Spanish of your own using the new information. You should also be reading regularly in Spanish by now and you can look out for any examples of Spanish Reported Speech in your books or magazines.
Lesson notes:
Dice que: He/She says that…
Original time (presente): Dice que + presente:
Silvia dice que este restaurante es muy bueno: Silvia says that this restaurant is very good
Original time (pret. imperfecto): Dice que + pret. imperfecto:
Silvia dice que antes aquí llovía mucho: Silvia says that before it used to rain a lot here
Original time (pret. indefinido): Dice que + pret. indefinido:
Silvia dice que fue a Londres hace tres años: Silvia says that she went to London three years ago
Original time (pret. perfecto): Dice que + pret. perfecto:
Silvia dice que ha estudiado en esa universidad: Silvia says that she has studied in that university
Original time (pret. pluscuamperfecto): Dice que + pret. pluscuamperfecto:
Silvia dice que había estudiado mucho para el examen: Silvia says that she had studied a lot for the exam
Activity:
Change these sentences to Spanish Reported Speech …
“Tengo mucho calor” Dice que…
“Ayer no trabajamos” Dicen que…
“Yo ya había visto esta película” Dice que…
“He tomado un café esta mañana” Dice que…
Here are some possible answers to the last activity:
Es una pena que vivas tan lejos
Es probable que vaya a la universidad el próximo año
Es importante que sepas que estoy triste
Es vergonzoso que la gente sea tan violenta
