Reported Speech (Estilo Indirecto)
el estilo indirecto
The grammar rules used to report what someone else has said without quoting them word-for-word.
Reported speech (el estilo indirecto) is used in Spanish to report what another person said without quoting their exact words. It requires changes in pronouns, possessives, demonstratives, time expressions, and most importantly, verb tenses. The tense change is determined by whether the reporting verb is in the present tense (no change in tense) or a past tense (tense shift required).
When the reporting verb is in the past (e.g., dijo que - he/she said that), the tenses in the reported clause shift as follows: Present turns into Imperfect (e.g., hablo -> hablaba), Preterite/Imperfect turns into Pluscuamperfecto (e.g., hablé -> había hablado), and Future turns into Conditional (e.g., hablaré -> hablaría). If reporting a command or request, the imperative shifts to the Present or Imperfect Subjunctive (e.g., ¡Hazlo! -> dijo que lo hiciera).
A very common mistake for learners is keeping the original tense of the direct speech when the reporting verb is in the past (e.g., saying dijo que viene mañana instead of dijo que vendría or dijo que iba al día siguiente). Another error is omitting the conjunction que (that), which is strictly required in Spanish to introduce the reported statement, unlike in English where it can be omitted.
Examples
Dijo que tenía hambre.
He said that he was hungry.
Me preguntó si sabía dónde estaba la estación.
He asked me if I knew where the station was.
El médico me recomendó que hiciera más ejercicio.
The doctor recommended that I do more exercise.
Nos contaron que ya habían visto esa película.
They told us that they had already seen that movie.
Dijeron que vendrían a visitarnos la próxima semana.
They said they would come to visit us next week.
Related terms
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