Indirect speech lacks quotes and hyphens because it does not reproduce verbatim, or literally, a message (phrase, sentence, content) that is not its own.
Indirect speech is a form of expression focused on paraphrasing , that is, using one's own vocabulary to explain, tell or reproduce the content of a text or a dialogue without being literal. It is used, to describe a circumstance that ordinary people can easily identify, when a teacher tells the parents of a student accused of having misbehaved what inappropriate comments the student was making.
Unlike the direct style , in the indirect discursive format the quotes are not textual nor is the application of quotation marks required when including a phrase , sentence or a comment that is attributed to someone.
It is important to always remember that the structure of indirect speech requires a specific verb tense and allusion to the third person . When working on someone else's testimony, it is necessary to alter the content and adapt it to guarantee agreement between pronouns , verbs and any other element that appears. In practice, the theory is expressed as shown in the following example: The teacher announced that next month we will have a very special visit at school but she left us intrigued because she did not want to say who will come . Other sentences that serve as reference, in these cases with the modality of using quotation marks and 'that' to implement subordinate clauses : The artist revealed that her "biggest dream" on a professional level has already been fulfilled and that, from now on Moving forward, he will spend more time with his family // The witness assured that he saw how the driver of the truck passed through the red light and confirmed that the fatal victim was a young mother who "was crossing correctly."
Uses of indirect speech
The uses of indirect speech are various since this resource is put into practice by ordinary people in their daily conversations to communication experts and exponents of literature at work.
In a conversation between neighbors, indirect speech could be implemented like this: The commissioner said that there will be more mobile phones patrolling but that, if we notice any strange situation in the area, we will immediately send an alert message to the WhatsApp group that he also belongs to . A conversation between friends also gives rise to explanations such as "I was trying to convince Florencia to be at our meeting and she doesn't want any reunions, she is hurt and thinks that Ingrid's attack is very unfair" and "My brother-in-law claims that yesterday In the afternoon he saw your boyfriend in a very compromising situation with a girl, from his point of view there was attraction between the two .
Those who practice Journalism , for their part, have the possibility of appealing to this format to provide information such as the following: The singer, who was summoned to testify for the crime of his representative, denied having had a discussion with him and publicly requested that All hypotheses are thoroughly investigated to arrive at the truth .
Likewise, both communicators and workers in other fields (from teachers and doctors to actors and salespeople) who have a good command of the language can, motivated for different reasons, alternate styles, making content originally expressed in direct format indirect and vice versa.
When communicating among peers, indirect speech is a good resource to, within the framework of an informal conversation, provide information about someone known to those who receive the message.
Writers who create stories and novels , meanwhile, introduce indirect speech in different sections of the stories , as well as use direct speech with the purpose of not intervening when two or more characters have a conversation.
Types of speech
By focusing on the discursive modalities in the Spanish language we are able to differentiate several types of discourse .
Just as we have already indicated the distinctive features of indirect speech and marked differences between it and direct speech , there are other categories that must be kept in mind to know when it is convenient and useful to put them into practice.
Indirect speech serves the narrator to summarize and express what and how each character in the story told thinks, feels or believes.
In the field of narrative, free indirect style is available to the narrator, which leads to reproducing thoughts or statements of characters without resorting to verbs associated with speech or marks such as hyphens , colons or quotation marks . For readers, in this context , it is sometimes difficult to clearly understand whether the character or the narrator is speaking. To propose an example of this type of speech : That rainy summer afternoon, Fausto heard a deafening noise that threatened his concentration and startled him but, not wanting to pause the game, he continued entertaining himself with his tablet without imagining everything that happened. was happening outside his room. Guilt and dread invaded him as soon as he decided that it was time to momentarily leave his lair: the panorama that surprised his eyes on the other side of the door while he pronounced his sister's name turned out to be too chilling and left his mind blank, icy cold to his veins and very weak to his legs, which soon gave out and made him fall into the deepest of abysses .