Il
discorso indiretto si usa per riferire qualcosa che è stato detto in precedenza
in forma di dialogo (discorso diretto).
Quando il
verbo che introduce il discorso indiretto è al presente, i tempi verbali non
cambiano rispetto al discorso diretto; i principali cambiamenti riguardano i pronomi, i possessivi e i
dimostrativi.
Es:
George: “I
called my girlfriend yesterday, but she wasn’t in.”
George
says he called his girlfriend yesterday, but she wasn’t in.”
In
altri casi, nel passaggio del discorso diretto al discorso indiretto, cambia la
coniugazione del verbo.
Ecco una
tabella delle principali trasformazioni dei tempi verbali:
|
Discorso Diretto
|
Discorso Indiretto
|
Esempio
|
|
Simple Present
|
Simple
Past
|
“They
take the underground.”
He said they
took
the underground.
|
|
Simple Past
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
|
Past Perfect
|
“I
called my girlfriend yesterday.”
He said he
had called his
girlfriend the day before”
|
|
“I
have watched a nice film tonight”
She said she
had watched a nice
film that night
|
|
“I
had switched
on the radio”
He said he
had switched
on the
radio.
|
|
Simple
Future
Present Condit
|
Present Condit
|
“I’ll
call
you tomorrow”
He said he
would call me the following day
|
|
“Would
you like to go out for dinner this evening?”
He asked if I
would
like to go out for dinner that evening
|
|
Present Progres
|
Past Progres
|
“She
is sleeping now”
He said she
was sleeping at that time
|