Spanish grammar lesson on how to use Direct Style Vs Indirect Style
In today’s online Spanish grammar lesson, we will discuss “direct style” vs. “indirect style” or direct speech / quoted speech vs. indirect style/indirect style. This topic involves a common grammatical error that native English speakers make in BOTH English and Spanish. Interestingly, you will NOT find Spanish speakers making this grammatical mistake as often in the Spanish language.
I decided to write this email after a client sent me an email that said:
“Patrick in one of your emails you wrote ‘I asked him how much the fish was’. Why are you using the price in the past tense? Has it changed?”
Well, the price didn’t change. The phrase I used turns out to be the correct use of the verb in both Spanish grammar and English grammar. It was not a mistake. Look at my sentence again.
The question how much the fish cost.
I asked him how much the fish cost.
The above is an example of what is known in English as “indirect speech” (also known as “reported speech”). The grammatical term for this in the Spanish language is known as “indirect style”.
There are 3 rules that I think are important to mention about “reported speech”. And these rules apply in English and Spanish.
1. Do not use quotation marks to indicate what a person said.
2. “Reporting” what a person said “doesn’t have to be word for word.”
3. When reporting what a person said, the time often changes.
The reason the tense changes is because when you are reporting reported speech you are usually describing a time in the past. This should be obvious because the speaker actually spoke in the past. For this reason, verbs must also be in the past tense.
On the other hand, with “direct speech” or “direct speech/quoted speech” you must say precisely what someone said. And you should also use quotation marks to enclose what someone has said.
For example:
The question, “How much is the fish?”
I asked him: “How much is the fish?”
I think much of this confusion stems from the fact that in conversational English we often ignore the grammatical rules of “reported speech” and make grammatically incorrect statements like “She asked him how much the dress cost.” “
As I have said in previous emails, the Spanish language is less forgiving. It is not acceptable in the Spanish language not to strictly adhere to the rules of Spanish grammar. It is not so common to hear native Spanish speakers making the same grammatical mistakes with their language that we make with the English language.
In a future article, I will give you many examples of “direct speech” vs. “indirect style” or direct speech / quoted speech vs. indirect style/indirect style in various verb tenses. That way you will have a good understanding of how this grammar rule works in both languages.