Direct and Indirect Speech

No discurso direto, nós temos as palavras exatamente como são ditas pela pessoa que fala e geralmente indicadas entre aspas ou travessão. No discurso indireto, quando relatamos as palavras ditas por alguém, mantemos o mesmo significado, mas com uma forma diferente. Say e tell são os verbos usados nesse tipo de estrutura. Veja nas tabelas a seguir as principais mudanças a serem feitas para converter o discurso direto em indireto:

Mudança nos tempos verbais
Discurso direto	Discurso Indireto
Simple Present	Simple Past
Present Continuous	Past Continuous
Simple Past	Past Perfect
Present Perfect	Past Perfect
Simple Future	Simple Conditional
Simple Conditional	Conditional Perfect
May	Might
Can	Could
Past Continuous	Past Continuous
Past Perfect	Past Perfect
Could	Could
Might	Might
Should	Should
Ought	Ought

Exemplos:

Ringo said, “I study hard to pass my exams”.

Ringo said he studied hard to pass his exams.

Anthony said “I am going downtown now”.

Anthony said he was going downtown then.

Emilia said “I didn’t buy that dog!”

Emilia said she hadn’t bought that dog.

I said “I have lived here for ages”.

I said I had lived there for ages.

The boys said to his friends “we’ll win the match!”

The boys told his friends that they would win the match.

I said to my girlfriend “love can tear us apart”.

I told my girlfriend that love could tear us apart.