Being a good story teller is hard. Being a good story teller in a second language? Well that's gonna be even harder. One hard part about it is getting all the verb tenses right when expressing what someone else has said. Here's a couple of examples to get you going:
Maria said: "Voy al supermercado."
I tell Miguel: "Maria me dijo que iba al supermercado."
Maria said: "Él quiere que yo sea su novia."
Later, I say back to Maria: "Me dijiste que él queria que fueras su novia."
And it gets more complicated:
Maria said: "Ayer he comido un montón de carne."
I tell Miguel: "Maria me dijo que había comido un montón de carne el dia anterior."
And even more so when someone in the past says something about the future:
Maria said: "El viernes que viene habré trabajado 60 horas en este proyecto."
I tell Miguel: "Maria me ha dicho que el viernes siguente habría trabajado 60 horas en su proyecto."
There are a few references for indirect speech online, but none that I've found are that useful. I have a handy chart, but it's not online. I'll reproduce it soon for your studying pleasure.
1 comment:
Thank you for the links to Spanish Learning. I especially like Rimbombante.
I am subscribing to your feed.
Dana Law
Spanish Phrase of the Day
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