Reported speech: How to say what someone said in Brazilian Portuguese?

There are a number of ways to build a sentence that reports what someone said, thought, or wrote in Brazilian Portuguese. However, these sentences fall into two major groups, depending on how we represent the reported speech (i.e. the words someone said, thought, or wrote).

• Direct speech → The speech is reported by quoting the exact words spoken by someone.

• Indirect speech → The message of the words is reported without giving the original speaker’s exact words.

Both methods will use a reporting verb, like dizer(to say), falar(to speak), or perguntar(to ask), but the reported speech itself will be structured very differently.

For example, if Marta said, “Eu viajei no fim de semana”(I traveled for the weekend), we could report this using direct or indirect speech:

• Direct Speech:

  “Eu viajei no fim de semana” - disse Marta.

  “I traveled for the weekend,” said Marta.

• Indirect Speech:

  Marta disse que tinha viajado no fim de semana.

  Marta said she had traveled for the weekend.

To report speech indirectly, you will need to make adjustments to the original phrasing (e.g. changes in tenseNo definition set for tenseLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., pronounsNo definition set for pronounsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., adverbsNo definition set for adverbsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. of place and time, ...) that are not necessary if you’re using direct speech. But though using direct speech may be grammatically simpler, indirect speech is common in everyday language. Keep reading this post to find out more on how to report speech in Brazilian Portuguese!

As in other languages, the main difference between direct speech (discurso direto) and indirect speech (discurso indireto) in Brazilian Portuguese lies in whether or not the speaker’s original phrasing is used. For example:

• Direct Speech:

  "Estou com fome!", disse Ana.

  "I'm hungry," said Ana.

• Indirect Speech:

  Ana disse que estava com fome.

  Ana said that she was hungry.

But there is more to learn about how to build a sentence that uses direct or indirect speech! Let's get to know each in detail.

Direct reported speech occurs when we directly quote someone (using their exact words). It’s often used in news articles, narrative writing, and transcriptions, where the speech is indicated between quotation marks to highlight the beginning and the end of the speaker's words.

In Brazilian Portuguese, we say that a direct quote is entre aspas(between quotation marks). Aspas is the name for the quotation marks ( “ ” ).

In the sentence above, the direct speech, (vamos diminuir a inflação), is written between quotation marks, signaling that this was exactly what the president said.

This construction is useful for conveying the speaker’s tone and exact words. There are also other punctuation marks that may appear in direct speech, so let's get to know a little bit about them!

Indirect speech (discurso indireto) occurs when we report the message of someone’s speech, thought, or writing without using their exact words. It’s very common in everyday spoken language.

• Direct Speech:

  Ana: Eu trabalho em um banco.

  Ana: I work at a bank.

• Indirect Speech:

  Ana disse que trabalhava em um banco.

  Ana said she worked at a bank.

A sentence in Brazilian Portuguese that uses indirect speech will always have the following structure:

Now let's take a closer look at each of these three elements that form the reported speech.

• The reporting clause

  We introduce the reported speech with a reporting verb. Dizer(to say) and falar(to speak) are common verbs of reporting. However, many other verbs can be used. For example:

  • comentar(to comment)

  • confirmar(to confirm)

  • declarar(to declare)

  • informar(to inform)

  • lembrar(to remember)

  • mandar(to send)

  • pedir(to ask)

  • perguntar(to ask)

  Depending on the context of the reporting message, reporting verbs are usually conjugated in the preterite tense to show that something was said in the past.

  reporting verb

  Ana falou que vai se mudar para um apartamento novo.

  Ana said she's going to move to a new apartment

  Teodoro perguntou à Pati como tinham sido as férias dela.

  Teodoro asked Pati how her vacation had been.

• The Conjunction

  Que(that) is the most common conjunction used to report a statement, but it's also possible to use other conjunctions like se(if) in reported questions or the preposition para(for, to) in reported indirect commands.

  conjunction

  Roberto perguntou se Pedro queria ir ao cinema.

  Roberto asked if Pedro wanted to go to the cinema.

  A professora pediu para os alunos fecharem a porta da sala de aula.

  The teacher asked the students to close the classroom door.

• The indirect reported speech

  The indirect reported speech is a subordinate clauseNo definition set for subordinate clauseLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. that represents the message of the original speaker’s words.

  When using indirect speech in Brazilian Portuguese, it is important to pay attention to the fact that the tense of the verb in this clause is usually shifted back in time from the tense used in the original quote. Also, pronouns and some other elements in the sentence may also need to be adjusted to reflect the differences between the perspective of the original speaker and the perspective of the reporter.

  • Direct Speech:

    - O hotel é caro.

    The hotel is expensive.

  • Indirect Speech:

    Ele disse que o hotel era caro.

    He said that the hotel was expensive.

  Notice that the verb tense in the indirect reported speech above undergoes a change. The present tense verb é(is) in the direct speech is transformed into the past tense verb era(was) in the reporting clause.

  This change reflects that, from the perspective of the reporter, the situation being described existed in the past, as it's necessary to adjust the verb tense to accurately convey the original message.

When indirectly reporting statements, it’s most common to use the verbs dizer(to say) or falar(to speak) in the reporting clause, and the conjunction que(that) is the usual conjunction that introduces the subordinate clause.

However, to accurately report the speech, we can also use other verbs, such as prometeu(promised) in the example below.

The verb, pronoun, and adverb changes discussed above also apply to indirect reported statements. Check out this chart of the most common ways to indirectly report statements in Brazilian Portuguese!

When reporting questions in Brazilian Portuguese, the verb perguntar(to ask) is often used in the reporting clause, followed by the conjunction se(if).

Although the structure perguntar + se + reporting clause is the most common, there are also other ways to report a question.

When reporting a question indirectly, we can also use interrogative pronouns instead of a conjunction like se, depending on the information being asked.

• Fernanda perguntou quanto custou o almoço no restaurante.

  Fernanda asked how much lunch at the restaurant cost.

• Cláudia queria saber onde as crianças estavam.

  Claudia wanted to know where the children were.

Take a look at our list with more verbs and interrogative pronouns used to report questions in Brazilian Portuguese!

The structure of indirect commands is similar to the structure of indirect statements and questions. However, after a verb of command, it's common to use the preposition para(from, to) instead of the conjunction que(that) to introduce the indirect reported speech, since para indicates the purpose or goal of the action requested or suggested.

However, it's also possible to use the conjunction que(that), as long as you change the verb mood. We'll talk about this soon!

The most common reporting verbs that are used to report commands indirectly are verbs like pedir(to ask), mandar(to order), and querer(to want).

• Direct Speech:

  Espere a sua vez de entrar.

  Wait your turn to enter.

• Indirect Speech:

  Ele pediu para eu esperar a minha vez de entrar.

  He asked me to wait my turn to enter.

Notice that, in the sentence above, the imperative changed into the personal infinitive, and the possessive sua(your) changed into the possessive minha(my, mine).

Now, what happens if you do decide to use que to introduce indirect reported speech?

In this post, we saw that:

• We use direct speech to give exact quotes, and indirect speech to report the message of someone’s words without quoting them.

• To report speech indirectly, you need a reporting verb, like dizer(to say), perguntar(to ask), or pedir(to ask), a conjunction or interrogative word, and a subordinate clause (the indirect speech) that contains the message of someone’s speech.

• When we report speech indirectly, we will often not use the same forms of verbs, pronouns, or adverbs that were used in the original speech. They change to reflect the perspective of the person reporting the speech, rather than the perspective of the original speaker.

Now if you want to practice using reported speech in Brazilian Portuguese, don't miss our activity. Happy learning!