Estilo indirecto/Preguntas indirectas
Estilo indirecto - uso
El estilo indirecto se utiliza para referir a los otros lo que alguien ha dicho o piensa. Se toma la voz directa del hablante y se mete en un marco nuevo, cambiando la forma verbal y el orden de las palabras.
| Ejemplos: | “I am going on holiday next week.” (estilo directo) |
| He said he was going on holiday next week. (estilo indirecto) |
Formación
El estilo indirecto empieza con la oración principal que contiene el sujeto y el verbo referente. Los verbos más frecuentes son ‘say (said)’, ‘tell (told)’ y ‘ask (asked)’.
| Ejemplos: | He said he would call back this afternoon. |
| She told me she wanted to come at 3 o’clock. |
Otros verbos referentes incluyen: admit, complain, confess, demand, explained, insist, promise, remind, warn y wonder.
Si el verbo referente está en el pasado (said, told, asked), , se cambia el tiempo de los verbos de la voz directa.
| Ejemplos: | He said he was going on holiday next week. |
| O | |
| He said he would call back this afternoon. |
Aguí hay una lista de cambios en tiempo verbal del estilo directo al indirecto.
| estilo directo | estilo indirecto |
| presente simple | pasado simple |
| ‘/I say/ I am in Prague.’ | He said he was in Prague. |
| presente continuo | pasado continuo |
| ‘/I say/ I am staying at the hotel.’ | She said she was staying at the hotel. |
| going to | was/were going to |
| ‘/I say/ I am going to learn Spanish.’ | He said he was going to learn Spanish. |
| pasado simple | pasado perfecto |
| ‘/I say/ I went to Paris.’ | He said he had gone to Paris. |
| presente perfecto | pasado perfecto |
| ‘/I say/ I have seen the movie.’ | She said she had seen the movie. |
| presente perfecto continuo | pasado perfecto continuo |
| ‘/I say/ I have been having driving lessons.’ | She said she had been having driving lessons. |
| pasado perfecto | pasado perfecto |
| ‘/I say/ I had spoken to him.’ | He said he had spoken to him. |
| will, can, may | would, could, might |
| ‘/I say/ I will do it.’ | She said she would do it. |
| ‘/I say/ I can do it.’ | She said she could do it. |
| ‘/I say/ I may do it.’ | She said she might do it. |
Los verbos modales ‘would’, ‘could’, ‘might’, ‘must’ y ‘should’ no cambian su forma en el estilo indirecto.
| ‘/I say/ I would do it.’ | She said she would do it. |
| ‘/I say/ I could do it.’ | She said she could do it. |
| ‘/I say/ I might do it.’ | She said she might do it. |
| ‘/I say/ I must do it.’ | She said she must do it. |
| ‘/I say/ I should do it.’ | She said she should do it. |
Los pronombres cambian según el cambio del punto de vista.
| Ejemplos: | ‘I saw you yesterday.’ (estilo directo) |
| He said he had seen me the day before. (estilo indirecto) | |
| ‘You must be careful.’ (estilo directo) | |
| She warned us to be careful. (estilo indirecto) |
Nota: Si la información a la que se refiere sigue válida en el momento, no se cambia el tiempo verbal.
| Ejemplos: | ‘I love you.’ |
| She said she loves me. |
Con frecuencia se usan los verbos: ‘admit’, ‘complain’, ‘confess’, ‘demand’, ‘explain’, ‘insist’, ‘promise’, ‘remind’, ‘warn’ y ‘wonder’en el estilo indirecto.
| Ejemplos: | “I’ll phone you tomorrow.” (estilo directo) |
| He promised to phone her the following day. (estilo indirecto) | |
| “I want to see the manager and I want to see him now.” (estilo directo) | |
| He insisted on seeing the manager immediately. (estilo indirecto) |
Preguntas indirectas - uso
Así como el estilo indirecto, existen también preguntas indirectas.
| Ejemplos: | “When were you born?” (pregunta directa) |
| He asked when I was born. (pregunta indirecta) |
Formación
Al referirse a una pregunta, su forma se convierte en oración subordinada, así que normalmente el sujeto está ante el verbo y el verbo auxiliar ‘do’ no se debe repetir.
Hay dos tipos de preguntas directas.
Preguntas de Sí/No (se pueden contestar con "Sí" o "No")
En este caso se agrega ‘if’ ante la pregunta indirecta.
| Preguntas directas | Preguntas indirectas | |
| Ejemplos: | Do you often go to the cinema? | He asked me if I often went to the cinema. |
| Have you got any brothers or sisters? |
He asked me if I had any brothers or sisters. (‘got’ con el verbo ‘have’ se utiliza sólo en el presente simple) |
|
| Were they there yesterday? | He asked me if they had been there the day before. | |
| Will you come? | He asked me if I would come. |
Preguntas informativas (se contestan con una frase plena)
La palabra interrogativa se queda en la pregunta indirecta.
| Preguntas directas | Preguntas indirectas | |
| Ejemplos: | ‘How often do you get an attack?’ |
The doctor asked me how often I got an attack. (No, ‘The doctor asked me how often did you get an attack’.) |
| ‘Where do you work?’ | He asked me where I worked. | |
| ‘Why did you go there?’ | He asked me why I had gone there. | |
| ‘What are you going to do?’ | He asked me what I was going to do. |