Reported Speech: o discurso indireto!

Afirmações

Se a frase começar no presente, não há mudança (backshift) de tempo no Reported Speech.

Exemplo:

Susan: "I work in an office." Susan says that she works in an office.

Se a frase começar no passado, com freqüência⁽¹⁾ existe mudança (backshift) do tempo no Reported Speech.

Exemplo:

Susan: "I work in an office." Susan said that she worked in an office.

Backshift Of Tenses
De	Para
Simple Present	Simple Past
Simple Past	Past Perfect
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
will	would
Progressive forms
am/are/is	was/were
was/were	had been
has been
had been

Backshift Of Tenses
De	Para
Peter: "I work in the garden."	Peter said that he worked in the garden.
Peter: "I worked in the garden."	Peter said that he had worked in the garden.
Peter: "I have worked in the garden."
Peter: "I had worked in the garden."
Peter: "I will work in the garden."	Peter said that he would work in the garden.
Peter: "I can work in the garden."	Peter said that he could work in the garden.
Peter: "I may work in the garden."	Peter said that he might work in the garden.
Peter: "I would work in the garden." (could, might, should, ought to)	Peter said that he would work in the garden. (could, might, should, ought to)
Progressive forms
Peter: "I'm working in the garden."	Peter said that he was working in the garden.
Peter: "I was working in the garden."	Peter said that he had been working in the garden.
Peter: "I have been working in the garden."
Peter: "I had been working in the garden."

Se a frase contém uma expressão de tempo, ela também tem que ser mudada:

Peter: "I worked in the garden yesterday."
Peter said that he had worked in the garden the day before.

Mudança das Expressões de Tempo

this (evening)	that (evening)
today/this day	that day
these (days)	those (days)
now	then
(a week) ago	(a week) before
last weekend	the weekend before / the previous weekend
here	there
next (week)	the following (week)
tomorrow	the next/following day

(1) Em alguns casos a mudança de tempo não é necessária, por exemplo, quando as afirmações ainda são verdadeiras:

John: "My brother is at USP University."
John said that his brother was at USP University. OU John said that his brother is at USP University.

Mandy: "The sun rises in the East."
Mandy said that the sun rose in the East. OU Mandy said that the sun rises in the East.

Ordens

Para passar uma ordem para o Reported Speech existem alguns passos que são iguais aos usados nas afirmações: (mudança de pessoa, de tempo e de expressões de tempo).

A formação é: told + objeto + to + verbo infinitivo.

Ordem Afirmativa	Ordem Negativa
Father: "Do your homework."	Teacher. "Don't talk to your neighbor."
Father told me to do my homework.	The teacher told me not to talk to my neighbor.

Interrogativas

Para passar uma pergunta para o Reported Speech também existem passos que são iguais aos usados nas afirmações: (mudança de pessoa, de tempo e de expressões de tempo).

No Reported Speech não irá mais existir uma pergunta: a frase se tornará uma afirmação. Por isso a ordem das palavras (word-order) será: sujeito - verbo

Perguntas sem interrogativos (when, where, what, how often, etc.)

Peter: "Do you play football?" - Peter asked me whether (if) I played football.

Perguntas com interrogativos:

Peter: "When do you play football?" - Peter asked me when I played football.