B2 · Reported speech
Tense shift in reported speech
Three of your past forms arrive here as one.
At a glance
- Remember
- A past tense in front, and everything behind it steps back one.
- Form
- «Estou pronto» → disse que estava prontopresent → imperfect
- Signal words
- na véspera
- no dia seguinte
- nesse dia
- nesse momento
- na semana anterior
- na semana seguinte
- Trap
- Wrong:Disse que tinha trabalhado no porto. (meant: he was working there)Right:Disse que trabalhava no porto.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Portuguese. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) tense marker person ending auxiliary verb
| present → imperfect | «Estou pronto» → disse que estava pronto |
| perfect → pluperfect | «Paguei» → disse que tinha pago |
| future → conditional | «Virei» → disse que viria |
| the imperfect stays | «Dormia» → disse que dormia |
| tomorrow → the next day | «Parto amanhã» → disse que partia no dia seguinte |
| I was (imperfect) | (eu) estava |
| you were | (tu) estavas |
| he / she was, you were (você) | (ele, ela, você) estava |
| we were | (nós) estávamos |
| you were, plural (elevated) | (vós) estáveis |
| they were, you were (vocês) | (eles, elas, vocês) estavam |
| I had spoken (pluperfect) | (eu) tinha falado |
| you had spoken | (tu) tinhas falado |
| he / she had spoken, you had spoken (você) | (ele, ela, você) tinha falado |
| we had spoken | (nós) tínhamos falado |
| you had spoken, plural (elevated) | (vós) tínheis falado |
| they had spoken, you had spoken (vocês) | (eles, elas, vocês) tinham falado |
| I would come (conditional) | (eu) viria |
| you would come | (tu) virias |
| he / she would come, you would come (você) | (ele, ela, você) viria |
| we would come | (nós) viríamos |
| you would come, plural (elevated) | (vós) viríeis |
| they would come, you would come (vocês) | (eles, elas, vocês) viriam |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
A present-tense opening: nothing moves.
Diz que parte amanhã.He says he is leaving tomorrow.
A past-tense opening: everything steps back one.
Disse que partiria no dia seguinte.He said he would leave the next day.
The imperfeito and the pluperfect stay as they are.
Disse que já tinha vindo.She said she had already come.
Time and place words travel with the tense.
Disse que tinha ligado na véspera.He said he had called the day before.
Example sentences
Respondeu que ainda não sabia.She answered that she did not know yet.
Explicaram que tinham perdido as chaves.They explained that they had lost the keys.
O médico disse que melhoraria no dia seguinte.The doctor said it would be better the next day.
Acrescentou que voltaria a ligar nesse dia.He added that he would call back that day.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English shows « had » in two quite different places, and only one of them is a step back. « He said he had worked there » reports a past inside a past and does take tinha trabalhado. « He said he was working there » reports a plain present and takes trabalhava. A reader who reaches for the pluperfect wherever English shows « had » moves the whole story one step further away than it was.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The step itself is yours, link for link: present to imperfeito, perfect to pluperfect, future to conditional. A reporting verb in the present moves nothing at all, exactly as in English.
What does not map is the shape of the step. English has three ways of putting a past habit or a past running action into words — « he was working at the docks », « he used to work at the docks », « he would work there every summer ». All three arrive here as one form: trabalhava.
So the direction you are going in is the easy one, and the way back is not. Disse que trabalhava no porto is « he said he was working at the docks » and « he said he used to work at the docks » at the same time, and only the situation decides which.
The pointing words travel too: hoje becomes nesse dia, amanhã becomes no dia seguinte, aqui becomes ali. One of them has no English word beside it: na véspera, which takes four words in English — « the day before ».
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