Chapter 18: Discorso Diretto e Indiretto

When reporting what someone else is saying, you can use direct or indirect speech.

In the first sentence (discorso diretto), the speaker quotes directly what Luca said, without filters.

In the second sentence (discorso indiretto), the speaker reports Luca’s sentence, changing references of time and context from its point of view.
Luca ha detto provides the context of the sentence, which is in the past; therefore, what in the discorso diretto was a present tense (mando) becomes an imperfetto (mandava); the subject also changes accordingly, from first to third person singular.

When quoting something happening in the present (Alessia dice che), you can use the presente indicativo and keep the whole indirect sentence in the present.

However, in most cases you would be reporting what someone said in the past. The verbal tenses change when going from discorso diretto to indiretto:

[table id=23 /]

As you can notice in these examples, the subject changes according to the point of view of the speaker when going from discorso diretto to discorso indiretto.

The point of view of the speaker also modifies the place in space from where the action is observed, verbs of movement (andare vs venire), the ownership of an object, time references, questo/quello, and so on.