Language/Modern-greek-1453/Grammar/Direct-and-indirect-speech

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Direct and indirect speech (Ευθύς και πλάγιος λόγος)[edit | edit source]

Direct discourse refers to the exact words that someone says or writes, such as statements, questions, commands, or prohibitions. Indirect discourse, on the other hand, means that the original statement is reported indirectly, often with a change in tense or form of pronoun.

When reporting an order or request, we can use a verb like "tell" with a to-clause. The pattern is verb + indirect object + to-clause, with the indirect object being the person spoken to. Other verbs used to report orders and requests in this way include "ask," "answer," "say," and "want." When transforming direct discourse into indirect discourse, conjunctions are added to join words and phrases, the first person of the verb is changed to third-person, and sometimes the tense may also need to be changed. More punctuation such as quotation marks and question marks may also be required.

For example, in direct discourse, someone might say "I'm leaving soon" or "Why?" In indirect discourse, these statements could be reported as "Jean asked her friend why he was leaving. He told her he had work to do."

To transform direct discourse into indirect discourse, some common rules apply. For example, present simple can be changed to present simple or past continuous, present perfect can be changed to present perfect or past perfect, future can be changed to future or "θα" + past continuous, and present subjunctive can be changed to present subjunctive or past continuous. Imperative can be changed to subjunctive.

For instance, the sentence "Δε φοβάται τίποτε" in direct discourse can be transformed into indirect discourse as "He said he wasn't afraid of anything." Similarly, the sentence "Εγώ έχω στείλει το γράμμα" can be changed to "He said he was the one who sent (or had sent) the letter." When using future tense, "Θα κρατήσει το λόγο του;" can become "He wasn't sure if he would keep his word or if he would keep his word." Finally, "Φύγε!" can be transformed into "He urged her to leave."

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Marianthi

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