Direct and Indirect Speech in French II

Second part: when the first part is not present tense.

The structure of the sentence is similar to the English one, the difficulties come from the tenses and the agreement of the pronouns:

1. Pronouns Agreement:

Pierre dit: “Je veux parler avec mon frère” (Pierre says: “I want to speak with my brother”)
 Pierre dit qu’il veut parler avec son frère (Pierre say that he wants to speak with his brother)

Pierre dit: “Elle ne veut pas écrire à ma mère” (Pierre says: “she does not want to write to my mother”)
 Pierre dit qu’elle ne veut pas écrire à sa mère (Pierre say that she does not want to write to his mother)

2. Tenses agreement:

A. Present Tense:

As you can see when the part 1 is present tense the part 2 does not change from Direct to Indirect speech

B. Past Tense

a. Part 2: Present tense or Imparfait (Direct Speech)  Imparfait (Indirect Speech)

b. Part 2: Passé Composé or Plus-que-parfait (Direct Speech)  Plus-que-parfait (Indirect Speech)

1. Present tense  2. Tense does not change
1. Past Tense  2. Direct Speech: Present tense or Imparfait  Indirect Speech: Imparfait
1. PasT tense   2. Direct Speech: Passé Composé or Plus-que-parfait  Indirect Speech: Plus-que-parfait

[WpProQuiz 4]