Discurso direto vs. discurso indireto
When you report what someone said, Portuguese re-tunes the original words much the way English does. Put the reporting verb in the past — disse, falou, perguntou, respondeu — and every tense inside the report slides one rung back: presente to imperfeito, pretérito perfeito to tinha + participle, futuro to condicional. Time words re-anchor (hoje becomes naquele dia, amanhã becomes no dia seguinte), pronouns swap to your point of view, and que never gets dropped. There's a second layer in Brazil worth knowing from the start: relaxed speech often leaves the tense exactly where it was — Ele disse que está cansado — and nobody blinks. Learn the full map for writing; keep the shortcut for the street.
Direct vs. indirect — what changes
Discurso direto hands you the words exactly as they came out. Brazilian books open a spoken line with a dash, the travessão, where English would use quotation marks, but the grammar is the same either way. Discurso indireto folds those same words into your own sentence: the dash goes, que comes in, and the verb re-tunes. Original: Estou cansado. Report: Ele disse que estava cansado. Three things move in that step. (1) The tense slides one rung back, whenever the reporting verb is in the past. (2) Time and place words re-anchor to the moment of the original speech, not to your moment. (3) Pronouns and possessives shift to your perspective. One thing never moves: que. English is happy to drop 'that', and Portuguese is not — Ele disse que estava cansado, never Ele disse estava cansado. And the reporting verb you'll actually hear most in Brazil isn't the textbook dizer: it's falar. Ela falou que ia chegar tarde.
The tense map — concordância dos tempos
When the reporting verb sits in the past — disse, falou, contou, perguntou, respondeu, explicou, avisou — the reported clause steps back one rung. Presente to imperfeito: Estou cansado gives disse que estava cansado. Pretérito perfeito to mais-que-perfeito composto: Almocei em casa gives disse que tinha almoçado em casa (Brazil says tinha; havia almoçado is the formal written twin). Futuro to condicional: Viajarei amanhã gives disse que viajaria no dia seguinte. Imperativo to imperfeito do subjuntivo, under pedir que: Fecha a janela gives pediu que eu fechasse a janela. Presente do subjuntivo to imperfeito do subjuntivo: Talvez eu vá gives disse que talvez fosse. Three tenses don't move at all, because they're already anchored in the past: imperfeito, mais-que-perfeito and condicional. And with a present reporting verb — ele diz que, ela fala que, ele pergunta se — nothing shifts. Now the Brazilian reality: conversation grants itself a lot of slack. Ele disse que está cansado, with no shift, is everywhere, and disse que ia viajar beats the textbook viajaria nine times out of ten. Write the full map; recognize the shortcut.
Time and place shifts
Words that pointed at the speaker's own 'now' have to be re-aimed at the past moment: hoje becomes naquele dia or nesse dia; ontem becomes na véspera or no dia anterior; amanhã becomes no dia seguinte; agora becomes naquele momento or então; esta semana becomes naquela semana; este mês becomes naquele mês; aqui becomes lá; este becomes aquele. Brazilian speech leans on lá for nearly everything: Ele disse que ia ficar lá até sexta. So: Ele disse: Hoje eu vou ao cinema turns into Ele disse que naquele dia ia ao cinema. These shifts are less mechanical than the tense ones. If the day genuinely hasn't changed, leave the word alone — De manhã ele falou que hoje não vem is perfectly good Portuguese, because 'today' is still today. Shift only when the anchor really moved.
Reporting questions — perguntar se / perguntar + Q-word
A yes/no question comes back as perguntar se: Você está bem? becomes Ele me perguntou se eu estava bem. Notice where the pronoun sits — me perguntou, in front of the verb, and a Brazilian sentence is allowed to open right on it: Me perguntou se eu estava bem. A question word survives the trip intact, and the word order goes flat: Onde você mora? becomes Perguntou onde eu morava; Quando você chegou? becomes Perguntou quando eu tinha chegado; O que você está fazendo? becomes Perguntou o que eu estava fazendo. No inversion, and no question mark — what you're writing is a statement about a question. Orders travel through pedir or mandar. Careful Portuguese uses pedir que plus the subjuntivo: Pediu que eu fechasse a janela. Everyday Brazil uses pedir para plus an infinitive, with the subject right there in front of it: Pediu para eu fechar a janela. Both are correct; the second is what you'll hear.
Pronouns and possessives — perspective shift
Whatever was first person in the original becomes third person in your report. Ela disse: Meu cachorro está doente becomes Ela disse que o cachorro dela estava doente. Notice the choice of possessive: o cachorro dela, not o seu cachorro, because in Brazil seu reads as 'your' before it reads as 'his' or 'her'. dele, dela, deles, delas keep a report unambiguous, and they're what people say. Object pronouns shift too. Eu te vi ontem, said by Ana to Pedro, comes back as A Ana disse que tinha visto ele na véspera in speech, or que o tinha visto na véspera in careful writing — Brazil uses ele and ela as objects far more than the bookish clitics o and a. Reflexives come along for the ride: Me levantei cedo, said by João, becomes João disse que tinha se levantado cedo. Watch that pronoun: in a compound tense it lands between the auxiliary and the participle — tinha se levantado, tinha me contado — which is exactly where a Brazilian ear expects it.
Reporting verbs and their flavors
A page of disse after disse goes flat fast, and Portuguese has a whole shelf of alternatives, each with its own weight. afirmar que states something and stands behind it. contar que recounts. explicar que unpacks. responder que answers. avisar que warns you or lets you know in time. garantir que promises it'll hold. acrescentar que adds one more thing to what was already said. negar que denies — and it drags the subjuntivo along: negou que tivesse mentido. admitir que concedes. Two constructions to keep apart: pedir que plus subjuntivo (pediu que eu esperasse) and the conversational pedir para plus infinitive (pediu para eu esperar). The most useful of the whole set in daily Brazilian life is avisar: Me avisa quando chegar is what you say to anyone leaving your house. And the true workhorse of Brazilian speech stays falar que — Ele falou que não vinha — where a textbook would print disse.
