Reporting what someone said in Brazilian Portuguese

Level B1

Reporting what someone said in Brazilian Portuguese

You are passing on a conversation to a colleague who missed it. Keep who said what clear, and choose people, day words and tenses from your reporting perspective rather than converting every verb mechanically.

Recover the present and the background

Trabalho aqui means “I work here”: trabalho comes from trabalhar, “to work”, and aqui means “here”. Eu is “I”, você is “you” to one person, and ela is “she”; Portuguese can leave the subject unspoken when it is clear. Diz que means “says that”, a present report; disse que moves the act of speaking into the past. Trabalhava is the imperfect of trabalhar, for eu or ela: it can present work as a past situation, without telling us whether that work continues now.

Words for passing on a conversation

Falar means “to speak”; falar que is also a common way of reporting “say that”. Perguntar means “to ask a question”, not to request an object; hoje is “today”, dia is “day”, em casa is “at home”, and sim is “yes”. For the third-person past forms used with a name, ela or você, these regular -ar verbs drop -ar and add -ou: falar → falou and perguntar → perguntou. Dizer, “to say”, is irregular: diz is present, while eu disse and ela disse are past; learn disse rather than building a regular form.

Monday: Ana and Bruno talk

A is Ana, B is Bruno; they are at their workplace on Monday before Ana goes home to work. Ana says she works at home today, Bruno says he works here, Ana asks whether he works today, and Bruno answers yes. Hoje means Monday for both speakers in this conversation. Listen to all four lines before reporting them.

Pass on a statement with que

Use falou que or disse que to introduce what someone said: Ana disse que trabalha aqui means “Ana said she works here”. In this separate example Ana herself said Trabalho aqui, and her job here is still current. Unlike English that, Portuguese que is normally kept in these reports. In Ana falou que hoje trabalha em casa, Ana remains the subject of trabalha: her original eu is no longer the person making the report.

pessoa falou / disse que informação

Pass on a yes/no question with se

Você trabalha hoje? asks “Do you work today?”; Bruno can report it that same Monday as Ana perguntou se eu trabalho hoje. Se here means “whether/if” in an indirect question, not a condition. Because Ana addressed Bruno, her você becomes eu when Bruno reports; another reporter would choose the person appropriate to their perspective. The report tells us about her question and ends with a full stop; Portuguese needs no English do/did auxiliary in either version.

pessoa perguntou se pergunta relatada

Keep the day and the meaning clear

On Monday Bruno can say Ana falou que hoje trabalha em casa, because today is still the day Ana meant. On Tuesday, reporting Monday as a past situation, he can say Ana falou que trabalhava em casa naquele dia: naquele dia means “on that day”, and naquele combines em + aquele. The imperfect places her work in that past setting; it does not by itself say she no longer works at home. A past reporting verb does not force every following verb into the past: Ana disse que trabalha aqui can preserve a fact presented as true now. Choose according to meaning and current relevance, not a compulsory word-for-word conversion.

Tuesday: one connected report

Bruno is at the same workplace on Tuesday and tells an absent colleague about Monday; read the next four lines as one report, in the source conversation’s order. Ana spoke about her home work, Bruno spoke about his workplace, she asked about his work that day, and he said yes. Here ela refers to Ana, both eu forms refer to Bruno, and naquele dia refers to Monday. Aqui remains appropriate because Bruno is still at the same workplace. Eu disse que sim reports the affirmative answer without repeating the whole answer or adding information.

Your turn: report before the day changes

Now it is Monday again: as Bruno, tell another colleague the two things Ana said or asked, then your answer, in three connected sentences. Keep her home work and her question separate, retain today’s perspective, and use only the information from the conversation. Before revealing the model, try falou que, perguntou se eu and disse que sim; then compare with the three audio lines. For a fresh situation, ask a colleague Você trabalha hoje? and report their actual answer with the person and day that fit, without inventing an answer.

Check source, question and time

Use falou/disse que for a statement and perguntou se for a yes/no question. In Ana perguntou se eu trabalho hoje, eu is the person originally addressed, now reporting. Check whose day hoje names, use naquele dia when pointing back to a past day, and choose trabalha or trabalhava for the intended perspective; reporting faithfully matters more than changing every tense.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons