Modern Italian Grammar: A Practical Guide, Third Edition (2013)

Part B. Functions

IV. Putting in context

31. Quoting or reporting events and hearsay

31.1 Introduction

There are two main ways of reporting what somebody has said (or what we ourselves may have said).

31.1.1 Direct speech

Direct speech (see also 31.2) quotes verbatim what someone has said, using quotation marks or virgolette in Italian:

“Lo spirito del '68”, afferma il regista Bertolucci, “metteva insieme politica, cinema, arte, musica, rock'n 'roll e sesso…”

(Adapted from Il Venerdì di Repubblica, 29 August 2003)

‘The spirit of '68’, states the film director Bertolucci, ‘put together politics, cinema, art, music, rock'n'roll, and sex …’

Il direttore mi ha detto: “Può andare a casa”.

The manager said to me ‘You can go home’.

Gli ho chiesto: “Quando mi restituisci i soldi?”

I asked him: ‘When are you giving me back the money?’

“Eravamo amici, lui è parte di Bologna. Adesso è come arrivare a Bologna e non trovare più le torri”, dice Red Ronnie.

‘We were friends, he was part of Bologna. Now it's like coming to Bologna and finding its towers have gone’, says Red Ronnie. (on the death of the singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla)

(http://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli-e-cultura­/2012/03/02/news/oggi_la_salma_a_bologna_­domenica_i_funerali-30802179/?ref=HREC1-6, retrieved 2 March 2012)

31.1.2 Indirect speech

Indirect speech or reported speech (see also 31.3) reports what the person said. No quotation marks are needed and various features of the original statement have to change: verb tense, pronouns, adverbs of place, and so on. Some of the examples above are shown below as reported speech. Note the changes in verb tense: the main verb in the present tense or passato prossimo is followed by the imperfetto, trapassato or past conditional in the dependent clause. Note too the changes in pronouns (ti > mi) and possessives (tuo > mio).

Imperfetto (imperfect):

Il regista Bertolucci afferma che lo spirito del '68 metteva insieme politica, cinema, arte, musica, rock'n'roll e sesso.

The film director Bertolucci states that the spirit of '68 put together politics, cinema, art, music, rock'n'roll and sex.

Il direttore mi ha detto che potevo andare a casa.

The manager told me that I could go home.

Trapassato (pluperfect):

Mio marito mi ha detto che mi aveva comprato un bel regalo per il mio compleanno.

My husband told me that he had bought me a lovely present for my birthday.

Condizionale al passato (past conditional):

Gli ho chiesto quando mi avrebbe restituto i soldi.

I asked him when he would give me back the money.

31.2 Quoting: direct speech

The form of direct speech is used for all kinds of quotations, whenever we want to report something that has been said or written, with exactly the same words used by the quoted person or text. It is very common in newspaper titles; here are a couple of examples from La Repubblica:

Arbitri: “Vogliamo più soldi”.

Football referees: ‘We want more money’.

Vasco Rossi: “Era il nostro padre famiglia’.

Vasco Rossi: ‘He was our father figure’.

(on the death of the singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla)

(http://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli-e-cultura/­2012/03/01/news/de_gregori_morte_­dalla_momento_tristissimo_jovanotti_davvero­_non_posso_crederci-30758018/­?ref=NRCT-30802179-8, retrieved 2 March 2012)

Written Italian normally uses a pair of virgolette (“…”) to open and close a quotation. Sometimes, however, writers use pairs of frecce (« … »), as shown below. When the quotation is interrupted by a phrase such as ‘he said’ or ‘they asked’, the convention is to use a pair of dashes or hyphens:

«Bene — ha detto Marco — andiamo a letto.»

Written texts, too, are often quoted directly. This is very common not only in essays and scientific literature, but also in everyday language, business correspondence and newspapers:

Ho ricevuto una cartolina di Venezia con un bel cuoricino rosso e la scritta: “Manchi solo tu”.

I got a postcard of Venice with a lovely little red heart on it and the words ‘All it needs is you’.

Nel suo libro ‘Gli Inglesi’ (Rizzoli, 1990) Beppe Severgnini afferma che: “Gli anni Ottanta sono stati per la Gran Bretagna gli anni di Margaret Thatcher, come gli anni Sessanta furono gli anni dei Beatles”.

In his book The English (Rizzoli, 1990) Beppe Severgnini states that ‘The eighties were for Great Britain the years of Margaret Thatcher, just as the sixties were the years of the Beatles’.

“Confindustria deve cambiare”, si legge nella relazione.

‘Confindustria must change’, says the report.

(http://www.100news.it/site/2012/02/23/si-scalda-la-campagna-elettorale-tra-i-vertici-della-confindustria/, retrieved 27 February 2012)

Notice how, when quoting a report (as in the last example above), an impersonal verb form (see 2.1.12 and 19.5) such as si legge can be used to stress the objective nature of its content rather than its ‘author’. This and other impersonal expressions are often used when a quotation is included in formal or legal reports and correspondence, as below:

Nella Vostra lettera del 15 maggio u.s. si dichiarava quanto segue: “La consegna della merce avverrà entro e non oltre il 10 giugno p.v.”.

In your letter of 15 May last, the following was stated: ‘The delivery of the goods will take place no later than 10 June’.

▶ See also the use of the impersonal verb form si dice in 31.4.2 below.

31.3 Reporting: indirect speech

When using indirect speech to report what someone has said or written, the reported discourse is often introduced by the conjunction che (see 5.3.1).

Le previsioni del tempo dicono che oggi farà caldo.

The weather forecast says that today it will be hot.

Sui manuali di enologia abbiamo trovato la notizia storica che la Vernaccia di San Gimignano è stato il primo vino a Denominazione d'Origine Controllata in Italia.

In the wine-making manuals we found the historic information that Vernaccia of San Gimignano was the first DOC wine in Italy.

When referring to something that one has been told, you can sometimes use a passive construction similar to the English passive construction (‘I have been told …’). Verbs such as informare which take a direct object can be used in their passive form (see 19.2.1), as shown below:

Sono stata informata che la mia patente è scaduta.

I have been told (informed) that my driver's licence has expired.

If the verb in question takes an indirect object (verbs such as dire, comunicare) it is not possible to turn it round into a passive construction (see also 19.3.1). An alternative is to use a third person plural subject (Mi hanno comunicato …), as shown below (see also 19.3.3):

Mi hanno detto che dovevo rivolgermi a questo ufficio per il rinnovo del passaporto.

I was told that I had to apply to this office for the extension of my passport.

Mi hanno comunicato in ritardo che la data della partenza era stata cambiata.

I was informed too late that the departure date had been changed.

An indirect quotation of the kind shown in the examples above is usually composed of a main clause containing the verb of ‘saying’, ‘stating’, etc. (for example dicono, hanno detto, mi hanno comunicato) and a dependent clause, introduced by che, in the indicative.

31.3.1 Choosing the verb tense and mood

When deciding which tense and mood to use for the dependent verb, it is important to take into account the tense of the main verb, and the time context, and to apply the guidelines of the sequence of tenses (concordanza dei tempi), illustrated in 30.5 and in Appendix V.

Most examples of reporting and indirect speech involve verbs such as dire, affermare, comunicare which are followed by the indicative mood (see 2.2.2). In 31.4, however, we illustrate contexts in which the conditional or subjunctive moods are used instead, for example expressing hearsay and unconfirmed reports.

First let's see how to transform a direct quotation into an indirect quotation, applying the sequence of tenses. The table below is a simplified version of the guidelines on the sequence of tenses.

31.3.2 Changing other elements

When transforming speech into the indirect form, other elements must change, as well as the tense of the verbs. Subject pronouns, indications of time, indications of place, and demonstratives such as questo (see 3.8) also need to be adapted when direct speech turns to indirect speech, as in the following examples:

Subject pronouns (for example, io / lui)

Mario dice: “(Io) finisco all'una”.

Mario says ‘I finish at 1 o'clock’.

Mario dice che (lui) finisce all'una.

Mario says that he finishes at 1 o'clock.

Indicator of time (for example, domani / il giorno dopo)

Mario ha detto: “Finirò la relazione domani”.

Mario said ‘I will finish the report tomorrow’.

Mario ha detto che avrebbe finito la relazione il giorno dopo.

Mario said that he would finish the report the next day.

Indicator of place (for example, qui / lì)

Ho detto al mio fidanzato: “Io e le mie amiche ci vediamo sempre qui per un caffe”.

I said to my boyfriend: ‘My friends and I always meet here for a coffee’.

Ho detto al mio fidanzato che io e le mie amiche ci vedevamo sempre lì per un caffe.

I said to my boyfriend that my friends and I always met there for a coffee.

Demonstratives (for example, questo / quello)

Mia madre mi ha chiesto: “Hai letto questo libro di Eco?”

My mother asked me: ‘Have you read this book by Eco?’

Mia madre mi ha chiesto se avevo letto quel libro di Eco.

My mother asked me if I had read that book by Eco.

Here is an illustration of how time references and other elements change when direct speech is transformed into indirect speech:

31.4 Reporting information or quoting hearsay

Reporting information may be done with a greater or lesser degree of certainty and/or objectivity. For this purpose different moods of verbs can be used: indicative (see 2.2.2) to show objectivity, conditional (see 2.2.11) and subjunctive (see 2.2.14) to show uncertainty or subjectivity.

31.4.1 Using the conditional

The following example shows how the fact of an event is reported in the indicative, while something less certain — such as the possible causes of it — is in the conditional. In English, a plain indicative tense is used, sometimes accompanied by a word such as ‘apparently’ to indicate lack of proof or certainty. Here the first example, about an OCSE report, is in the present conditional to say what is (apparently) true while the second example, about the death of two journalists in Syria, is in the past conditional to say what (apparently) happened:

Dei 34 paesi che fanno parte dell'OCSE, un'organizzazione internazionale di studi economici, chi lavora di più sarebbero i sudcoreani, con 2.193 ore di lavoro all'anno.

Of the 34 countries that make up OCSE, an international organisation of economic research, the people who work the most are apparently the South Koreans, working 2,193 hours per year.

(http://www.cnim.it/cnimnm/manutenzione/man-news.aspx?articleid=2759&zoneid=1, retrieved 2 March 2012)

Oggi in Siria sono stati uccisi due giornalisti, l'americana Marie Colvin del Sunday Times e il fotografo francese Remi Ochlik. I due sarebbero stati uccisi a Homs, la città roccaforte dei ribelli.

Today in Syria two journalists have been killed, the American Marie Colvin, of the Sunday Times, and the French photographer Remi Ochlik. The pair were apparently killed in Homs, the stronghold of the rebels.

(http://www.cnim.it/cnimnm/manutenzione/man-news.aspx?articleid=2759&zoneid=1, retrieved 2 March 2012)

31.4.2 using the subjunctive

Hearsay or highly doubtful information is usually introduced by such verbs as pare che, sembra che, si dice che followed by the subjunctive. These verbs, being impersonal, also convey information without referring to its source. Let's see some examples:

Pareva che andasse tutto troppo bene.

It seemed it was all going too well.

Sembra che i testimoni abbiano detto la verita.

It seems the witnesses told the truth.

Si dice che gli uomini facciano più incidenti stradali delle donne.

They say that men have more road accidents than women.

Here is an example of how gossip about a star is reported in a music magazine, using the subjunctive to express a lack of certainty:

E'possibile che sia la solita esagerazione dei tabloid britannici, ma pare che la lunga relazione di Leona Lewis col fidanzato sia finita.

It might be the usual exaggeration by the British tabloid press, but it seems that the long relationship of Leona Lewis with her fiancé is over.

31.4.3 Secondo

When you want to refer to the source of some information, without endorsing its content, you use the preposition secondo (see also 4.5) followed by the source. The choice of mood — indicative or conditional — indicates how certain or otherwise the information is. Here is a further extract from the same news item about the singer Leona Lewis seen above. The past conditional is used to talk about the couple's apparent decision to split up and the source is given as a London daily newspaper.

I due, secondo un quotidiano londinese, avrebbero deciso di lasciarsi quando hanno capito che gli impegni di lei non avrebbero più consentito loro di trascorrere insieme più di una giornata ogni tanto.

The couple, according to a London daily newspaper, decided to leave each other when they realised that her commitments would not have allowed them to spend more than an occasional day together.

When used to express one's own opinion (secondo me, secondo noi), use of the conditional softens the forcefulness of our opinion and sounds more polite (see also 27.1.5):

… e secondo te tutte queste notizie sarebbero vere?

… and in your opinion, are all these news stories true?

Secondo me i giornalisti dovrebbero controllare meglio le informazioni.

In my opinion, the journalists should check their information more carefully.

The use of the indicative, on the other hand, conveys strong conviction or belief, presented as a fact, as in the following examples:

Secondo me tutte queste notizie sono false.

In my opinion, all these news stories are false.

Secondo un sondaggio 8 italiani su 10 tradiscono il coniuge.

According to an opinion poll, eight Italians out of ten betray their partner.

31.4.4 Per

Another very simple way to convey an opinion is to use the preposition per (see also 4.3.6) with the indicative or the conditional:

Per me, hai torto.

In my opinion, you are wrong.

Per me, Andreotti ha commesso un errore.

In my opinion, Andreotti made a mistake.

Per la stampa italiana, la situazione economica del paese sarebbe in via di miglioramento.

According to the Italian press, the economic situation is improving.

Per gran parte del pubblico americano, OJ Simpson non avrebbe commesso nessun delitto.

According to a large sector of the American public, OJ Simpson did not commit any crime.