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When relaying what someone said in the past—like updating a friend on a phone call you had with an auto mechanic—your physical and temporal perspective changes. 

If the mechanic said, "The engine is **here**," you wouldn't say, "He said the engine was here" (unless you were standing in his shop!). You would say, "He said the engine was **there**." 

When using past indirect speech in Italian, you must shift adverbs of place and time to match this new perspective.

### Shifting Places

Words indicating proximity to the speaker shift to indicate distance. 

- **qui / qua** (here) becomes **lì / là** (there)

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### Shifting the Present 

Words pointing to the current time shift to point to a specific time in the past. 

- **oggi** (today) becomes **quel giorno** (that day)

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Similarly, words using "this" (**questo / questa**) shift to "that" (**quello / quella**). For example, "this evening" (**questa sera**) becomes "that evening" (**quella sera**).

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### Shifting the Future

If the original speaker promised something for "tomorrow" (**domani**), that reference must shift forward relative to the past moment you are describing.

- **domani** (tomorrow) becomes **il giorno dopo** (the next day) or **il giorno seguente** (the following day)

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### Shifting the Past

Finally, if the original speaker talked about "yesterday" or "last week", you must shift these backward relative to the reported conversation.

- **ieri** (yesterday) becomes **il giorno precedente** (the previous day) or **il giorno prima** (the day before)
- **la settimana scorsa** (last week) becomes **la settimana precedente** (the previous week)

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Changing time and place in past indirect speech

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (io sono)

Singular definite articles (il, la)

Singular demonstratives (questo, questa)

Basic verbal negation (non)

Yes/No questions

Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)

Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)

Plural verb to be (noi siamo, voi siete)

Plural demonstratives (questi, queste)

Nouns ending in -e

Special singular articles (lo, l')

The plural article (gli)

Special indefinite articles (uno, un')

Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)

Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)

Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)

The verb to have (ho, hai, ha...)

There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)

The preposition of (di)

Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, due, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (undici, dodici...)

Numbers 21 to 100 (trenta, quaranta...)

Idiomatic avere (avere fame, avere anni)

Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)

Possessives with family members (mio padre)

Formal address (dare del Lei)

Present tense of -are verbs (-o, -i, -a)

Question words (chi, cosa, dove)

Present tense of -ere verbs (-o, -i, -e)

Question words (quando, come, perché)

Question word agreement (quanto, quanta, quanti, quante)

Regular -ire verbs

Verbs with -isc- (capisco, capisci, capisce)

Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)

The verb fare (faccio, fai, fa)

The verb andare (vado, vai, va)

The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)

The verb venire (vengo, vieni, viene)

The verb uscire (esco, esci, esce)

Location and destination (a, in)

Origin and movement (da)

Articulated prepositions with a (al, alla)

Articulated prepositions with in (nel, nella)

Articulated prepositions with di and da (del, dal)

Simple prepositions (con, per, su, tra)

Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)

Months of the year

Telling time (sono le...)

Dates (il + number)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primo, secondo, terzo...)

The verb to want (volere)

The verb can (potere)

The verb must (dovere)

The verb to know (sapere)

Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)

Indirect object pronouns (gli, le, ci...)

Expressing preferences (mi piace)

Plural preferences (mi piacciono)

Comparatives (più... di, meno... di)

The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)

Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)

The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)

Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)

Time adverbs with the past tense (già, mai, ancora)

Third-person direct object pronouns (lo, la, li, le)

First and second-person direct object pronouns (mi, ti, ci, vi)

The four seasons

Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)

Conversational words (beh, allora, davvero)

Indefinite adjectives for some (qualche, alcuni)

Indefinite adjectives for every and all (ogni, tutti)

Indefinite pronouns (qualcosa, qualcuno)

Noun suffixes (-ino, -one)

Adverbs of manner (-mente)

Comparisons of equality (così... come)

The relative superlative (il più)

The absolute superlative (-issimo)

Irregular comparatives (migliore, peggiore)

Present progressive (stare + -ando, -endo)

Imminent actions (stare per)

The locative pronoun (ci)

The partitive pronoun (ne)

Pronoun placement with modal verbs

Impersonal subjects (si)

Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)

Past participle agreement with pronouns

Question	Answer
the engine	il motore
The mechanic said that the new engine was there.	Il meccanico ha detto che il nuovo motore era lì.
the brake	il freno
He explained that the brakes were not working well that day.	Ha spiegato che i freni non funzionavano bene quel giorno.
the tire	la gomma
He confirmed that he was changing the tires the next day.	Ha confermato che cambiava le gomme il giorno dopo.
the battery	la batteria
following	seguente
He replied that the battery was arriving the following day.	Ha risposto che la batteria arrivava il giorno seguente.
previous (preceding)	precedente
He said that he had been waiting for the battery since the previous day.	Ha detto che aspettava la batteria dal giorno precedente.
to fix	aggiustare
He added that he had to fix the car that day.	Ha aggiunto che doveva aggiustare la macchina quel giorno.
the car window	il finestrino
He explained that the car window had been stuck since the previous week.	Ha spiegato che il finestrino era bloccato dalla settimana precedente.
the estimate	il preventivo
He replied that the estimate was arriving that evening.	Ha risposto che il preventivo arrivava quella sera.
I knew that the car was ready that day.	Sapevo che la macchina era pronta quel giorno.
He confirmed that he was returning the car the day after.	Ha confermato che restituiva la macchina il giorno dopo.
He said that he was repairing the car window right there.	Ha detto che stava riparando il finestrino proprio lì.
He explained that the engine was making a strange noise there in the workshop.	Ha spiegato che il motore faceva uno strano rumore lì in officina.
the inspection	la revisione
The mechanic said that the estimate for the inspection was ready the following day.	Il meccanico ha detto che il preventivo per la revisione era pronto il giorno seguente.
He said that that day he had to fix the brake and the tire for the inspection.	Ha detto che quel giorno doveva aggiustare il freno e la gomma per la revisione.
the petrol station (distributore di benzina)	il distributore
I stop at the petrol station before leaving.	Mi fermo al distributore prima di partire.
At the petrol station I also check the tire.	Al distributore controllo anche la gomma.

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