Direct Speech - Complete Guide for Spanish Speakers

🎯 Why This Matters

To quote others accurately and write dialogue.

Learning Outcome

Proper quotation and dialogue formatting.

🇪🇸 The Challenge

Punctuation and formatting. Spanish and English have different conventions for quotation marks and dialogue formatting.

🇲🇽🇨🇴🇦🇷 Dashes vs Quotation marks

Problem: Spanish typically uses em-dashes (—) for dialogue

Watch out: Using dashes in English or putting punctuation outside quotes

✅ Fix: English uses "quotation marks". Comma/period goes INSIDE.

🧠 Mental Note: American English: always inside. British English: depends on whether it's part of the quote.

❌ «I am happy», she said. → ✅ "I am happy," she said.

🇪🇸 Angular quotation marks

Problem: Spanish from Spain often uses «guillemets»

Watch out: Using Spanish punctuation conventions in English

✅ Fix: Use "double quotes" (US) or 'single quotes' (UK) in English

❌ «Hello» → ✅ "Hello"

🧠 Visual Explanation (The Mental Fix)

The Speech Bubble

Think of quotation marks as speech bubbles 💬: Direct speech = exact words in a bubble 'I am tired,' she said. 💬 Punctuation rules: 1. Quotation marks: "..." or '...' (US vs UK) 2. Comma INSIDE quotes: "Hello," she said. 3. Period inside quotes: He said, "Goodbye." 4. Question mark inside if question: "Are you okay?" she asked. Spanish vs English: 🇪🇸 —Hola —dijo ella. (dash) 🇬🇧 "Hello," she said. (quotes + comma inside)

The comma or period goes INSIDE the speech bubble (inside the quotation marks in American English).

🗣️ Pronunciation Guide

How Spanish speakers should pronounce this structure:

Said pronunciation

Spanish Habit: Pronouncing 'said' as /seɪd/ (rhyming with 'made')

English Reality: 'Said' is pronounced /sed/ (like 'bed')

Examples:

said → /sed/ (NOT 'sayed')
says → /sez/ (NOT 'says' like 'days')

Practice: SAID rhymes with BED. SAYS rhymes with FEZ.

📖 How It Works

Dialogue writing exercises. Comparing novel formats.

Learning Strategy

Teacher Recommendation: Self-study friendly

Time Investment: 2 hours

🔑 Signal Words (Memory Anchors)

These words/phrases appear with this structure:

English	Spanish	Example
said	dijo	"Hello," she said.
asked	preguntó	"Why?" he asked.
replied	respondió	"I don't know," she replied.
shouted	gritó	"Stop!" he shouted.
whispered	susurró	"Be quiet," she whispered.