Types of speech: Direct, indirect and free indirect speech

We have in the Portuguese language some types of speech, known as: direct speech, indirect and indirect free, textual forms that go according to the author's intention when presenting the speeches of the interlocutors of a text, demonstrating what they say or think. Let's see what each of them is, their differences and how we can interpret them or write texts with their uses:

O direct speech is one in which the narrator of a story presents the speech between the characters faithfully. In this type of speech, there is a pause in the narration, so that the author can quote a dialogue that demonstrate the speech characteristics of each character, there may be accents, slang, among others aspects. The indication of the speeches is made by the use of the dash and it is common to use declarative verbs, such as asked, answered, said, observe the example below:

So John went to the doctor and told him He asked:
– Doctor, how much time do I have left?

O indirect speech is one in which the narrator describes what the characters say, telling the reader what happened. In this case, there is no faithful representation of what was said, so it is considered an indirect speech, in a way that it is present throughout the text, without pauses. The speech characteristics of each interlocutor are demonstrated, but the use of declarative verbs is also common. Note the example:

João, apprehensive, asked the doctor how much time he had left to live.

O free indirect speech it is the combination of the two types of discourse in the same sentence, so that the narrator faithfully presents what was said by the characters, but making use of a discourse indirect in which he himself is telling what was said, that is, there is no separation of lines as in direct speech, but punctuations are preserved, such as interrogations, exclamations. Here, it is also common to use declarative verbs, observe the example:

João was apprehensive all day about the appointment he would have with his doctor at the end of the afternoon. Arriving there, he identified himself with the receptionist and waited to be called. He couldn't stand to wait any longer, asking: Doctor, how much time do I have left? His answer didn't come right away, of course. The doctor tried to be cautious, until the answer finally came: You have an estimated six months to live, my dear João.

Therefore, in summary, we can separate the types of speeches by presenting what they are and their examples in the table below, see:

speech types	What are	Examples
Direct speech	It is the one in which the narrator quotes the lines of the characters faithfully through indent, pausing the narration for this	After all the events, Maria asked João: – How could you do this to me, João? I'm very upset.
Indirect speech	It is the one where the author says what was said by the characters, being a form of indirect description of what happened in the story	After all the events, Maria, very upset, asked João why he had done this to her.
free indirect speech	It is the combination of the two types of speech. In this type, the speech of the characters is incorporated into that of the narrator