When speaking of direct speech, reference is made to the exact reproduction of those words mentioned by those people who are involved in a conversation, in other words, direct speech presents through the use of words and expressions, the continuation of the thoughts or ideas that those involved in a dialogue present. In short, direct speech involves direct communication between two or more people who are in the same place and time. This is the way to refer verbatim to a message. In a textual way, it must be marked graphically using dialog lines or, failing that, quotes.
It is important to indicate that in the written form the direct speech must be placed with the sign (-) which is the one used to point directly to a dialogue. Within literary works it is one of the most used signs when you want to present the conversations and dialogues that occur between some of the characters in said work.
On the other hand, and in contrast to direct speech, there is indirect speech, which is characterized because it does not reproduce the dialogue textually, or the characters or interlocutors say it within the work. Therefore, there must be a narrator who will be in charge of indicating what happens and what the characters involved in the dialogue said. For example, José arrived at the university where he studies Genesis and was not there, therefore he decided to wait. After a couple of hours waiting, he asked one of his colleagues if she had gone, to which he confirmed that he had not, however, he said that it is usual for her to arrive a little late
In the event that within a text a reference is made to a statement said by another individual literally, it will be making use of what is known as direct speech, in this case said statement is written in quotation marks or identified within the text in some way, either using another font such as bold or italic, and generally the author of the words is credited with having said it.
