free indirect speech

Hello all,
I am an Italian woman who is trying to improve her English. I have a problem and I hope somebody could help me: I am reading a Victorian Novel ( Wives and daughters of Elizabeth Gaskell) and at the end of the novel there is an textual analysis I do not understand, It asks me the difference among direct speech, indirect speech ( and that is easy enough) but to my dismal is also asks me the difference between free direct speech and free indirect speech and I am really lost, I have searched the web high and low but haven’t bee able to find anything. Could you possibly give me a hint or a simple explanations.
Thanks
Anna

Hello, anna.dibello, welcome to the forum. :)

To answer your question, direct speech refers to giving the precise words used by someone speaking, and, with direct speech, a writer uses quotation marks. An example: "I jogged to the nearby park," she reported.

Indirect speech, also known as reported speech, refers to communicating with someone, regarding what another person said, but without using the exact words. An example: the original phrase spoken - "I jogged to the nearby park," she reported. What someone else said, referring to her jogging to the neary park - "She said that she ran to the park."

Free direct speech seems a little more complicated, referring to something once said or recorded, but not in quotation marks, yet still telling who stated the passage (I see newspapers use this method quite often). An example: Teenagers should not drive until they reach age 16, the U.S. law states.

Lastly, free indirect speech refers to an author, usually in a third-person perspective, writing what characters think, feel, plan, reflect, dream, etc. An example: "He thought she had abandoned him when she reported jogging to the nearby park."

I hope I have helped, anna.dibello, and I wish you luck. If you have any more questions, just report back, and I (or we) could help. ;)

hi, how r u,,, hope uve read gramsci's essays