Use direct and indirect reported speech in French to provide information, such as:
what you or someone else said,
what you were told,
what you heard, or
what you were or someone else was thinking.
There are two varieties of reported speech: direct speech and indirect speech. Direct reported speech is used to report exactly what is said. Let’s see an example.
On the other hand, indirect reported speech is used to paraphrase a statement or a thought.
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When you report speech indirectly, the part of the sentence that represents what was said fundamentally changes. Did you notice how, above, “J’ai hâte !” became “elle a hâte”?
In this article, you’ll find out how to report a statement or thought in the present and past, all while learning or reviewing vocabulary, French tenses, punctuation, and much more.
Ready to tackle reported speech?! Allez ! C’est parti !
What are the French reporting verbs?
Reporting verbs are verbs used to introduce reported speech. They usually tell you something about how someone spoke or thought. Reporting verbs are used for both direct and indirect reported speech.
To report a thought, the most common reporting verb is penser meaning to think.
« Elle est si jolie », pensait-il.Translation: “She is so pretty,” he thought.For a statement, we usually use dire meaning to say.
Il dit qu’il n’y comprend rien.Translation: He says he doesn't understand a thing.To report a question, we most commonly use demander meaning to ask.
Elle m’a demandé : « Tu vas bien ? »Translation: She asked me, “How are you?”
What is direct reported speech in French?
Direct speech reports exactly what is said. It is very common in novels, when translating, and in journalism. Direct reported speech sounds more dynamic; you feel like you’re there because the speech is not altered.
How to use punctuation in French direct reported speech?
There are a couple of ways to use punctuation for direct reported speech in French. The most common one you’ll find, in newspapers for instance, is the use of colons after reporting verbs and the French quotation marks « … », as opposed to the English ones “...”, before and after the direct reported speech. There is also no period in the quote when the sentence is followed by a reporting verb. Instead, there is a comma, placed outside the end quotation mark, that introduces the reporting verb.
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Another punctuation rule when reporting a dialogue is the required use of dashes. Unlike English, which requires quotation marks, French uses dashes to indicate the turns of a conversation. Quotation marks are optional and are only used at the beginning and at the end of the entire dialogue. Here’s an example comparing a dialogue in French and in English:
The two friends talked about their holidays.
- « On partira fin-mai.
“We’ll go at the end of May.”
- Ah, nous, on a préféré partir en hiver.
“Will you? We personally preferred going during the wintertime.”
- Vous avez raison, il y a moins de touristes. »
“You are right actually, it is less touristy.”
How to use ‘faire’ and ‘sortir’ to speak like a genuine French person?
In English, “to be like” is often used to report a speech when speaking informally; its equivalent in French is faire meaning to do and it is used just like any other reporting verb for direct reported speech.
You can also add indirect object pronouns like me meaning to me or lui meaning to him, to her to indicate who the person was talking to.
Right! Now, you know how direct speech works, let’s study indirect speech!
What is indirect reported speech in French?
Indirect reported speech in French is a method of relaying what someone else said, thought, asked, or communicated in some way. As we have seen earlier, indirect reported speech changes the perspective from the speaker to the reporter, which means that you may need to alter the direct speech before reporting it indirectly, the same as you would in English.
For indirect speech, you'll need to be able to conjugate French verbs and use a variety of pronouns. Let’s make sure you have everything you need in your French tool box! Don’t hesitate to click on the links if you need a refresher.
Verbs tenses (présent, imparfait, passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur simple, conditionnel présent)
If you feel comfortable with conjugation, let’s get started!
How to use indirect reported speech in French?
Use indirect speech when you don’t want to quote exactly what someone said, asked, or thought, and, instead, you refer to what you’ve heard using a subordinate clause, most commonly introduced by que meaning that.
Using indirect reported speech can be a bit trickier than using direct reported speech, because sometimes using indirect speech will require you to change pronouns, verb tenses, or other words in the sentence. Let’s take a look.
How to use present indirect reported speech?
When the direct reported speech is in the present tense and doesn’t involve the subject pronouns je, tu, nous, vous, no change occurs in the indirect speech:
| Direct reported speech | → | Indirect reported speech |
|---|---|---|
« C’est ennuyeux », dit Nicolas. Translation: “It’s boring,” says Nicolas. | → | Nicolas dit que c’est ennuyeux. Translation: Nicolas says (that) it is boring. |
However, when someone is talking about themselves or to “you,” you need to alter subject pronouns, reflexive pronouns, possessive adjectives, and adapt the verb, just like in English.
In the example below, the subject pronouns and possessive pronouns must change in the indirect reported speech, along with the verb conjugations!
| Direct reported speech | → | Indirect reported speech |
|---|---|---|
pronounverb « Je me suis retourné et j’ai vu mon frère. » Translation: “I turned around and saw my brother.” | → | pronounverb Sylvain dit qu’il s’est retourné et qu’il a vu son frère. Translation: Sylvain says (that) he turned around and saw his brother. |
How to use past indirect reported speech?
If you want to indirectly report something that was said in the past (using phrases like, “He said that…” or “She thought that…”), you’ll need to learn the correspondence of verb tenses that change between direct and indirect past reported speech. Luckily, it is similar in English!
| Direct speech reported in the… | Indirect speech reported later on in the… |
|---|---|
Présent « Ce n’est pas loin. » Translation: “It is not far.” | Imparfait Il a dit que ce n’était pas loin. Translation: He said it was not far. |
Futur simple « On partira ensemble. » Translation: “We will go together.” | Conditionnel présent Ils ont dit qu’ils partiraient ensemble. Translation: They said they would go together. |
| Direct speech reported in the… | Indirect speech reported later on in the… |
|---|---|
Passé composé « Nous avons mangé dehors. » Translation: “We ate outside.” | Plus-que-parfait Ils ont expliqué qu’ils avaient mangé dehors. Translation: They explained that they had eaten outside. |
Futur simple « Je vais travailler. » Translation: “I am going to work.” | Imparfait of the verb aller + infinitive Elle a ajouté qu’elle allait travailler. Translation: She added she was going to work. |
Verb correspondences aren’t the only changes you’ll want to learn with past indirect reported speech. Indeed, there are also some adverbial changes that will take place when you alter the tenses. See our list of French adverbs that change in indirect reported speech (p. 2)!
Now, let’s take a look at indirect speech used to report questions and interjections/commands.
How to use indirect speech with questions?
When indirectly reporting a question, que can’t introduce the clause, as it has in our examples above. If the answer is yes or no, you’ll use si, which is the equivalent of “whether.”
Just like in English, when indirectly reporting a questions with the 4 Ws in French qui, quand, où, pourquoi meaning who, when, where, why ) and comment meaning how, you’ll need to use an interrogative pronoun instead of que or si to introduce the indirect speech.
| Direct reported speech | → | Indirect reported speech |
|---|---|---|
Pourquoi tu ris ? Translation: Why are you laughing? | → | Elle me demande pourquoi je ris. Translation: She asks me why I’m laughing. |
→ | EIle m’a demandé pourquoi je riais. Translation: She asked me why I was laughing. |
How to use indirect speech with commands and interjections?
Let’s say you just want to indirectly report an interjection like Merci meaning Thank you or a short command like Sors ! meaning Get out! — what would you say?!
Let’s start with commands, because it will help you with interjections. The imperative mood, which expresses an order, can be indirectly reported like so:
Reporting Verb
dire meaning to say
demander meaning to ask
ordonner meaning to order
obliger meaning to urge
de
Infinitive of the command
Now, let’s talk about interjections. Just like in English, there are verbs derived from these single words which can be used to describe what was said.
| Direct reported interjection | Indirect reported interjection |
|---|---|
Merci ! Translation: Thank you! | Il nous a remerciées. Translation: He thanked us. |
Chut ! Translation: Sh! | Il lui a dit de se taire. Translation: He asked him to keep it down. |
In brief: What to remember about French reported speech?
When reporting speech directly or indirectly in French, remember what you’ve learned in this post! Here’s a recap:
Direct reported speech works the same in French and English, except for with certain punctuation and the subject-verb order, i.e. “he says” = dit-il.
Faire is the equivalent to the English reporting phrase “to be like.”
For indirect reported speech, que meaning that is not optional, unlike in English.
Some tenses will change between direct and indirect reported speech (present tense → imperfect, future → present conditional), but the other tenses don’t change.
For yes or no questions, use si meaning whether. In other questions, qu’est-ce que/qui meaning what turns into ce que/qui.
Use a reporting verb followed by de and an infinitive to indirectly report a command or interjection.
Now that you’ve reviewed the key rules to reported speech, you’re ready to head to our French reported speech activities.
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