How to use reported or indirect speech in German?

In German, reported speech constructions are used, as the name suggests, to repeat or report what someone else said. The most common way to report speech is through a special construction known as indirect speech (indirekte Rede), in which a speaker reports the general content of someone’s speech, rather than quoting their exact words. Some English examples of this might be:

In German, an indirect speech construction usually has two parts: (1) a reporting verb, like sagen (meaning to say), berichten (meaning to report), or erklären (meaning to explain), and (2) the message of the speech, which usually uses a verb in the subjunctive.

Indirect reported speech is common in both written and spoken German, so mastering it is an important part of learning the language! Let’s talk about it in more detail!

In German, as in English, there are two different ways to report what someone else said:

• direct speech → a quote

• indirect speech → the message is conveyed in a subordinate clause, but the exact phrasing isn’t preserved

Just like in English, the punctuation, verb forms, and some other aspects of the sentence are very different in direct vs. indirect speech.

Both types of reported speech can be introduced by reporting verbs, like erklären (meaning explain), sagen (meaning say), or beanspruchen (meaning claim). Check out this longer list of German reporting verbs for more examples.

In the sections below, we’ll talk about the differences between direct and indirect speech as a set of rules that you can use to transform a quote into indirect speech. Keep in mind, though, that indirect speech doesn’t actually have to follow the real wording of the original quote.

Now, let’s have a look at how to form indirect speech in German!

In German, you can form an indirect speech construction from a direct quote by making two major changes:

1. Change the verb from indicative to subjunctive.

2. Change the pronouns (and sometimes other time and place descriptions) to match the context in which you’re making your report.

These changes apply to all indirect speech, whether you’re reporting a statement, a question, or a command. Compare:

Sometimes you will have to change words that describe the time, location, or direction to match the context where you’re reporting the speech as well. For example:

Most indirect speech constructions will follow the rules above, but there are a few more rules to learn if you want to really form these constructions. Let’s look deeper!

In German, the verb in indirect speech will generally be in the subjunctive I, but the tense you should use will depend only on the tense in the direct quote. The chart below demonstrates how to “translate” each tense in direct speech into indirect speech using the verb essen (meaning to eat):

This is actually much simpler than the English system! In English, the tense of the verb in indirect speech varies depending on the tense of the reporting verb. You can see this difference by comparing the German and the English in the right-hand column of the charts below:

So, hey! This should feel much easier for once!

Though the basic rule states that you should use the subjunctive I in German indirect speech, you will often hear German speakers using the subjunctive II form instead. This can happen for a couple different reasons.

• The present subjunctive I looks the same as the present indicative in the first-person singular and plural forms (ich and wir), and in the third person plural (sie/Sie):

  Present Subjunctive II	Present Indicative
  ich mache	ich mache
  wir machen	wir machen
  sie/Sie machen	sie/Sie machen

  When using one of these subjects, you can replace the subjunctive I with the subjunctive II to clarify that the subjunctive was intended. For example:

  Present Indicative	„Ich schreibe ein Buch.” Translation: I’m writing a book.
  Present Subjunctive I	Ich sagte, ich schreibe ein Buch. Translation: I said I was writing a book.
  Present Subjunctive II	Ich sagte, ich würde ein Buch schreiben. Translation: I said I was writing a book.

• With any subject, though, you can use the subjunctive II instead of the subjunctive I as a way to express doubt in the message you’re conveying. You’ll often see this used by reporters who want to clarify that they are reporting someone’s claim, not solid facts.

Remember also that in everyday speech, the subjunctive is often abandoned entirely, and the indicative is used instead!

Here are the most important things to remember from this post on German reported speech:

• Direct speech reports a direct quote (e.g. He said, “...”). Indirect speech reports the message of someone’s words as a subordinate clause (e.g. He said that…).

• In formal German, the verb in an indirect speech clause should be in the subjunctive I and should use the same tense (past, present, future) as the original quote.

  • As in English, you may also need to change some other words from the direct quote like pronouns, direction words, or time phrases to match the context in which the speech is being reported.

  • There are some contexts where you might want to use the subjunctive II instead of the subjunctive I, especially with ich, wir, and sie/Sie subjects.

  • In informal German, you might hear the indicative used instead of the subjunctive.

• Don’t forget to use subordinate clause word order in indirect speech clauses!

  • Statements are introduced by dass (meaning that) or no conjunction (these have different word orders!).

  • Yes/no questions are introduced by ob (meaning if, whether).

  • Wh- questions are introduced by a question word, just like in English!

Now that you know how to use and form indirect speech in German, head on over to our reported speech activities to practice what you’ve learned!