French - Reported Speech / Discours indirect - il dit que ... - Grammar - longua.org

Reported Speech / Discours indirect - il dit que ...

The Reported Speech is used to express what has been said by someone else.
There is a 1st part that introduces the reported speech and a 2nd part that expresses what has been said.

Typical expressions that introduce the reported speech:

French	English
Il affirme que ...	He affirms that ...
Il annonce que ...	He announces that ...
Il croit que ...	He believes that ...
Il demande si ...	He asks if ...
Il dit que ...	He says that ...
Il explique que ...	He explains that ...
Il juge que ...	He judges that ...
Il pense que ...	He thinks that ...
Il prétend que ...	He pretends that ...
Il raconte que ...	He tells that ...
Il répond que ...	He answers that ...

Formation of the Reported Speech

When forming the reported speech, several changes are made:

- Tenses (verb)
- Pronouns
- Temporal and local information

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
“Je l’ai rencontré hier ici devant la poste.”	Il m’a raconté qu’il l’avait rencontré le jour précédant là-bas devant la poste.
Person Tense Temporal information Local information	je > il ai > avait hier > le jour précédant ici > là-bas

Change of the verbal form in the reported speech

If the introducing part is used in the Présent, the reported verbal part stays the same.

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
“J’irai.”	Il dit qu’il ira.

If the introducing part is used in a “past tense” (Imparfait, Passé Composé, Passé Simple, Plus-que-parfait), the verbal forms change according to the following scheme.

Direct Speech	Reported Speech
Présent	Imparfait
Imparfait	Imparfait / Plus-que-parfait
Passé Composé	Plus-que-parfait
Passé Simple	Plus-que-parfait
Plus-que-parfait	Plus-que-parfait
Futur Simple	Conditionnel Présent
Futur Antérieur	Conditionnel Passé
Conditionnel Présent	Conditionnel Présent
Impératif	Subjonctif Présent

Conjunctions of the Reported Speech

Conjunction	Example
Aussagesatz: que - dass	Il dit qu’il ne vient pas.
Fragesatz: si - ob	Elle demande si elle peut sortir.

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French - Reported Speech / Discours indirect - il dit que ... - Grammar - longua.org

Reported Speech / Discours indirect - il dit que ...

Formation of the Reported Speech