Reported speech: statements

Elle a dit : « Je suis fatiguée. »Elle a dit qu'elle était fatiguée.She said: "I'm tired." → She said she was tired.

That's reported speech (discours indirect): instead of quoting someone's exact words, the sentence folds them into a clause introduced by a reporting verb and que. Doing it right in French means three things happening at once — the pronouns and possessives shift to point to the right people from the reporter's own perspective, the verb tense often shifts too, and a handful of time/place words shift along with it.

Quick shortcut: reporting verb + que + clause. If the reporting verb is in the past, the reported verb usually shifts back one step too (présent → imparfait, passé composé → plus-que-parfait, futur simple → conditionnel présent). If the reporting verb is in the present, nothing shifts.

The basic structure

A direct quote becomes an indirect statement with a reporting verb (dire, expliquer, répondre, ajouter, annoncer, penser...) followed by que and a normal clause — no quotation marks, no colon:

• Il dit : « Je pars demain. » → Il dit qu'il part demain. (He says: "I'm leaving tomorrow." → He says he's leaving tomorrow.)
• Elle a répondu : « Je ne sais pas. » → Elle a répondu qu'elle ne savait pas. (She replied: "I don't know." → She replied that she didn't know.)

Que is never optional here, even where English can drop "that": ✅ *Il dit **qu'*il est content, never ❌ Il dit il est content.

Pronouns and possessives shift to the reporter's perspective

Just like in English, a first-person quote usually becomes third person once it's folded into someone else's sentence, because the reporter is talking about the original speaker rather than being that speaker — je → il/elle, mon/ma/mes → son/sa/ses. Exactly which pronoun is needed each time depends on who's actually being referred to and from whose point of view the reported sentence is spoken, not on a fixed je → il/elle formula:

• Marie : « Je vais chercher mon frère. » → Marie a dit qu'elle allait chercher son frère. (Marie: "I'm going to pick up my brother." → Marie said she was going to pick up her brother.)
• Paul : « Tu as oublié tes clés. » (à moi) → Paul m'a dit que j'avais oublié mes clés. (Paul: "You forgot your keys." (to me) → Paul told me I'd forgotten my keys.)

Tense backshift: the concordance des temps

When the reporting verb (dire, expliquer...) is itself in a past tense, the tense inside the que-clause usually shifts back one step, exactly the way English shifts says → said:

• Il a dit : « Je travaille. » → Il a dit qu'il travaillait. (présent → imparfait)
• Elle a dit : « J'ai fini. » → Elle a dit qu'elle avait fini. (passé composé → plus-que-parfait)
• Ils ont dit : « Nous viendrons. » → Ils ont dit qu'ils viendraient. (futur simple → conditionnel présent)
• Tu as dit : « J'étais malade. » → Tu as dit que tu étais malade. (imparfait stays imparfait — it's already the "background" tense)

This conditionnel présent in reported speech is the same form taught in Conditionnel présent — here it isn't hypothetical at all, it's simply what a future becomes once it's reported from a past vantage point.

This backshift is the normal pattern, not an automatic mechanical rule: it applies when the statement is being treated as anchored to the moment it was said, not to now. If what was said is still true or still applies at the moment of reporting, the original tense can stay: Il m'a dit qu'il est malade (he might still be sick right now) is just as correct as …qu'il était malade, depending on what the speaker means.

No backshift when the reporting verb is in the present

If the reporting verb is in the present tense (someone reporting something right now, as opposed to reporting an earlier conversation), the reported verb keeps its own original tense — nothing shifts:

• Il dit qu'il travaille. (He says he's working.) — présent stays présent.
• Elle dit qu'elle a fini. (She says she's finished.) — passé composé stays passé composé.
• Ils disent qu'ils viendront. (They say they'll come.) — futur simple stays futur simple.

A past reporting verb is what makes the backshift possible in the first place — but as the note above shows, it doesn't force it: whether the reported verb actually shifts depends on whether the statement is still current at the moment it's being reported.

Time and place expressions shift too

A word like aujourd'hui ("today") only makes sense from the original speaker's moment. Once the quote is reported — especially after a past reporting verb, where the reporting itself is now happening at a different time — several of these expressions need their own reported equivalent:

• Il a dit : « Je pars demain. » → Il a dit qu'il partait le lendemain. (He said: "I'm leaving tomorrow." → He said he was leaving the next day.)
• Elle a dit : « J'étais malade hier. » → Elle a dit qu'elle était malade la veille. (She said: "I was sick yesterday." → She said she'd been sick the day before.)

Just like with the tense backshift, these swaps apply once the reporting is anchored at a different moment than the original quote — a present-tense report of something just said in the same conversation (Il dit qu'il part demain — he's saying it today, about the same tomorrow) doesn't need them.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Il dit il est fatigué. → ✅ Il dit qu'il est fatigué. (que can never be dropped, unlike English "that")
• ❌ Elle a dit qu'elle est malade. → ✅ Elle a dit qu'elle était malade. (the default after a past reporting verb, unless the illness is still meant to be current)
• ❌ Il a dit qu'il partait demain. → ✅ Il a dit qu'il partait le lendemain. (once the reference point has moved with a past reporting verb, the time word usually needs to shift too, not just the tense)
• ❌ Elle a dit : « Je vais bien. » reported as Elle a dit que je vais bien. → ✅ Elle a dit qu'elle allait bien. (the pronoun has to shift to match who's actually being talked about)

Quick check

Key takeaways

• Reported speech drops the quotation marks and colon and introduces the quote with a reporting verb + que, which can never be omitted.
• Pronouns and possessives shift to match who's actually being talked about, not who originally spoke.
• If the reporting verb is in the past, the reported verb usually backshifts one step: présent → imparfait, passé composé → plus-que-parfait, futur simple → conditionnel présent (imparfait stays imparfait) — unless the statement is still true or current at the moment of reporting, in which case the original tense can stay.
• If the reporting verb is in the present, the reported verb keeps its own original tense.
• Time and place words like aujourd'hui, hier, demain, and ici shift to ce jour-là, la veille, le lendemain, and là once the reporting is anchored at a different moment than the original quote.