Reported speech is how you relay what someone said without quoting them word for word: not Hy sê: "Ek is moeg" but Hy sê dat hy moeg is ("He says that he's tired"). Afrikaans builds this with subordinate clauses introduced by dat (for statements) and of (for yes/no questions), and it shifts pronouns and time-words just as English does. But there is one place where Afrikaans is genuinely easier than English, and it is the most important thing on this page: Afrikaans does not force the English tense backshift. When you report a past statement, the embedded verb usually keeps the tense it was originally spoken in. Master that one difference and reported speech will feel simpler in Afrikaans than in your own language.
Statements become dat-clauses
A reported statement is packaged as a subordinate clause introduced by dat ("that"). Because it is subordinate, the finite verb moves to the end of the clause — this is the regular subordinate-clause word order, and it is the main structural change you make.
| Direct speech | Reported speech |
|---|---|
| Hy sê: "Ek kom." | Hy sê dat hy kom. |
| Sy sê: "Ek is siek." | Sy sê dat sy siek is. |
| Hulle sê: "Ons bly tuis." | Hulle sê dat hulle tuis bly. |
Hy sê dat hy kom.
He says that he's coming.
Sy sê dat sy siek is.
She says that she's sick.
Watch the verb. In direct "Ek is siek," the verb is sits second. In reported ...dat sy siek is, the verb is has moved to the end. That shunt to clause-final position is the constant feature of every dat-clause, so build the habit now.
You may also drop the dat in informal speech, exactly as English drops "that" ("He says he's coming"). But — and this matters — when you drop dat, the word order snaps back to main-clause V2, because without the subordinator the clause is no longer subordinate.
Hy sê hy kom môre.
He says he's coming tomorrow.
So you have two valid options: Hy sê dat hy môre kom (with dat, verb final) or Hy sê hy kom môre (no dat, verb second). Mixing them — keeping dat but using V2 order — is the classic mistake we will flag below.
The headline difference: no obligatory backshift
In English, if the reporting verb is in the past ("He said…"), you are obliged to backshift the embedded tense: "He said he was tired" (not is), "She said she had finished" (not has). This sequence-of-tenses rule is drilled into every English speaker.
Afrikaans does not do this. The embedded clause normally keeps the tense the speaker actually used. If the original words were present tense, the report stays present tense — even when the reporting verb is past.
Hy het gesê dat hy moeg is.
He said (that) he was tired.
Look closely: the reporting verb is past (het gesê, "said"), but the embedded verb is present (is, "is"), and English is forced to render it as "was." Afrikaans keeps is because that is what he actually said — "Ek is moeg." The embedded tense tracks the original utterance, not the reporting verb. This is a real simplification: there is no tense-agreement machinery to run.
Sy het gesê dat sy môre kom.
She said (that) she would come tomorrow.
Die dokter het gesê dat dit niks ernstig is nie.
The doctor said that it was nothing serious.
In each, the reporting verb is past, yet the embedded verb stays in the tense of the original speech (present kom, present is), where English mechanically backshifts to "would come," "was." You can shift the embedded clause to the past if the reported event is genuinely complete and you want to mark it as past — Afrikaans simply does not require it the way English does.
Reported yes/no questions use of, not dat
A reported yes/no question is not introduced by dat. It uses of ("whether / if"). The verb still goes to the clause-final position, since this is also a subordinate clause.
| Direct question | Reported question |
|---|---|
| Sy vra: "Kom jy?" | Sy vra of ek kom. |
| Hy vra: "Het jy geëet?" | Hy vra of ek geëet het. |
Sy vra of ek kom.
She asks whether I'm coming.
Ek wonder of dit gaan reën.
I wonder whether it's going to rain.
The choice of of (not dat) is the whole point: English uses "if/whether" here, and Afrikaans uses of for the same job. Using dat for a reported yes/no question is wrong and a frequent English-speaker error.
For wh-questions (who, what, where, when, why), you keep the question word as the subordinator and, again, send the verb to the end: Hy vra waar ek woon ("He asks where I live"), Sy wil weet hoekom ek laat is ("She wants to know why I'm late"). These are covered in full on indirect questions.
Hy vra waar ek woon.
He asks where I live.
Pronouns and deictics still shift
Although the tense usually stays put, the pronouns and pointing words (deictics) do shift to the reporter's point of view, just as in English. The speaker's ek (I) becomes hy/sy (he/she) when you report them; jy (you) may become ek if they were addressing you; hier (here) may become daar (there); vandag (today) may become daardie dag (that day) depending on when you report it.
Direct: Hy sê: 'Ek is siek.' — Reported: Hy sê dat hy siek is.
Direct: He says, 'I'm sick.' — Reported: He says that he's sick.
Direct: Sy vra: 'Kom jy saam?' — Reported: Sy vra of ek saamkom.
Direct: She asks, 'Are you coming?' — Reported: She asks whether I'm coming.
Notice the pronoun journey in that second one: her jy ("you," meaning me) becomes ek ("I") in my report, because I am now relaying a question that was aimed at me. The deictic logic is identical to English; only the tense behaviour differs.
Common mistakes
The number-one error is mechanically applying English backshift and pushing the embedded tense into the past.
❌ Hy het gesê dat hy moeg was.
Overcorrected — backshifting is not required; if he said 'Ek is moeg,' keep the present is.
✅ Hy het gesê dat hy moeg is.
He said (that) he was tired.
The second is using dat for a reported yes/no question instead of of.
❌ Sy vra dat ek kom.
Incorrect — a reported yes/no question takes of, not dat; this would mean 'she asks that I come.'
✅ Sy vra of ek kom.
She asks whether I'm coming.
The third is keeping dat but leaving the verb in main-clause (V2) position instead of sending it to the end.
❌ Hy sê dat hy kom môre.
Incorrect — after dat the verb must be clause-final: dat hy môre kom (or drop dat: hy kom môre).
✅ Hy sê dat hy môre kom.
He says that he's coming tomorrow.
The fourth is forgetting to shift the pronoun to the reporter's perspective.
❌ Sy het gesê dat ek moeg is. (when reporting HER saying 'Ek is moeg')
Incorrect — her 'I' becomes 'she' in your report: dat sy moeg is.
✅ Sy het gesê dat sy moeg is.
She said that she was tired.
Key takeaways
- Reported statements become dat-clauses with the finite verb at the end (subordinate-clause order); you may drop dat informally, but then the clause reverts to V2 order.
- The headline difference from English: no obligatory backshift. After a past reporting verb, the embedded tense usually stays as originally spoken (Hy het gesê dat hy moeg is).
- Reported yes/no questions use of ("whether"), never dat; the verb is still clause-final.
- Reported wh-questions keep the question word and send the verb to the end — see indirect questions.
- Pronouns and deictics shift to the reporter's viewpoint exactly as in English; only the tense behaves more simply.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Complex SentencesB1 — Building sentences from a main clause plus subordinate clauses — the verb-final order inside the subordinate clause, and the inversion that follows a fronted one.
- Indirect QuestionsB1 — How to embed a question inside another sentence: yes/no with of ('whether'), wh-questions with the question word, both in verb-final subordinate order.
- The Past Tense: het + ge-participleA1 — Afrikaans has one ordinary past tense — het plus a ge-participle at the end of the clause — and it covers both 'I walked' and 'I have walked'.
- Subordinate Clauses: Verb to the EndA2 — In an Afrikaans subordinate clause the finite verb moves to the very end — the single biggest word-order adjustment English speakers have to make.