Reported speech (also called indirect speech) is how you tell someone what was said without quoting it word for word: not He said, „I'm coming" but He said that he was coming. Croatian builds it with the familiar subordinators — da for statements, li / da li or a wh-word for questions, da or neka for commands. But there is one rule that overrides everything an English speaker has been trained to do, and it is genuinely a relief once you trust it: Croatian does not shift the tense. The reported clause keeps the verb in the tense the original speaker actually used. Master that, adjust the pronouns, and you are done.
The headline rule: no sequence of tenses
English backshifts. When the reporting verb is in the past, the embedded verb is dragged back one step: „I am tired" → He said he was tired; „I will come" → She said she would come. This is the English "sequence of tenses", and it is so automatic for native speakers that they apply it without noticing.
Croatian does none of this. You recover the tense the speaker originally used and keep it, regardless of whether the reporting verb is past, present or future. If the words were „Umoran sam" (present), the report stays present: Rekao je da je umoran — literally "He said that he is tired." Translating that back into natural English forces a past ("he was tired"), which is exactly why learners wrongly reach for a Croatian past there.
| Direct speech (original tense) | Reported in Croatian (tense KEPT) | Natural English |
|---|---|---|
| „Umoran sam." (present) | Rekao je da je umoran. | He said he was tired. |
| „Dolazim sutra." (present) | Rekla je da dolazi sutra. | She said she was coming tomorrow. |
| „Doći ću." (future) | Rekao je da će doći. | He said he would come. |
| „Vidio sam ga." (past) | Rekao je da ga je vidio. | He said he had seen him. |
Rekao je da je umoran.
He said he was tired. — the original was present ('Umoran sam'), so Croatian keeps the present 'je umoran'; no backshift.
Marija je rekla da dolazi sutra.
Marija said she was coming tomorrow. — present 'dolazi' kept, matching the spoken 'Dolazim'.
Obećao mi je da će sve riješiti.
He promised me he would sort everything out. — Croatian keeps the future 'će riješiti'; English shifts 'will' to 'would', Croatian doesn't.
Reporting statements: da-clause
A statement becomes a da-clause (a content clause) hanging off a verb of saying or thinking — reći ("say"), kazati ("state"), misliti ("think"), tvrditi ("claim"), obećati ("promise"). The clitics, as always, snap into second position right after da.
Direct: Marko: „Ne osjećam se dobro." → Indirect: Marko je rekao da se ne osjeća dobro.
Marko je rekao da se ne osjeća dobro.
Marko said he wasn't feeling well. — present 'osjeća' kept; the reflexive clitic 'se' follows 'da'.
Mislila je da spavam.
She thought I was sleeping. — present 'spavam' stays present, matching the original 'He's sleeping'.
Tvrdi da nije ništa znao.
He claims he didn't know anything. — here the original WAS a past ('I didn't know'), so the past 'nije znao' is kept; the rule is 'keep the original', not 'always present'.
Reporting questions: li / da li or a wh-word
A reported yes/no question uses the question particle li (attached to the verb) or da li, meaning "whether / if". A reported wh-question keeps its question word — gdje, kada, tko, što, zašto, kako — at the front of the clause. In both, the word order is the ordinary statement order of an embedded clause, and the tense is again kept as spoken.
Direct (yes/no): „Hoćeš li doći?" → Indirect: Pitao je hoćeš li doći / Pitao je hoće li doći (with pronoun shift).
Direct (wh): „Gdje si bio?" → Indirect: Pitala je gdje sam bio.
Pitao je hoće li doći na zabavu.
He asked whether she would come to the party. — yes/no question reported with 'li' on the verb; future kept.
Zanima me je li stigao paket.
I wonder whether the parcel has arrived. — 'je li' (= 'da li') for an indirect yes/no question; perfect kept.
Pitala je gdje sam bio cijelo popodne.
She asked where I had been all afternoon. — wh-word 'gdje' fronted; past 'sam bio' kept (English 'had been').
Reporting commands: da + present or neka
An imperative cannot survive intact in an embedded clause, so Croatian recasts a command in one of two ways. The everyday choice is da + present ("that someone do something"); the alternative, slightly more detached, is neka + present ("let them do…"), which is common for third-person instructions.
Direct: „Dođi sutra!" → Indirect: Rekao mi je da dođem sutra ("He told me to come tomorrow"). Direct: „Neka pričekaju!" / „Pričekajte!" → Indirect: Rekao je neka pričekaju ("He said they should wait").
Rekao mi je da dođem sutra ujutro.
He told me to come tomorrow morning. — command recast as 'da + present' ('da dođem'), where English uses 'to + infinitive'.
Šef je rekao neka svi ostanu do kraja sastanka.
The boss said everyone should stay until the end of the meeting. — 'neka + present' for a third-person instruction.
Molila me da joj pomognem oko selidbe.
She asked me to help her with the move. — request reported as 'da + present' ('da pomognem').
Pronouns and deixis still shift
The one place reported speech does change things is the same in Croatian as in English: person, place and time references re-anchor to the reporter's point of view, because the speaker and the moment have changed. Only the deictic words move — the tense stays put.
| Direct (speaker's view) | Reported (reporter's view) |
|---|---|
| ja (I) → on / ona (he / she) | person shifts |
| ovdje (here) → ondje / tamo (there) | place shifts |
| danas (today) → tog dana (that day) | time shifts |
| sutra (tomorrow) → sljedeći dan (the next day) | time shifts |
Ivan je rekao da on tog dana neće biti ondje.
Ivan said that he wouldn't be there that day. — original 'Ja neću biti ovdje danas': 'ja→on', 'ovdje→ondje', 'danas→tog dana'; but the future tense is kept.
Rekla je da sljedeći dan ima ispit.
She said she had an exam the next day. — 'sutra' becomes 'sljedeći dan'; present 'ima' kept.
Common Mistakes
❌ Rekao je da je bio umoran (for the spoken 'Umoran sam').
Usually wrong — backshifting 'is' to 'was' as in English; if he said 'I am tired', keep the present 'je umoran'.
✅ Rekao je da je umoran.
He said he was tired. — present kept, no backshift.
❌ Obećao je da bi došao (for the spoken 'Doći ću').
Wrong tense — don't shift the future to a conditional as English shifts 'will' to 'would'; keep the future.
✅ Obećao je da će doći.
He promised he would come. — future 'će doći' kept.
❌ Pitao je da li hoćeš doći?
Incorrect — a reported question is a statement, so no question mark; and the verb takes 'li': 'hoće li doći'.
✅ Pitao je hoće li doći.
He asked whether she would come. — no question mark, 'li' on the verb.
❌ Rekao mi je da dođi sutra.
Incorrect — a reported command can't keep the imperative 'dođi'; recast it as 'da + present': 'da dođem'.
✅ Rekao mi je da dođem sutra.
He told me to come tomorrow. — 'da + present'.
❌ Pitala je gdje si bio (reporting about a third person).
Often wrong — if the reporter is talking about a third person, the addressee shifts: 'gdje sam bio' or 'gdje je bio', not 'gdje si bio'.
✅ Pitala je gdje sam bio.
She asked where I had been. — pronoun/deixis shifts to the reporter's view, tense kept.
Key Takeaways
- The overriding rule: Croatian does NOT backshift tenses. Recover the speaker's original tense and keep it, whatever the tense of the reporting verb.
- Statements → da-clause (Rekao je da dolazi); clitics follow da.
- Yes/no questions → li / da li on the verb (Pitao je hoće li doći); wh-questions keep the question word (Pitala je gdje sam bio) — no question mark in either.
- Commands → da + present (Rekao mi je da dođem) or neka + present (Rekao je neka pričekaju); the imperative cannot survive embedded.
- Pronouns, place and time words still shift to the reporter's viewpoint (ja→on, ovdje→ondje, danas→tog dana) — only the deixis moves, never the tense.
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Start learning Croatian→Related Topics
- The Subordinator daA2 — The workhorse conjunction da — 'that' for reported speech, 'so that' for purpose, the infinitive-replacing da + present, commands, and wishes — always with the indicative.
- The Question Particle liA2 — The yes/no question particle li in second position, the fixed je li opener and tag, and how it competes with the clitic cluster against colloquial da li and pure intonation questions.
- Subordinate Clauses: OverviewB1 — The da, koji, što, and kad clause types and how their punctuation works.
- Negative Commands and 'let's / let him'A2 — Prohibitions with nemoj and indirect imperatives with neka.
- Indirect and Rhetorical QuestionsB1 — Embedded yes/no questions with li or da li, indirect wh-questions that keep their question word, the critical absence of tense backshift, and rhetorical questions with zar and tko zna.