Reported Statements

A reported statement presents someone's words, thought, belief, perception, or written message as a subordinate clause. Esperanto normally introduces that clause with ke. The reported clause is finite: it has its own subject and a verb whose tense or mood represents the original statement rather than mechanically agreeing with the reporting verb.

From direct quotation to a ke clause

Direct speech reproduces wording as a quotation. Reported speech packages its content as part of a larger sentence:

The quotation has independent punctuation and preserves mi. In the reported version, ke ŝi laboras hejme tiun tagon is the object-like content of diris. The pronoun changes because the current narrator refers to Marta as ŝi; hodiaŭ changes to tiun tagon because the time viewpoint has changed.

The reported clause can often be replaced by tion, which reveals its role:

This does not mean every ke clause is literally a noun. It means the whole finite clause occupies a slot that an object-like expression can occupy.

Ke marks a subordinate statement

Ke is a clause introducer. It does not mean “and,” “because,” or “therefore”; it tells the listener that a statement is being embedded:

The matrix clause may itself be a question or negative while the embedded content remains a statement. In the last example, Ĉu asks whether the hearing happened; ke still introduces what was heard.

Many verbs can license reported statements: diri, rakonti, klarigi, skribi, anonci, pensi, kredi, scii, rimarki, aŭdi, and vidi. The relation comes from the reporting verb plus the ke clause:

In the first example, the negation applies to sciis, not to the shop's closing time. The exchange shows how a reported clause supplies the content requested by kion.

The reported clause has its own subject

A finite ke clause normally states its subject explicitly, even when that subject refers to someone in the main clause:

English also uses an overt subject here, but Esperanto learners sometimes omit it because commands can omit vi or because other languages allow subject omission. The verb venos does not identify person, so li is necessary.

Do not use si as the subject of the reported clause:

Si cannot be a grammatical subject. Within the reported clause, however, si and sia can refer back to that clause's own subject:

Here siaj refers to li, the subject of perdis. If the keys belong to some other male person already mentioned, use liajn. The dedicated pronouns in reported speech page develops these viewpoint changes.

Esperanto does not backshift tense mechanically

English often changes present to past after a past reporting verb: “She said she was tired.” Esperanto preserves the tense of the original thought or statement:

The -as form represents what was present at the time of speaking. It does not claim that she is still tired now. If the original statement referred to an earlier event, keep -is:

If it predicted something later than the original statement, keep -os:

This relative-to-the-original-viewpoint system is foundational Esperanto usage. The reporting verb may be past while the embedded verb is present or future in form. See relative time in reported speech for difficult timelines.

Mood depends on the reported content

A statement presented as fact, belief, or perception normally uses -as, -is, or -os:

A report of a desired or ordered action uses the volitive -u, not ordinary statement tense:

That second pattern reports a directive and belongs fully on reported commands. The important point is that ke alone does not choose the mood. The relation expressed by the main verb and the original utterance does.

Information packaging and word order

The neutral order places the short reporting frame first and the often longer reported content afterward:

This order gives the source before the message. Fronting the ke clause is grammatical but marked:

The fronted version strongly topicalizes the content and is more at home in (formal) or (literary) prose than ordinary conversation.

A reported statement can also explain a noun:

Here the ke clause gives the content of la novaĵo rather than serving as the object of a reporting verb.

Punctuation and keeping ke

Direct speech normally uses quotation marks and often a colon after the reporting frame. Indirect speech uses neither quotation marks nor a final question mark merely because the original speaker used question-like intonation. A comma before ke is conventional and helps expose the clause boundary.

English can omit “that,” but a neutral Esperanto complement keeps ke:

Esperanto can package the source differently, for example with laŭ:

The second sentence has no missing conjunction: laŭ la redaktoro is a prepositional source phrase, and la artikolo aperos morgaŭ is the main assertion. Marked parenthetical reporting patterns are also attested, especially in literary prose, but they are different structures—not a general license to delete ke after diri, pensi, or klarigi.

Common Mistakes

Omitting ke by copying English

Backshifting the tense mechanically

Using a coordinating linker

Using si as a subordinate subject

Key Takeaways

Report a statement with a finite ke clause. Give that clause its own subject, adjust pronouns and time expressions to the narrator's viewpoint, and preserve the tense that the original statement used. Keep ke in neutral prose, use ordinary subordinate-clause punctuation rather than quotation punctuation, and reserve marked omission or fronting for contexts where its discourse effect is intentional.