When you tell someone what another person said, you have two options. You can quote them directly — Marie a dit : « Je suis fatiguée » — or you can fold their words into your own sentence — Marie a dit qu'elle était fatiguée. The second option is le discours indirect (indirect speech, also called reported speech), and it requires you to make several adjustments at once: pronouns shift, tenses shift, and time and place expressions shift to match the new vantage point. This page walks through every transformation you need.
The basic transformation
Direct speech preserves the original speaker's exact words inside quotation marks (in French, guillemets « »). Indirect speech integrates those words into a subordinate clause introduced by que, with a reporting verb (dire, demander, répondre, expliquer, ajouter, préciser, affirmer, prétendre) in the main clause.
Direct : Pierre dit : « J'arrive bientôt. »
Direct: Pierre says: 'I'm coming soon.'
Indirect : Pierre dit qu'il arrive bientôt.
Indirect: Pierre says that he is coming soon.
When the reporting verb is in the present (il dit, elle annonce, je te jure), nothing else needs to shift — the embedded clause keeps its original tense. The only adjustments are the pronouns, because je (Pierre's perspective) becomes il (your perspective).
Marie dit qu'elle prendra le train de seize heures.
Marie says she'll take the four o'clock train.
Le médecin affirme que ce médicament n'a aucun effet secondaire.
The doctor states that this medication has no side effects.
The complications begin when the reporting verb shifts to the past. That is where French earns its reputation for systematic tense agreement.
Tense shifts under a past reporting verb
When you report someone's words after the fact — il a dit, elle m'a expliqué, je lui ai répondu — the embedded tense slides one step into the past. This is called la concordance des temps (sequence of tenses), and it parallels English almost exactly: he says he is tired → he said he was tired. The original tense and the reported tense form pairs:
| Direct (original) | Indirect after past matrix |
|---|---|
| Présent (je suis) | Imparfait (il était) |
| Passé composé (j'ai mangé) | Plus-que-parfait (il avait mangé) |
| Imparfait (je mangeais) | Imparfait (il mangeait — no change) |
| Plus-que-parfait (j'avais fini) | Plus-que-parfait (il avait fini — no change) |
| Futur simple (je viendrai) | Conditionnel présent (il viendrait) |
| Futur antérieur (j'aurai fini) | Conditionnel passé (il aurait fini) |
| Conditionnel présent (je viendrais) | Conditionnel présent (no change) |
| Subjonctif présent (qu'il vienne) | Subjonctif présent (no change in modern French) |
Each shift has a logic: the reported event needs to be re-anchored to the past moment of speaking, not to the present moment of telling. Walk through each transformation with examples.
Présent → imparfait
Direct : Léo a dit : « Je suis crevé. »
Direct: Léo said: 'I'm exhausted.'
Indirect : Léo a dit qu'il était crevé.
Indirect: Léo said he was exhausted.
Elle nous a expliqué qu'elle ne supportait plus son colocataire.
She explained to us that she couldn't stand her roommate anymore.
The original je suis describes a state at the moment Léo spoke. From your later vantage point, that state is in the past — and ongoing past states map to the imparfait.
Passé composé → plus-que-parfait
Direct : Sophie a dit : « J'ai déjà mangé. »
Direct: Sophie said: 'I've already eaten.'
Indirect : Sophie a dit qu'elle avait déjà mangé.
Indirect: Sophie said she had already eaten.
Le témoin a affirmé qu'il avait vu l'accusé sortir du bâtiment vers minuit.
The witness stated that he had seen the defendant leave the building around midnight.
When Sophie spoke, eating was already in her past. Reported later, that event is doubly anterior — anterior to a past — which is exactly what the plus-que-parfait expresses.
Futur → conditionnel présent
Direct : Julien a dit : « Je viendrai te chercher à la gare. »
Direct: Julien said: 'I'll come pick you up at the station.'
Indirect : Julien a dit qu'il viendrait me chercher à la gare.
Indirect: Julien said he would come pick me up at the station.
On nous avait promis que les travaux seraient terminés avant la rentrée.
They had promised us that the work would be finished before the start of the school year.
This is the conditionnel as future-in-the-past: a future seen from a past moment. It maps perfectly onto English would: he said he would come / il a dit qu'il viendrait.
Time and place expressions shift too
Just as tenses re-anchor, so do words that point to "now" or "here." If Marie said demain (tomorrow), and you are reporting her words a week later, the day she meant is no longer tomorrow — it is the next day after she spoke. French has dedicated expressions for these shifted reference points:
| Direct (anchored to speaker's now) | Indirect (anchored to past moment) |
|---|---|
| aujourd'hui | ce jour-là (that day) |
| hier | la veille (the day before) |
| avant-hier | l'avant-veille |
| demain | le lendemain (the next day) |
| après-demain | le surlendemain |
| maintenant | à ce moment-là (at that moment) |
| en ce moment | à ce moment-là |
| ce matin / ce soir | ce matin-là / ce soir-là |
| cette semaine | cette semaine-là |
| la semaine prochaine | la semaine suivante / d'après |
| la semaine dernière | la semaine précédente / d'avant |
| il y a trois jours | trois jours plus tôt / auparavant |
| dans trois jours | trois jours plus tard / après |
| ici | là |
| ce / cette (this) | ce ... -là / cette ... -là (that) |
Direct : « Je pars demain pour Lyon. »
Direct: 'I'm leaving tomorrow for Lyon.'
Indirect : Il a annoncé qu'il partait le lendemain pour Lyon.
Indirect: He announced that he was leaving the next day for Lyon.
Elle m'a juré qu'elle avait quitté Paris la veille.
She swore to me that she had left Paris the day before.
Le candidat a promis qu'il baisserait les impôts l'année suivante.
The candidate promised he would lower taxes the following year.
Reporting questions
Yes/no questions and information questions both report indirectly, but they use different connectors. The reporting verb is typically demander, vouloir savoir, se demander, or ne pas savoir.
Yes/no questions: si
A direct yes/no question becomes a si clause in indirect speech. Note that this si is not a conditional si — it means whether, and it can be followed by any tense, including the futur. (The "si never with futur" rule applies only to si meaning if in conditionals.)
Direct : « Tu viens samedi ? »
Direct: 'Are you coming Saturday?'
Indirect : Il m'a demandé si je venais samedi.
Indirect: He asked me if I was coming Saturday.
Je me demande si elle aura le courage de lui dire la vérité.
I wonder whether she'll have the courage to tell him the truth.
Information questions: keep the question word
When the original question begins with où, quand, pourquoi, comment, combien, qui, that word reappears unchanged in the indirect form — but without inversion or est-ce que.
Direct : « Pourquoi tu ne m'as rien dit ? »
Direct: 'Why didn't you tell me anything?'
Indirect : Elle voulait savoir pourquoi je ne lui avais rien dit.
Indirect: She wanted to know why I hadn't told her anything.
On nous a demandé où nous comptions passer les vacances.
They asked us where we were planning to spend the holidays.
What questions: ce que / ce qui
This is the trickiest piece. Qu'est-ce que and qu'est-ce qui both translate as English what, but they cannot survive into indirect speech in their question form. They become ce que (object) and ce qui (subject):
| Direct question | Indirect form | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Qu'est-ce que tu fais ? | ... ce que tu fais | what (object) |
| Que fais-tu ? | ... ce que tu fais | what (object, formal) |
| Qu'est-ce qui se passe ? | ... ce qui se passe | what (subject) |
Direct : « Qu'est-ce que tu manges ? »
Direct: 'What are you eating?'
Indirect : Il m'a demandé ce que je mangeais.
Indirect: He asked me what I was eating.
Personne ne savait ce qui se passait dans la pièce d'à côté.
Nobody knew what was happening in the next room.
The logic: que by itself cannot introduce an embedded clause (it is reserved for the conjunction que meaning that). To recycle the meaning of what, French wraps it in ce ("the thing") plus the relative pronoun que or qui.
Reporting commands and requests
Imperatives cannot be embedded directly. Instead, French uses de + infinitif:
Direct : « Pars ! »
Direct: 'Leave!'
Indirect : Il m'a dit de partir.
Indirect: He told me to leave.
La prof nous a demandé de rendre nos copies avant la fin de l'heure.
The teacher asked us to hand in our papers before the end of class.
Mon père m'a interdit de sortir ce soir-là.
My father forbade me from going out that night.
This works with verbs like dire de, demander de, ordonner de, conseiller de, suggérer de, supplier de, interdire de, défendre de. The subject of the infinitive is whoever is being commanded — usually the indirect object of the reporting verb (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur).
How French differs from English
The mechanics of indirect speech in French and English are remarkably parallel — both languages systematically shift tenses backwards under a past matrix verb. He said he was tired and Il a dit qu'il était fatigué both demote a present state into the past. He said he would come and Il a dit qu'il viendrait both use the conditional/would form for future-in-the-past. If you have native intuitions about English reported speech, most of them transfer.
The differences are mostly about specific French resources English lacks:
- Time-marker substitutions are mandatory in careful French (la veille, le lendemain), whereas English often relies on context to disambiguate yesterday/the day before.
- Ce que / ce qui has no English parallel — English just keeps what in both direct and indirect questions.
- De + infinitif for reported commands replaces English to + infinitive; the structure is similar but French uses the preposition de, which is unique.
- The relaxed sequence-of-tenses option: if the reported fact is still true at the moment of telling, modern French permits skipping the shift (Il a dit qu'il est malade — he said he is sick, and still is). This option is broader in French than in English, where the backshift is more obligatory.
Common Mistakes
❌ Il a dit qu'il viendra demain.
Incorrect — under a past matrix, futur must shift to conditionnel.
✅ Il a dit qu'il viendrait le lendemain.
He said he would come the next day.
❌ Je lui ai demandé qu'est-ce qu'il faisait.
Incorrect — qu'est-ce que cannot survive into indirect speech.
✅ Je lui ai demandé ce qu'il faisait.
I asked him what he was doing.
❌ Elle a dit que demain elle partirait.
Incorrect — once anchored to a past report, demain must become le lendemain.
✅ Elle a dit que le lendemain elle partirait.
She said she would leave the next day.
❌ Il m'a dit que je pars.
Incorrect — for reported commands, use de + infinitif, not que + clause.
✅ Il m'a dit de partir.
He told me to leave.
❌ Je me demande est-ce qu'il viendra.
Incorrect — the est-ce que question scaffolding cannot embed; use si.
✅ Je me demande s'il viendra.
I wonder whether he'll come.
Key takeaways
- Under a present matrix verb, tenses stay put.
- Under a past matrix verb, embedded tenses shift one step into the past: présent → imparfait, passé composé → plus-que-parfait, futur → conditionnel.
- Time and place markers re-anchor: demain → le lendemain, hier → la veille, ici → là.
- Yes/no questions take si; qu'est-ce que / qu'est-ce qui become ce que / ce qui; other question words stay the same with no inversion.
- Reported commands use de + infinitif, never que + subjunctive.
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- La Concordance des TempsB1 — How French embedded clauses re-tense themselves to match a past matrix verb — and the modern simplifications you can rely on.
- Les Trois Types de Si: drillingB1 — The full architecture of French conditional sentences: real, hypothetical, and counterfactual — with the strict tense pairings that make them work.
- Conditionnel for the Future-in-the-Past (Reported Speech)B1 — When you report past speech that pointed to the future, French shifts the futur to the conditionnel — exactly the way English shifts will to would. Master the rule, the time-reference shifts, and the journalistic patterns where this construction is everywhere.
- Sequence of Tenses: Concordance des TempsB1 — When the main clause is in the past, French shifts the subordinate clause's tense to encode the right temporal relationship — imparfait for same-time, plus-que-parfait for anterior, conditionnel for posterior. Indirect speech and reported thought live by these rules.
- Le Plus-que-parfait: OverviewB1 — The plus-que-parfait is the workhorse French past-anterior tense — for an action completed before another past action. It maps almost perfectly onto English 'had + past participle' (I had eaten, I had gone) and is essential for reported speech, sequential past, hypothetical regret, and si-clauses about past.