Reporting Questions and Commands

Reporting a statement is only half the job. Real speech is full of questions and commands, and each requires its own machinery when you relay it. A yes/no question becomes an ob-clause; a w-question keeps its question word but loses its question word order; and a command — because German has no such thing as a reported imperative — must be rebuilt with the modal sollen. Across all three, the verb moves to the end and the Konjunktiv mood marks the report. This page shows you how to convert each type without slipping into the English patterns that don't transfer.

The unifying mechanics

Before the three types, two things stay constant in every reported question or command:

1. The verb goes to the end (verb-final order), because a reported question or command is a subordinate clause.
2. The mood shifts to Konjunktiv, exactly as in reported statements — Konjunktiv I where it is distinct, Konjunktiv II as the substitute where Konjunktiv I would match the indicative.

Keep those two in mind and each type below is just a question of what introduces the clause.

Reporting yes/no questions: ob

A direct yes/no question (Kommst du mit?) has no question word — its "questionness" lives entirely in the verb-first word order. When you report it, that word order disappears (the clause is now subordinate), so German needs a subordinator to carry the question meaning. That word is ob ("whether/if").

The English parallel is "whether/if," and it maps cleanly — ob = "whether." The one thing English speakers must not do is keep the original verb-first order (see Common Mistakes). Note also: German ob is the dedicated reporting word; do not use wenn here, which means "if" only in the conditional sense.

Reporting w-questions: keep the question word

A w-question (Wann kommst du?) already has a question word — wann, wo, wer, was, warum, wie — and that word does double duty: in reported speech it becomes the subordinator that introduces the clause. You keep the w-word and send the verb to the end.

This too parallels English ("She asked when I was coming"), with the same loss of question word order. For the broader behaviour of these clauses outside reporting, see indirect questions and ob and indirect questions.

Reporting commands: sollen, because there is no reported imperative

Here is the structure that genuinely diverges from English, and the highest-value insight on this page. English can report a command with an infinitive: "He told me to wait." German cannot — there is no reported-imperative form, and the infinitive route is restricted. Instead, German rebuilds the directive force with the modal verb sollen ("be supposed to / should") in the Konjunktiv: Er sagte, ich solle warten — literally "He said I should wait."

Why sollen? Because sollen is the deontic modal — it expresses obligation imposed from outside ("you are supposed to"). A command is an externally imposed obligation, so sollen is the natural carrier of its meaning once the imperative form is gone. The mood follows the usual rule: Konjunktiv I solle in the singular (distinct from indicative soll), Konjunktiv II sollten in the plural (where sollen would match the indicative). For the modal itself, see sollen and the verb reference.

The zu-infinitive alternative for requests

With certain verbs of requesting and ordering — bitten (to ask/request), auffordern (to call upon), befehlen (to order), empfehlen (to recommend) — German can use a zu-infinitive, much closer to the English "ask someone to do." This is an alternative to sollen, not a replacement for it across the board.

But this route is tied to those specific verbs. With a plain sagen (to say/tell) the zu-infinitive is not available — you must use sollen. So Er sagte mir zu warten is wrong; it has to be Er sagte, ich solle warten. When in doubt, sollen always works for a reported command; the zu-infinitive only works after the verbs that license it.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Reported questions and commands are subordinate clauses: the verb goes to the end and the mood shifts to Konjunktiv.
• Yes/no questions → ob
  • verb-final (never the conditional wenn).
• W-questions → keep the w-word as the subordinator + verb-final.
• Commands → rebuilt with sollen in the Konjunktiv (ich solle warten); German has no reported imperative.
• A zu-infinitive is available only after request/order verbs like bitten, empfehlen, befehlen — not after plain sagen.

For the full Konjunktiv mechanics behind these clauses, see the reported-speech tense rules; for the sentence-level framing, return to the reported-speech overview.