Breakdown of Man sagt, der Campus sei sehr mysteriös.
sein
to be
sehr
very
sagen
to say
man
one / you (impersonal)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Campus
the campus
mysteriös
mysterious
Questions & Answers about Man sagt, der Campus sei sehr mysteriös.
Why is the verb sei used here instead of ist?
Sei is the Konjunktiv I (Present Subjunctive) form of sein (to be) for he, she, or it. It is used here for reported speech. By using sei after Man sagt (People say), the speaker shows they are just passing along hearsay or someone else's claim, rather than stating a guaranteed fact.
Why isn't the verb at the end of the sentence? Shouldn't reported speech use a subordinate clause?
Often, yes! But when you drop the word dass (that) in reported speech, the second part of the sentence uses standard main clause word order, keeping the verb (sei) in the second position. If you included dass, the verb would move to the end: Man sagt, dass der Campus sehr mysteriös sei.
Why is Man sagt translated as 'People say' instead of 'The man says'?
The lowercase word man is an indefinite pronoun, similar to the formal English 'one' (as in 'one says...'). In everyday English, it is usually translated as 'people', 'they', or 'you' in a general sense. Be careful not to confuse it with the noun der Mann (the man), which is always capitalized and has two n's.
Could I just use ist instead of sei in everyday conversation?
Yes! In spoken, everyday German, people often just use the normal present tense (the indicative) for reported speech: Man sagt, der Campus ist sehr mysteriös. However, you will frequently read and hear sei in news reports, literature, and formal speech to clearly distance the speaker from the original claim.
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