Learn German: Die Polizei sagte, er habe den Wachmann bedroht, aber kein Schuss sei gefallen. - The police said he had threatened the guard, but no shot had been fired.

Die Polizei sagte, er habe den Wachmann bedroht, aber kein Schuss sei gefallen.

The police said he had threatened the guard, but no shot had been fired.

Breakdown of Die Polizei sagte, er habe den Wachmann bedroht, aber kein Schuss sei gefallen.

Questions & Answers about Die Polizei sagte, er habe den Wachmann bedroht, aber kein Schuss sei gefallen.

Why do we use habe in the first half but sei in the second half?

Both are forming the past tense of Konjunktiv I for reported speech. You use habe for verbs that normally take haben in the perfect tense (like bedrohen), and sei for verbs that take sein, which are usually verbs of motion or change of state (like fallen).

The English translation says "had been fired", which is passive. Why isn't the German sentence passive?

The German sentence is actually active! It literally translates to "no shot had fallen". In German, the common idiom for a shot being fired is ein Schuss fällt (a shot falls). The English passive is just the most natural way to translate this idea.

Why are habe and sei in the second position of their clauses? Shouldn't reported speech put the verb at the end?

You only put the conjugated verb at the end if you use the word dass (that). When you drop dass in reported speech, the clause goes back to normal main clause word order. If you included it, the first part would be: dass er den Wachmann bedroht habe.

Does the past tense sagte change how we form the reported speech?