Kilo Lingo
Esperanto grammar Part of Chapter 9

CEFR B1-B2

4 min read

Test yourself (15 questions)

Esperanto Reported Speech: li diris, ke li venos

By Michael McGettrickUpdated 12 October 2026

To report what someone said, keep the tense of their own words. He said , so you report , , where English shifts to he said he would come.

tense endingke (a statement)ĉu (whether)-u (an order)What do the colours mean?
They saidReportedEnglish
. , .He said he would come.
? , .He asked whether I would come.
? , .She asked where I lived.
! , .She told him to sleep.

Quick check

Now use it: three quick questions on the chart above. The full practice is further down.

Spot the mistake

0/3

Each sentence has one wrong word. Tap it.

The ke clause

ke (a statement)What do the colours mean?

A reported statement hangs off , and three small points come with it:

PointEsperantoEnglish
stays , .He said he would come.
a comma before , .I know you are working.
for the listener , .He told me he was coming.

English can drop that; Esperanto keeps . The comma is a convention, not a rule of the , and most edited Esperanto follows it.

The tense stays put

tense endingke (a statement)What do the colours mean?

Reuse the ending the speaker used:

They saidReportedEnglish
. , .He said he would come.
. , .He said he was ill.
. , .He said he had seen him.
. , .He said he was working.

The tense in the clause is measured from the moment he spoke, not from now:

  • li vidis lin (-is: before he spoke)

  • li diris... (the moment he spoke)

  • li estas malsana (-as: as he spoke)

  • li venos (-os: after he spoke)

Timeline from past to now, with now marked.

So -is in the clause gives English had: , . is he said he had been ill, over before he spoke.

The -us trap

tense endingWhat do the colours mean?

English reports will as would, and would pulls learners towards -us. But -us is the conditional: it makes the event hypothetical.

He saidEsperantoEnglish
. , .He said he would come.
, ... , .He said he would come (if...).

Two different men, one English sentence. Ask what the speaker actually said: is reported with .

Reported questions: ĉu and the ki- words

ĉu (whether)What do the colours mean?

A yes/no question keeps , the word that opened it:

  • , . - He asked whether I would come.
  • , . - I do not know whether he is at home.

Never : it means if only in the sense of on condition that. And never : does the job alone.

A question-word question keeps its ki- word, and nothing moves:

DirectReportedEnglish
? , .She asked where I lived.
? , .I do not know when he will come.
? , .He asked why I was laughing.

English has to undo where do you live into where I lived. Esperanto never inverted it, so there is nothing to undo, and the tense stays the speaker's own.

Reported orders and requests

ke (a statement)-u (an order)What do the colours mean?

An order inside a clause takes -u:

They saidReportedEnglish
! , .She told the boy to sleep.
! , .She asked me to help her.
! , .He ordered us to stay at home.

The -u carries the order by itself: no word for should or to. It works after every verb of asking, telling and wanting.

After (ask) and (order) an infinitive also works:

  • . - He asked me to help him.
  • . - He ordered us to stay.

The -u version works after all of them, so keep it as the default.

Pronouns, and where si stops

Reporting moves the pronouns as in English: I becomes he, and (now) may become (then). The one trap is : it points at the subject of its own clause, and a clause has its own subject.

Whose fatherEsperantoEnglish
the clause's , .He said he had seen his own father.
the main , .He said I had seen his father.

In the second, the clause's subject is , and cannot point at I (that would be ), so his father is . never reaches across to the main clause, and never sits inside the subject it would point at: he said his brother would come is , ., not . The reflexive has the rest of .

Mistakes English speakers make

WrongRightWhy
he said : keep -os
he said : keep -as
, , whether is
, , a request takes -u
. , . stays

What to do next

  1. Report three things someone said today, keeping their tenses.
  2. Turn three of your own questions into , ... and , ....
  3. Then read subordinate clauses for , and beyond reporting.

See also

Practise: test yourself

Build the word

0/4

Report it: build the verb with the speaker's own ending.

  1. He said: Mi venos. Li diris, ke li ___.

    Accents optional - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

    Your word is empty.

  2. She said: Mi laboras. Ŝi diris, ke ŝi ___.

    Accents optional - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

    Your word is empty.

  3. He said: Mi vidis lin. Li diris, ke li ___ lin.

    Accents optional - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

    Your word is empty.

  4. Mum said: Dormu! Ŝi diris, ke la knabo ___.

    Accents optional - cx, gx, ux work for ĉ, ĝ, ŭ

    Your word is empty.

Spot the mistake

0/3

Each sentence has one wrong word. Tap it.

Pick the right one

0/4

Which form belongs in the reported sentence?

  1. Li diris, ke li morgaŭ. (He said: I will come.)

  2. Mi ne scias, li estas hejme. (whether)

  3. Ŝi diris, ke ŝi laca. (She said: I am tired.)

  4. Li diris, ke li legis libron. (his own book)

Translation drill

0/4

Translate into Esperanto.

  1. He said that he would write a letter.

  2. She asked where I lived.

  3. The mother said that the children should stay at home.

  4. He answered that he had already read the book.

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Frequently asked questions

How do you say he said that in Esperanto?
, and then the clause: , , he said he would come. The comma before is the usual punctuation, and itself stays, where English can drop that. The person spoken to takes : , , he told me he was coming.
Why is it , and not ?
Because he said , a plain future, and the report keeps it. English turns will into would, and would tempts learners into -us. But -us is the conditional: , means he said he would come if something else happened. Ask what the speaker actually said.
Does Esperanto backshift tenses in reported speech?
No. The tense in the clause is the speaker's own, measured from the moment they spoke. , is he said he was ill (ill as he spoke); , is he said he had been ill (ill before he spoke). The rule is simpler than English, which is exactly why English speakers keep applying their own.
How do you report a yes/no question in Esperanto?
With , the word that opens a direct yes/no question: , , he asked whether I was coming. Do not use , which means if only in the sense of on condition that. And does the job alone: is not a construction.
How do you report an order or a request?
Put the verb in the clause into -u: , , the mother told the boy to sleep. With and an infinitive also works: , . The plus -u version works after any verb of asking, telling or wanting, so learn that one first.
When do I use in reported speech?
points at the subject of its own clause, and a clause has its own subject. , : the inside the clause saw his own father. , : the clause's subject is , cannot point at (my father would be ), so his father is . never reaches across to the main clause.