Reported Speech in French: Tense Changes and Examples

Reported speech passes on what somebody said through a reporting verb and que: Il a dit qu'il était fatigué. - He said he was tired. When the reporting verb is in the past, the tense of the words slides back one step.

The glosses: He said he was tired, he had finished, he would come, he would have finished by noon, he used to work a lot, he would like to come. The last two rows do not move.

Reported speech invents no new tense. It chooses among the imparfait, the plus-que-parfait and the conditionnel, which you already have.

Que is never dropped

English drops that without a thought: he said he was tired. French never drops que, in any register.

Que elides before a vowel and stays whole before a consonant:

• Elle a dit qu'elle était en retard. - She said she was late.
• Il a dit que nous étions en retard. - He said we were late.

The backshift: one step back

A past reporting verb moves the clock. What was now for the speaker is then for you, so every tense steps one notch further into the past.

Each moving pair in a sentence:

• « Je suis fatigué. » -> Il a dit qu'il était fatigué. - He said he was tired.
• « J'ai acheté le billet. » -> Il a dit qu'il avait acheté le billet. - He said he had bought the ticket.
• « Je t'aiderai. » -> Il m'a dit qu'il m'aiderait. - He told me he would help me.
• « Nous aurons terminé avant ce soir. » -> Ils ont dit qu'ils auraient terminé avant ce soir-là. - They said they would have finished before that evening.

The two futures turn into the matching conditionals, which is why the conditionnel passé turns up in reports with no hypothesis anywhere near it.

Two tenses stay put

The imparfait and the conditionnel are already one step back, so the backshift has nowhere to send them.

• « Je travaillais beaucoup. » -> Il a dit qu'il travaillait beaucoup. - He said he used to work a lot.
• « J'aimerais venir. » -> Elle a dit qu'elle aimerait venir. - She said she would like to come.
• « J'avais oublié. » -> Il a dit qu'il avait oublié. - He said he had forgotten. (the plus-que-parfait stays too)

So a reported imparfait can stand for two things the speaker said: je suis or je travaillais. The context tells you which.

A present reporting verb moves nothing

The backshift belongs to the past reporting verb alone. Report in the present, or the future, and the original tense stays exactly as spoken.

Pronouns and possessives shift

The reporter is not the speaker, so the people move, exactly as they do in English.

The last one was said to you: his tu becomes your je, and his me becomes le.

Time and place words

Reported on a later day, the words that point at the speaker's moment point somewhere else.

123

1. 1la veille
2. 2ce jour-là
3. 3le lendemain

Seen from a later day: hier becomes la veille (the day before: football), aujourd'hui becomes ce jour-là (that day: reading), demain becomes le lendemain (the next day: a bike ride).

• « Je pars demain. » -> Il a dit qu'il partait le lendemain. - He said he was leaving the next day.

If he said it this morning, tomorrow is still tomorrow: Il a dit qu'il partait demain. is exactly right then.

Mistakes English speakers make

One mistake no table catches: backshifting after a present verb. For he says he is tired, il dit qu'il était fatigué says something else (he says he was tired). Only a past reporting verb moves the tense.

What to do next

1. Report three things a friend said last week, with il a dit que.
2. Move one of them from demain to le lendemain.
3. Then read reported questions and commands: si, ce que and de + infinitive.