Turkish Grammar › Reported Speech
Aktarma Kalıpları (-DAn / -(y)A … diye söyle- / iste- / rica et-)
Reporting Patterns
Level A2Reported Speech
The easiest way to report someone's words as they were said: reporting with «diye», and the case endings that go with it.
The easiest way to report what someone said is to repeat the words as they were and add «diye» and a verb: «Ali bana «Yarın erken gel.» diye söyledi.»
«diye» never changes: it neither obeys vowel harmony nor takes any suffix. It always comes after the reported words and is written separately.
These verbs are the ones most used with «diye»: söyle-, sor-, bağır-, iste-, rica et-, emret-.
The dative shows TO WHOM the words were said: bana, sana, ona, bize, size, onlara. «Öğretmen bize «Kitapları açın.» dedi.»
The ablative shows FROM WHOM something is asked or heard: benden, senden, ondan, bizden. «Annem benden ekmek istedi.», «Öğretmen bizden ödev istedi.»
Questions are reported the same way: «Ayşe bana «Nereye gidiyorsun?» diye sordu.»
In writing the reported words are put in quotation marks and «diye» is written separately after them. In speech there are no quotation marks, but the tone of voice changes.
When the verb «demek» is used, «diye» is not needed: «Ali bana «Yarın gel.» dedi.» This is a correct way of reporting too.
This is the simplest form of reporting; the form in which the words are reported with a suffix (gelmesini söyledi) comes in a later topic at this level.
Examples
- Ali bana «Yarın erken gel.» diye söyledi.Ali told me, «Come early tomorrow.»
- Öğretmen bize «Kitapları açın.» dedi.The teacher said to us, «Open your books.»
- Annem benden ekmek istedi.My mother asked me for bread.
- Ayşe bana «Nereye gidiyorsun?» diye sordu.Ayşe asked me, «Where are you going?»
- Müdür bizden yardım rica etti.The manager asked us for help.