Turkish Grammar › Reported Speech
Emir Kipinin Aktarımı (-mAsInI söyle- / iste-)
Reported Commands and Requests
Level A2Reported Speech
Reporting an order or a request with a suffix: «Gel!» dedi → gelmemi söyledi.
There are two ways of reporting an order or a request. You saw the first in topic seven: repeating the words as they were. «Ali bana «Yarın gel.» dedi.»
The second is reporting with a suffix, and it is more common in everyday language: «Ali bana yarın gelmemi söyledi.» There are no quotation marks here; the order has turned into a nominalised verb.
The pattern is the same as in the previous topic: verb + «-mA» + possessive ending + accusative + söyle- / iste- / rica et- / emret-.
The possessive ending is chosen according to the person WHO RECEIVES the order. «Ali bana gelmemi söyledi.» — I am the one who will come. «Ali ona gelmesini söyledi.» — he is the one who will come.
So before building the sentence you should ask «who will carry out the order?»; the possessive ending points to that person.
The dative shows to whom the order was said: bana, sana, ona, bize, size, onlara söyledi.
With negative orders two negatives come one after the other, which looks confusing at first: «Gelme!» → «Gelmememi söyledi.» The order «gelme» turns into the noun «gelmeme».
Requests are reported the same way: «Lütfen bekleyin.» → «Beklememizi rica etti.»
When reporting, words of time and person may change: if «Yarın gel.» is reported a day later, it becomes «bugün gelmemi söyledi».
The choice of verb changes the meaning: «söyledi» merely passes it on, «istedi» is firmer, «rica etti» is polite, and «emretti» is commanding.
Reporting questions does not belong to this level; you will meet it at B2.
Examples
- Ali bana yarın erken gelmemi söyledi.Ali told me to come early tomorrow.
- Öğretmen bizden kitapları açmamızı istedi.The teacher asked us to open our books.
- Annem kardeşime odasını toplamasını söyledi.My mother told my brother to tidy his room.
- Müdür beklememizi rica etti.The manager asked us to wait.
- Doktor babama sigara içmemesini söyledi.The doctor told my father not to smoke.