Reported information and requests

In speech, Germans report what was said in the ordinary indicative. The Konjunktiv I you may see in newspapers is not needed here.

Statement → dass. Yes/no question → ob. W-question → the question word. Request → bitten … zu, or sollen.

Notice what changes and what does not. The tense stays; the pronouns shift, because the speaker is now somebody else.

• „Ich komme später." → Er hat gesagt, dass er später kommt.

  "I am coming later." → He said he was coming later.

  ich becomes er — the commonest slip is leaving it as ich

• „Hast du Zeit?" → Sie hat gefragt, ob ich Zeit habe.

  "Do you have time?" → She asked whether I had time.

  du becomes ich

Requests are the one case with a shape of its own. bitten takes an accusative person and a zu-infinitive.

jemanden bitten, etwas zu tun — "to ask somebody to do something". The person is accusative; what they should do follows with zu.

• Er hat mich gebeten, ihm zu helfen.

  He asked me to help him.

  mich accusative, ihm dative because helfen takes the dative

• Sie hat mich gebeten, sie morgen anzurufen.

  She asked me to call her tomorrow.

• Mein Chef hat gesagt, dass ich die E-Mail heute schicken soll.

  My boss said I should send the email today.

  sollen is how an instruction gets reported

The reporting verbs worth having ready: