In short

When you repeat someone’s words instead of quoting them, Greek turns the original utterance into a subordinate clause. A statement becomes an ότι / πως clause, a question becomes an αν clause (yes/no) or a clause opened by the question word itself (τι, ποιος, πού, πότε, γιατί, πώς), and a command becomes a να clause, negated with μη(ν). Three things then have to be re-anchored to the new speaker: the person (εγώ → εκείνος), the place and time words (εδώ → εκεί, αύριο → την επόμενη μέρα), and, if the reporting verb is in the past, the tense (γράφω → έγραφα, έγραψα → είχα γράψει, θα γράψω → θα έγραφα). The quotation marks «…» and the Greek question mark «;» disappear: a reported question ends with a full stop.

The rule

1. Statements → ότι / πως. After λέω, απαντάω, εξηγώ, γράφω, ακούω, μαθαίνω and similar verbs, the reported statement is introduced by ότι or πως; the two are interchangeable after verbs of saying — the difference between them is one of evidence rather than register (ότι normally reports what is presented as established fact, πως a view that may be doubtful or unverified), and even that has worn away, so neither belongs to a lower register than the other — and πως here is the unaccented conjunction, not the interrogative πώς “how”.

«Δεν προλαβαίνω.» → Μου είπε ότι δεν προλάβαινε.

2. Yes/no questions → αν. After ρωτάω, αναρωτιέμαι, θέλω να ξέρω, δεν ξέρω, the yes/no question is introduced by αν (formal εάν). Never by ότι.

«Μιλάς ελληνικά;» → Με ρώτησε αν μιλούσα ελληνικά.

3. Wh-questions → the question word itself. τι, ποιος, πού, πότε, γιατί, πώς, πόσο keep their form — and their accent, where they carry one: τι and ποιος are monosyllables and stay bare — and open the clause on their own; nothing is added in front of them. πού and πώς keep the acute inside the reported clause too, because they are still interrogative there (that is what distinguishes them from the relative που and the conjunction πως).

«Πού σπουδάζεις;» → Με ρώτησε πού σπουδάζω.

4. Commands → να / να μην. After λέω (in the sense “tell someone to”), ζητάω, παρακαλώ, προτείνω, συμβουλεύω, the imperative becomes να + subjunctive; the person of the subjunctive is the person who has to act. A prohibition uses μη(ν), never δεν — δεν belongs to indicative clauses only. Use μην before a vowel and before κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, γκ, μπ, ντ, τσ, τζ, and μη elsewhere.

«Κλείσε την πόρτα.» → Μου είπε να κλείσω την πόρτα. «Μην ξεχάσεις τα εισιτήρια.» → Μου είπε να μην ξεχάσω τα εισιτήρια.

Note the split in λέω: λέω + ότι reports a statement, λέω + να reports an order. Μου είπε ότι έφυγε = “he told me he had left”; Μου είπε να φύγω = “he told me to leave”. With ζητάω, a full noun phrase takes από: Ζήτησα από τον γείτονα να χαμηλώσει τη μουσική, but a weak pronoun stands alone in the genitive: Μου ζήτησε να περιμένω.

5. Aspect in reported commands. The να clause keeps the aspect of the original imperative: a one-off act is perfective (να κλείσω, να φύγω), a repeated or ongoing one is imperfective (να μη μιλάω στη βιβλιοθήκη).

6. The three shifts. Before you write the clause, answer three questions: who is speaking now (person), where and when am I reporting from (deictics), and is the reporting verb in the past (tense). The tense shift is obligatory in careful writing; in everyday speech Greeks often keep the original tense when the fact still holds (Μου είπε ότι δουλεύει εδώ — he still does).

7. Punctuation. Drop the guillemets and the ερωτηματικό. Nothing separates the matrix verb from the reported clause: no comma before ότι, no question mark inside it.

Forms & patterns

Statements: ότι / πως after λέω, απαντάω, εξηγώ

Questions: αν for yes/no, the question word for the rest

Commands: να / να μην after λέω and ζητάω

The person shift

The deictic shift

«Θα έρθω εδώ αύριο.» → Είπε ότι θα πήγαινε εκεί την επόμενη μέρα.

The tense shift after a past reporting verb (γράφω)

Watch the accent: the imperfect is stressed on the augment in the singular and the third person plural (έγραφα, έγραφαν) but on the stem in the first and second person plural (γράφαμε, γράφατε). The perfect also moves down one step: έχω γράψει → είχα γράψει.

The reporting verbs

ποιος inside a reported question

ποιος has no vocative — an interrogative is never used to call someone. None of the forms in the table takes an accent: they all count as one syllable (ποιος, ποια, ποιου are pronounced πιος, πια, πιου), unlike πού and πώς, which must be accented. The genitive has a second set of forms, ποιανού, ποιανής, ποιανών: these are not colloquial — they are the usual genitive when ποιος stands on its own as a noun (Ποιανού ήταν η ιδέα;) — and, being polysyllabic, they do carry an accent. There is no ποιανούς: the set is genitive only. τίνος, and more rarely τίνων, serve as a further genitive of ποιος.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Με ρώτησε ότι πού μένω. -> Με ρώτησε πού μένω. — ότι introduces statements only; a question word opens its own clause and needs nothing in front of it.
• Με ρώτησε ότι αν θέλω καφέ. -> Με ρώτησε αν θέλω καφέ. — a yes/no question takes αν alone, never ότι αν.
• Με ρώτησε πού είναι το φαρμακείο; -> Με ρώτησε πού ήταν το φαρμακείο. — a reported question is a statement about a question: it ends with a full stop, not with the ερωτηματικό.
• Με ρώτησε πού το φαρμακείο είναι. -> Με ρώτησε πού είναι το φαρμακείο. — do not import the English “un-inversion” rule; in Greek the verb normally stays right after the question word in indirect questions just as in direct ones, and any subject follows it.
• Με ρώτησε που μένω. -> Με ρώτησε πού μένω. — interrogative πού keeps its accent inside the reported clause; unaccented που is the relative “that, which”.
• Μου είπε ότι θέλω να τον βοηθήσω. -> Μου είπε ότι ήθελε να τον βοηθήσω. — his «θέλω» is not your εγώ: shift first and second person to the people they now refer to.
• Μου είπε ότι θα ερχόταν εδώ αύριο. -> Μου είπε ότι θα πήγαινε εκεί την επόμενη μέρα. — εδώ, τώρα, αύριο and έρχομαι point at the original speaker’s here-and-now and must be re-anchored.
• Μου είπε να δεν φύγω. -> Μου είπε να μη φύγω. — να clauses are negated with μη(ν); δεν is only for indicative clauses.
• Μου είπε ότι φύγω. -> Μου είπε να φύγω. — an order becomes a να clause; ότι would report it as a statement about leaving.

Tips

• Run the same checklist every time: person → place and time → tense. Two of the three are wrong far more often than the connective.
• Backshift is a matter of register. In writing, move the tense back (είπε ότι δούλευε); in speech you may keep the present when the situation still holds (είπε ότι δουλεύει εδώ). Never mix the two inside one clause.
• ότι and πως are interchangeable after verbs of saying — neither is the colloquial one; the old split (ότι for what is presented as fact, πως for what may be doubtful or unverified) is no longer observed — so pick one and stay consistent in a paragraph. Keep πως (statement) apart from πώς (how) by the accent alone.
• αν after ρωτάω means “whether”, not “if” in the conditional sense; you can also add ή όχι: Με ρώτησε αν θα έρθω ή όχι.
• Choose μην before a vowel and before κ, π, τ, ξ, ψ, γκ, μπ, ντ, τσ, τζ (να μην ανοίξεις), and μη elsewhere (να μη φύγεις).
• When a weak pronoun follows a noun it could belong to, accent it: «Ο γείτονας μάς είπε…» = “the neighbour told us”, against «ο γείτονάς μας είπε…» = “our neighbour said”. A word stressed on the third syllable from the end takes that extra accent when a clitic follows: ο συνάδελφός μου, το μάθημά μας.
• To report a long stretch of speech, use ότι once and let the following clauses run on with και or a full stop plus λέει; repeating ότι in every clause sounds like a police report.