In short

There are two ways to pass on what someone said. Direct speech quotes it word for word, framed by a colon and quotation marks: דנה אמרה: “אני עייפה” (dana amra: “ani ayefa”, ‘Dana said: “I’m tired”’). Indirect (reported) speech folds the utterance into your own sentence as a subordinate clause: דנה אמרה שהיא עייפה (dana amra she-hi ayefa, “Dana said that she’s tired”). The words are no longer the speaker’s — they’re yours, retold.

Turning direct into indirect means two adjustments. First, pick the right connector for the kind of utterance: ש־ for a statement, אם for a yes/no question, the bare question-word for a wh-question, the infinitive for a request. Second — and this is the headline of the whole lesson — shift the deixis (person, place, time) but keep the tense. Hebrew, unlike English, does not backshift: “I am tired” stays present inside “she said that she is tired”. Never translate the English “said she was”.

The rule

• Direct speech = colon + quotes; indirect = the utterance as a ש-clause. Direct quotation keeps the original word-for-word, punctuated with a colon and quotation marks: הוא אמר: “אני לא בא” (hu amar: “ani lo ba”, ‘he said: “I’m not coming”’). Indirect speech drops the quotes and ties the words on as a subordinate clause: הוא אמר שהוא לא בא (hu amar she-hu lo ba, “he said that he isn’t coming”). The complementizer ש־ is the same subordinating tie you met in Complement / object clauses (she-; rotze she-) — glued on with no space.

• Choose the reporting verb, then its governed preposition. The frame verb decides how the person is marked. אמר (amar, “said, told”) marks the addressee with ל־: אמר לי (amar li, “told me”). שאל (sha’al, “asked”) marks the person questioned with את: שאל אותי (sha’al oti, “asked me”). ביקש (bikesh, “asked, requested”) marks the person with מ־: ביקש ממני (bikesh mimeni, “asked me”). טען (ta’an, “claimed”) just takes ש. This אמר ל־ / ביקש מ־ split is the governed-preposition rection — don’t cross it.

• Reported statement → ש־. A quoted statement becomes a ש-clause after אמר / טען / ענה: הוא טען שהוא צודק (hu ta’an she-hu tzodek, “he claimed that he’s right”). Just as in complement clauses, the ש cannot be dropped the way English drops “that”.

• Reported yes/no question → אם (“whether”), not ש. A quoted yes/no question (“Are you hungry?”) is reported with אם (im, here “whether/if”): שאלתי אם הוא רעב (sha’alti im hu ra’ev, “I asked whether he was hungry”). This is the same word as the conditional אם but a different job — and it is emphatically not ש. שאלתי שהוא רעב would mean “I asserted that he’s hungry”, not “I asked whether…”.

• Reported wh-question → keep the question word; add NO ש. A quoted wh-question keeps its question word (מתי, איפה, למה, מי, מה…), which already links the clause on its own — so you never put ש in front of it: הוא שאל מתי אני בא (hu sha’al matai ani ba, “he asked when I was coming”), שאלתי אותה איפה היא גרה (sha’alti ota eifo hi gara, “I asked her where she lived”). שאל שמתי is a double marker and is wrong.

• Reported request/command → infinitive (or ש־ + future). A quoted imperative (“Sit!”, “Wait!”) is normally retold with ביקש מ־ + the infinitive: היא ביקשה מאיתנו לשבת (hi biksha me’itanu lashevet, “she asked us to sit”). The alternative is אמר + ש־ + a future verb: אמא אמרה שאחזור מוקדם (ima amra she-echzor mukdam, “Mom told me to come back early”, lit. “said that I’ll return early”).

• THE HEADLINE RULE: Hebrew does NOT backshift the tense. Keep the exact tense of the original utterance, no matter when you report it. Direct “אני עייפה” (present) stays present under the frame: היא אמרה שהיא עייפה (hi amra she-hi ayefa) — never שהיא הייתה עייפה. Direct “אכלתי” (past) stays past: אמרו שכבר אכלו (amru she-kvar achlu, “they said they’d already eaten” — Hebrew simple past where English uses “had eaten”). Direct “אבוא” (future) stays future: אמר שיבוא (amar she-yavo, “he said he’d come”). English pushes present→past and will→would; Hebrew leaves the tense exactly as spoken.

• Shift the deixis: person, place, time. What does change is the pointing. Person: the speaker’s אני (“I”) becomes הוא / היא from your vantage point, and their אתה (“you”) may become אני. Place: כאן / פה (“here”) → שם (“there”). Time: מחר (“tomorrow”) → למחרת (lemachorat, “the next day”); היום (“today”) → באותו יום (be-oto yom, “that day”); עכשיו (“now”) → אז (“then”). So a quoted “אבוא מחר” reported later becomes אמר שיבוא למחרת (amar she-yavo lemachorat).

Forms & patterns

Reporting verbs and their governed marking:

The four conversions — direct quote → indirect clause:

Deixis shift (person / place / time) — original → reported:

Tense is kept, not shifted (contrast with English):

Examples

Common mistakes

• דנה אמרה שהיא הייתה עייפה (reporting “אני עייפה”) -> דנה אמרה שהיא עייפה (dana amra she-hi ayefa) - Hebrew doesn’t backshift; a present-tense original stays present, unlike English “said she was”.
• שאלתי שהוא רעב -> שאלתי אם הוא רעב (sha’alti im hu ra’ev) - a reported yes/no question takes אם (“whether”), never ש; ש would turn it into an assertion.
• הוא שאל שמתי אני בא -> הוא שאל מתי אני בא (hu sha’al matai ani ba) - never put ש before a wh-word; the question word already links the clause on its own.
• ביקשתי לו לחכות -> ביקשתי ממנו לחכות (bikashti mimeno lechakot) - ביקש governs מ־ (“from”) for the person, not ל־; only אמר takes the addressee with ל־.
• הוא אמר שיבוא מחר (reporting a past utterance) -> הוא אמר שיבוא למחרת (hu amar she-yavo lemachorat) - shift the time deixis: the speaker’s “tomorrow” becomes “the next day” in the retelling.
• דנה אמרה היא עייפה -> דנה אמרה שהיא עייפה (dana amra she-hi ayefa) - a reported statement still needs the complementizer ש; Hebrew can’t drop it the way English drops “that”.
• הוא שאל מתי אתה בא (reporting a question put to me) -> הוא שאל מתי אני בא (hu sha’al matai ani ba) - shift the person too: the original “you” becomes “I” from the reporter’s viewpoint.

Tips

• Run the four-way decision every time: statement → ש; yes/no → אם; wh-question → keep the question word (no ש); request → infinitive. Match the connector to the kind of utterance.
• The one rule that separates Hebrew from English: do not backshift. Whatever tense the original speaker used — present, past, or future — leave it untouched inside the report.
• Deixis, on the other hand, does move: person (אני→הוא), place (כאן→שם), time (מחר→למחרת). Retell everything from your own here-and-now.
• Two connectors never stack. A wh-word is already the link, so שמתי, שאיפה are wrong — just מתי, איפה.
• Memorize the preposition pair: אמר ל־ (tell to someone) vs ביקש מ־ (request from someone). Crossing them is the most common rection slip here.
• Reported commands are cleanest as an infinitive: ביקש ממנו לחכות. The ש־ + future variant (אמר שאחזור) is the alternative when the frame verb is אמר.
• Keep three אם’s apart: reported-question אם (“whether”), conditional אם (“if”, see Real conditional sentences), and the question-marker האם. Same sound, three jobs.
• The old biblical way of framing speech (לאמר (lemor), the vav-consecutive ויאמר (vayomer) narration) is not Modern Hebrew — it belongs only to the Biblical orientation note. In MIH just use אמר / שאל / ביקש + ש / אם / infinitive.