He said that: someone else’s speech without "that"
Turkish has no word for that at all: somebody else's words move inside the verb. For example: “Annem nerede olduğunu sordu” — My mother asked where he was. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Turkish has no word for that at all: somebody else's words move inside the verb.
A statement is put together like this. The inner verb takes -dık for the past or -ecek for the future, then the person, then the whom-tail. He said that he would come is geleceğini söyledi.
A question works the same way: Annem nerede olduğunu sordu, my mother asked where he was. The question word stays where it is, and the verb turns into a name.
A request takes -ma instead of -dık: Sessiz olmamızı rica etti, he asked us to be quiet. The trap is demek: it takes speech as it stands, in quotes, and söylemek cannot.
Table
| what we pass on | the form | example | translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| a statement about the past | -dığını söyledi | geldiğini söyledi | he said that he had come |
| a statement about the future | -eceğini söyledi | geleceğini söyledi | he said that he would come |
| a question with a word | -dığını sordu | nerede olduğunu sordu | he asked where he was |
| a yes/no question | -ip -meyeceğini | gelip gelmeyeceğini sordu | he asked whether he would come |
| a request | -masını rica etti | gelmesini rica etti | he asked him to come |
| verbatim | «…» dedi | «yarın gelirim» dedi | «I will come tomorrow», he said |
By example
- Annem nerede olduğunu sorduMy mother asked where he was
- Sessiz olmamızı rica ettiHe asked us to be quiet
- Duyduğuma göre dükkânı satmışlarFrom what I hear, they have sold the shop
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
He said that: how does it work in Turkish?
Turkish has no word for that at all: somebody else's words move inside the verb.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Annem nerede olduğunu sordu” — My mother asked where he was. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.