Other people’s words: -dığını söyledi, diye and hearsay on -mış
The news is made of retelling, and Turkish retells three ways. For example: “Uçuşun iptal edildiğini söylediler” — They said that the flight was cancelled. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
The news is made of retelling, and Turkish retells three ways.
The first folds the other person's thought into a name. It stands in front of the speech verb with the tail -dığını: Uçuşun iptal edildiğini söylediler, they said the flight was cancelled. About tomorrow the same move gives geleceğini söyledi.
The second is diye, word for word. The line stands in front of diye untouched, the person inside it unchanged: «Kaynak güvenilir» diye yazmışlar. A question is quoted the same way: Nerede diye sordu.
The third is -mış, and English has nothing quite like it. It is the I-did-not-see-it-myself form: gelmiş, he came, they say. On a name the same job is done by hastaymış. The trap is hearing that as a plain past.
Table
| the method | what it does | example | translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| -dığını + a verb of speech | a retelling in one’s own words | geldiğini söyledi | he said that he had come |
| -eceğini + a verb of speech | the same about the future | geleceğini söyledi | he said that he would come |
| «…» diye | a verbatim quote | «Gelirim» diye söyledi | he said: «I will come» |
| diye sordu / bağırdı | a quoted question, a shout | Nerede diye sordu | he asked: «where?» |
| -sin diye | someone else’s goal | anlasın diye | so that he understands |
| -mış | hearsay, not seen with one’s own eyes | gelmiş | he has come, they say |
| -(y)mış with a noun | the same with a noun predicate | hastaymış | he is ill, apparently |
By example
- Uçuşun iptal edildiğini söyledilerThey said that the flight was cancelled
- «Kaynak güvenilir» diye yazmışlarThey wrote: «the source is reliable»
- Haberi duymuş, bize hemen aramışApparently he heard the news and called us right away
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
Other people’s words: how does it work in Turkish?
The news is made of retelling, and Turkish retells three ways.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Uçuşun iptal edildiğini söylediler” — They said that the flight was cancelled. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.