He said that: someone else’s speech without "that"
This wave tags the whole lesson u58-l5 as reported-speech phrases — and for the English side that is true: 'he explained', 'she asked where', 'as I understand' are turns of phrase. The Turkish side is built differently: the language has no conjunction 'that' at all, and other people's words go inside the verb. For example: “Annem nerede olduğunu sordu” — My mother asked where he was. A rule from the Turkish course…
How it works
This wave tags the whole lesson u58-l5 as reported-speech phrases — and for the English side that is true: 'he explained', 'she asked where', 'as I understand' are turns of phrase. The Turkish side is built differently: the language has no conjunction 'that' at all, and other people's words go inside the verb.
A statement: -dığını söyledi. 'He said that he would come' — geleceğini söyledi. The inner verb takes -dık (for past and present) or -ecek (for the future), then the person, then the accusative: gel-ecek-i-ni söyledi. The English 'that' vanishes without a trace, and the clause moves in front of the verb of speech.
A question: the same trick. 'She asked where he was' — nerede olduğunu sordu. The question word stays where it is, and the verb of the question becomes a noun. 'Asked whether he would come' — gelip gelmeyeceğini sordu, literally 'his coming-not-coming he asked': Turkish builds 'whether' by making the verb ask twice, positive and negative.
A request and an order: -masını. 'He asked us to be quieter' — sessiz olmamızı rica etti. Here it is no longer -dık but -ma with a person and the accusative: the request points into the future, so the form is different.
Verbatim delivery. It can be done with no rebuilding at all: «yarın gelirim» dedi — 'I will come tomorrow', he said. The verb demek takes the quote as is, in quotation marks; söylemek cannot — it demands the -dık form.
Turns with kadarıyla and göre. anladığım kadarıyla (as far as I understand), duyduğuma göre (from what I hear), görgü tanığına göre (according to an eyewitness) — all three are built on the same -dık form, only the case after it differs: kadarıyla takes the bare noun, göre the to-case.
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?
This wave tags the whole lesson u58-l5 as reported-speech phrases — and for the English side that is true: 'he explained', 'she asked where', 'as I understand' are turns of phrase. The Turkish side is built differently: the language has no conjunction 'that' at all, and other people's words go…
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.