I remember well the first time I encountered dependent speech in German. It was during my first stay in Germany, during which I worked intensively to improve my language skills. I took every possible opportunity to talk to people in German, went to the cinema to watch German movies and read German newspapers. It was in one of the local weekly newspapers that I first saw that strange verb sei, reading about a statement made by a politician. The sentence sounded quite simple:
“Der Politiker sagte, dass er über die Situation besorgt sei.” (The politician said that he was concerned about the situation.)I remember being surprised by this sentence. What does sei mean and what happened to ist? I immediately asked my German friend about it, who explained to me that sei is one of the forms of the verb sein, which we use to form dependent speech. It turned out that in German there is a special form of the verb that allows you to distance yourself from another person’s speech. In this way, the journalist emphasized the fact that “the politician is concerned about the situation.” These are neither his own words, nor is it necessarily the truth, but only the transmission of the politician’s words. Interesting, right?
When do we use reported speech?
There are 3 ways to convey that what we are talking about is not our own words, but another person’s statement.
The first way is very well known. We can simply use quotation marks to quote someone else’s statement. This is known as direct speech – direkte Rede – for example:
| Nietzsche sagte: “Gott ist tot!” | Nietzsche said: “God is dead!” |
The second way is to use a sentence in the indicative mode. We use this option if we agree with another person’s statement or are sure it is true, e.g.:
| Er sagte, dass sie keine Geschwister hat. | He said she has no siblings. |
The last way is to use just reported speech – indirekte Rede.
| Der Politiker sagte, dass er über die Situation besorgt sei. | The politician said he was concerned about the situation. |
We use reported speech to distance ourselves from another person’s statement and to emphasize that we are only conveying their words, not our own opinion. Konjunktiv I is used for this purpose.
Konjunktiv I is mainly used in official language. You will encounter it when watching television, listening to the radio or reading newspapers. In everyday conversation it is used relatively rarely. So if your goal is to learn how to communicate in German and you want to focus on the more practical aspects of the language rather than delve too deeply into grammatical intricacies, you can breathe a sigh of relief! In everyday language, Konjunktiv I is often replaced by the simple present tense or the so-called Konjunktiv II. However, it is worth knowing that there is such a thing as Konjunktiv I and what it consists of, so that you can easily understand the statements of others and avoid misunderstandings.
Konjunktiv I is not a grammatical issue that you need to use in order to carry on a conversation in German. On the other hand, the more fluent you become in German, the more you will need to emphasize certain nuances. To better understand how to use the verbs in Konjunktiv I well, learn by example from ready-made sentences. You can find them, along with exercises and recordings, in the Taalhammer app. Learning with complete sentences is the most effective and fastest way to achieve fluency in a foreign language. Our team has conducted years of research that confirms the effectiveness of this method. We also hear about it from our students. That’s why, in this article, I’ve prepared many example sentences for you to illustrate how to use Konjunktiv I well in context. So now let’s take a closer look at how to create sentences in dependent speech.
How to form Konjunktiv I
In order to form the Konjunktiv I form of a verb, subtract the ending “-en” from its infinitive. This will leave the verb stem itself, that is, its most important part. Then add the ending “-e,” followed by the corresponding personal ending, just as in the present tense of Präsens.
The only exception is the third person singular – er/sie/es – where the ending is identical to that for the first person singular – ich. It is this person (er/sie/es) that we most often use in Konjunktiv I.
| sein | haben | |
| ich | sei | habe |
| du | sei(e)st | habest |
| er/sie/es | sei | habe |
| wir | seien | haben |
| ihr | seiet | habet |
| Sie/sie | seien | haben |
Look at the example sentences:
| Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|
| Er sagt: “Ich gehe zur Schule.” | Er sagt, er gehe zur Schule . |
| Sie behauptet: “Ich habe keine Zeit.” | Sie behauptet, sie habe keine Zeit. |
| Judith sagt: “Ich bin zu Hause.” | Judith sagt, sie sei zu Hause. |
Questions in reported speech
Questions in dependent speech in German, as in English, take the form of an affirmative sentence (e.g. “My friend asked if I would go for coffee with her.”) Here we use phrases such as er fragte… (he asked) or sie wollte wissen… (she would like to know). If the original question contains a question word, e.g. wie (how), wo (where), was (what), wer (who), or wann (when), we use this word as a conjunction:
| Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|
| Er fragte: “Wie spät ist es?” | Er fragte, wie spät es sei. |
| Der Polizist fragte: “Wo bist du gewesen?” | Der Polizist fragte, wo ich gewesen sei. |
| Sie fragte: “Was isst du gerne?” | Sie wollte wissen, was ich gerne äße. |
| Die Lehrerin fragte: “Wer hat das gemacht?” | Die Lehrerin fragte, wer das gemacht habe. |
| Sie fragte: “Wann beginnt das Konzert?” | Sie fragte, wann das Konzert beginne. |
In questions without a question word, we use the conjunction ob (whether):
| Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|
| Eva fragte: “Sprichst du Deutsch?” | Eva fragte, ob ich Deutsch spräche. |
| Mein Bruder fragte: “Kommt sie mit uns ins Kino?” | Mein Bruder fragte, ob sie mit uns ins Kino komme. |
| Sie fragte: “Ist das deine Handtasche?” | Sie fragte, ob das meine Handtasche sei. |
| Er fragte: “Hat sie Geld?” | Er fragte, ob sie Geld habe. |
Commands and orders in dependent speech
In independent speech, when we want to convey a command or an order, we use a modal verb in the Konjunktiv I form. There are two modal verbs to choose from: sollen and müssen.
The choice of a particular verb depends on the intention and the communicative context:
- sollen is used when we want to give a command, such as:
| Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|
| Mein Lehrer sagte: “Mach deine Hausaufgaben!” | Mein Lehrer sagte, ich solle meine Hausaufgaben machen. |
| Mein Mann sagte: “Ruf mich später an!” | Mein Mann sagte, ich solle ihn später anrufen. |
- müssen is used for commands, such as:
| Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|
| Meine Mutter sagte: “Beeil dich!” | Meine Mutter sagte, ich müsse mich beeilen. |
| Sie sagte: “Geh raus!” | Sie sagte, ich müsse rausgehen. |
When is Konjunktiv II used in dependent speech?
Sometimes it happens that the Konjunktiv I form is no different from the ordinary indicative mode (Indikativ). See this in the following example:
| Die Mutter fragte mich: “Hast du heute schon geübt?” | Die Mutter fragte, ob ich an diesem Tag schon geübt habe. |
In such situations, if we want to use Konjunktiv we use the Konjunktiv II form. However, the truth is that Germans very rarely do this, and in everyday conversations the indicative mode often replaces Konjunktiv. However, if you care about grammatical correctness, you should keep this in mind. See more example sentences here:
| Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|
| Erik sagte: “Ich werde das machen.” | Erik sagte, dass er das machen würde. |
| Sie fragte mich: “Hast du ein Feuerzeug?” | Sie fragte mich, ob ich ein Feuerzeug hätte. |
| Der Vater fragt: “Wann kommst du nach Hause?” | Der Vater fragt, wann ich nach Hause käme. |
| Sie sagen: “Die ständigen Renovierungsarbeiten gehen uns auf die Nerven.” | Sie sagen, dass die ständigen Renovierungsarbeiten ihnen auf die Nerven gehen würden. |
| Die Mutter fragte: “Wann hilfst du mir?” | Die Mutter fragte wann ich sie helfen würde. |
| Der Chef fragte: “Haben sie die Präsentation vorbereitet?” | Der Chef wollte wissen, ob wir die Präsentation vorbereitet hätten. |
Fun fact: as I mentioned earlier, Germans rarely use Konjunktiv I on a daily basis. However, there is an exception. This refers to the phrase “Gott sei Dank!” (“Thank God!”), used to show that we are happy that something has happened. If you like to learn language through songs, listen to the song of the same title: Gott sei Dank – AYLIVA. The singer sings: “Gott sei Dank bist du nicht mein Mann(…)” (Thank God you’re not my boyfriend). In the song you will find many examples of Konjunktiv usage and other interesting grammatical constructions.
Learn with the Taalhammer app
Initially, mastering dependent speech may be difficult for you, but with the right support and learning tools you can achieve mastery in understanding and using it. That’s why I encourage you to use the Taalhammer app, whose innovative learning system based on an advanced repetition algorithm will ensure your learning efficiency. You will gain access not only to hundreds of exercises and sample sentences, but also to interactive tools that will make learning grammar easier and more enjoyable. Don’t waste your time with traditional methods, choose Taalhammer and polish your German with us! Good luck in learning German!o setek ćwiczeń i przykładowych zdań, ale także do interaktywnych narzędzi, które sprawią, że nauka gramatyki stanie się łatwiejsza i przyjemniejsza. Nie trać czasu na tradycyjne metody, wybierz Taalhammera i szlifuj swój niemiecki razem z nami! Powodzenia w nauce niemieckiego!
Online Exercises of the Suppositional Mode Konjunktiv I
Transform the following sentences:
| 1. Meine Mutter sagte: “Der Fernseher ist kaputt!” | Meine Mutter sagte, … |
| 2. Er sagte: “Ich spaziere gerne auf dem Mark.” | Er sagte, … |
| 3. Mia behauptet: “Ich spiele wunderbar Klavier.” | Mia behauptet, sie … |
| 4. Sie behauptet: “Ich war gestern in der Schule.” | Sie behauptet, sie … |
| 5. Eva sagte: “Ich habe unsere Schlüssel verloren.” | Eva sagte, dass … |
| 6. Er behauptet: “Ich habe diese SMS nicht gesehen.” | Er behauptet, dass … |
| 7. Maria fragte: “Wann beginnt der Film?” | Maria fragte, … |
| 8. Sofia fragte: “Kommst du mit uns zum Abendessen?” | Sofia wollte wissen, … |
| 9. Mein Vater fragte: “Wer ist das?” | Mein Vater wollte wissen, … |
| 10. Der Polizeibeamte sagte: “Sei still!” | Der Polizeibeamte sagte, dass … |
Answer key:
1. … dass der Fernseher kaputt sei.
2. … er spaziere gerne auf dem Mark.
3. … spiele wunderbar Klavier.
4. … sei am Tag zuvor in der Schule gewesen.
5. … sie unsere Schlüssel verloren habe.
6. … er diese SMS nicht gesehen habe.
7. … wann der Film beginne.
8. … ob ich mit ihnen zum Abendessen komme.
9. … wer das sei.
10. … ich still sein müsse.
