Indirect speech with Konjunktiv I
When German news, journalism, or formal writing reports what someone else said, it usually doesn't put it in quotes — it shifts the verb into Konjunktiv I, a special 'reporting' form built from the verb stem + -e/-est/-e/-en/-et/-en. Er sagt: 'Ich bin müde.' → Er sagt, er sei müde. = He says (that) he is tired. Konjunktiv I signals: 'this is what they claim, not necessarily what's true.' Where Konjunktiv I would look identical to the regular indicative (mostly in plurals and ich-forms), German falls back on Konjunktiv II (hätte, wäre, würde). In speech, most people skip the whole machinery and just use dass + indicative.
Why a separate form for reported speech?
Konjunktiv I is the 'someone else said this' marker. It doesn't commit the speaker to whether it's actually true — perfect for news. Der Minister sagte, er habe nichts gewusst. = The minister said he had known nothing. The Konjunktiv I habe signals 'reported claim'. Switch to indicative hatte and you sound like the minister's claim is fact. English handles this with tense backshift ('he had known') and tone of voice; German has a dedicated form.
Forming Konjunktiv I — the present forms
Take the verb stem and add: -e, -est, -e, -en, -et, -en (ich, du, er/sie/es, wir, ihr, sie/Sie). For sagen: ich sage, du sagest, er sage, wir sagen, ihr saget, sie sagen. For gehen: ich gehe, du gehest, er gehe, wir gehen, ihr gehet, sie gehen. The most useful form by far is the 3rd person singular er/sie/es — that's where Konjunktiv I clearly differs from indicative (er sagt indicative → er sage Konjunktiv I).
sein — the irregular star
sein has irregular but VERY useful Konjunktiv I forms — and they're the only ones distinct from indicative in every person: ich sei, du seist, er/sie/es sei, wir seien, ihr seiet, sie seien. Er sagt, er sei müde. = He says he's tired. Because sein is so common and these forms are so distinctive, sei appears more in indirect speech than any other Konjunktiv I form.
Falling back to Konjunktiv II
Big practical issue: most plural and ich-forms of Konjunktiv I look identical to the indicative. wir gehen is both. ich sage is both. When the form would be ambiguous, German switches to Konjunktiv II — the würde / hätte / wäre / könnte family from L24. Sie sagen, sie hätten keine Zeit. (NOT sie haben — that would look indicative.) Ich sagte, ich würde kommen. Rule of thumb: use Konjunktiv I only where it's clearly distinct (mostly er/sie/es forms and all of sein); everywhere else, Konjunktiv II.
Reporting the past — one form does it all
For past events in indirect speech, German uses Konjunktiv I (or II) of haben/sein + Partizip II — basically Perfekt with the helper in Konjunktiv. Er sagt, er habe das Buch gelesen. = He says he has read the book / he read the book. Sie sagte, sie sei nach Berlin gefahren. = She said she had gone to Berlin. This single form covers all past tenses (perfekt, präteritum, plusquamperfekt) — German doesn't make finer distinctions in indirect speech.
Konjunktiv II for the future / 'would'
Reporting future statements: use würde + infinitive. Er sagte, er würde morgen kommen. = He said he would come tomorrow. (Original: 'Ich komme morgen.' or 'Ich werde morgen kommen.') Würde also serves whenever Konjunktiv I would be ambiguous and you want to avoid the hätte/wäre form: Sie sagten, sie würden helfen.
The spoken alternative: dass + indicative
In everyday spoken German, almost nobody uses Konjunktiv I. The everyday version is dass + indicative (or no dass with V2). Er sagt, dass er müde ist. = He says he's tired. Sie hat gesagt, dass sie das Buch gelesen hat. = She said she read the book. Same meaning, no special form. Konjunktiv I is mostly a NEWS / WRITING register; in conversation, dass + indicative is normal. Recognize Konjunktiv I when reading; produce dass + indicative when speaking unless you're pretending to be a news anchor.
Pronoun and time-word shifts
Like English, German indirect speech shifts pronouns. Tom: 'Ich gehe nach Hause.' → Tom sagt, er gehe nach Hause. (ich → er.) Time words also shift if the report is later: heute can become an dem Tag / damals, morgen can become am nächsten Tag. In a news context, the original time often stays, since the article is reporting closely after the event.
