🇰🇷 Lesson 2: Reported Speech I: Passing On What People Said

Your phone buzzes while you're in class. Afterwards, your roommate tells you everything: the landlord called and said he's coming tomorrow, your friend asked whether you're free on Saturday, your mom told you to call her back. Half of adult conversation is passing on what someone else said, and at A2 you could only do it clumsily, with a direct quote or not at all. Since beginner level you've already used one piece of this grammar without knowing it: 한국어로 뭐라고 해요? ("How do you say it in Korean?"). That 라고 is reported speech. Now you'll learn the whole system.

🧠 The Mental Model: Plain Style + 고 + 하다

English reports speech by changing words around: "I'm busy" becomes "She said she was busy." Korean does something more mechanical and, once you see it, easier:

Look at those four endings: -다, -냐, -자, -(으)라. You met three of them in Lesson 1 as 해라체/반말 endings (먹냐?, 먹자, 먹어라). Reported speech is basically "turn it into plain style, then add 고". The polite 요, the formal -습니다 and the listener-directed -(으)세요 all disappear, because you aren't talking to the original listener anymore.

📢 1. Statements: -다고 / -ㄴ다고 / -는다고 / (이)라고

This is the only one of the four types with several variants, because statements distinguish verbs, adjectives and nouns, just like the plain style you'll formally meet in Lesson 21.

Look at the grandmother row. When the person you're quoting deserves respect, the honorific -(으)시- can go inside the quote (드신다고) and on the main verb (하셨어요, often with 께서). Plain 먹는다고 했어요 would be understandable, but it sounds careless about Grandma.

❓ 2. Questions: -냐고

For a reported question, take the question in plain style (-냐) and add 고. Today, the simplest and most common spoken form attaches -냐고 to everything. You'll also see the traditional written forms, where verbs (and 있다/없다) take -느냐고 and consonant-final adjectives take -으냐고. Both are correct. Use -냐고 in speech, and recognise -느냐고/-으냐고 in writing and formal speech.

Question words (어디, 뭐, 왜, 언제, 누구) stay exactly where they were. Yes/no questions need no extra word for "whether". The -냐고 already carries that meaning. With questions, 묻다 or 물어보다 ("to ask") is very natural as the main verb, though 하다 works too. You'll look at all the reporting verbs in Lesson 3.

🤝 3. Suggestions: -자고

Anything that meant "let's" (-아요/어요 used as a suggestion, -(으)ㅂ시다, -(으)ㄹ까요?, 반말 -자) is reported with -자고, attached straight to the stem. "Let's not" becomes -지 말자고.

One subtlety: -(으)ㄹ까요? can be a real question about opinion ("Shall I…?" / "Do you think…?") and not a suggestion. Only report it with -자고 when it clearly meant "let's".

📣 4. Commands and Requests: -(으)라고

Orders, instructions and polite requests (-(으)세요, -(으)십시오, -아/어라, 반말 -아/어) all become -(으)라고: -라고 after a vowel or ㄹ-stem, -으라고 after a consonant. "Don't" becomes -지 말라고.

Notice what happens to -(으)세요: the -시- disappears, because it honoured the original listener, who is usually you. 쉬세요 becomes 쉬라고, not 쉬시라고. (The honorific stays only when the person being told to act deserves respect from your point of view. For example, 사장님께 먼저 가시라고 했어요 means "I told the boss to go ahead first.")

🔀 Which One? The Four Types Side by Side

The trickiest pair to hear is 가자고 vs 가라고: "suggested we go" vs "told me to go". One consonant changes who is going.

🔄 Shifting the Point of View

When you turn a direct quote into reported speech, words that point to the speaker, the listener, the place or the time may need to shift, just as in English.

자기 is the go-to word for "he/she himself/herself", referring back to the person who said it. In casual speech, people often simply drop the pronoun (민수가 하겠다고 했어요), since Korean leaves out anything the context makes clear. Note also that a promise with -(으)ㄹ게요 is reported as -겠다고: 할게요 → 하겠다고.

💬 Direct Quotes: "…"라고 하다

Sometimes you want the exact words. Put them in quotation marks and add 라고, always 라고, whatever sound the quote ends in. For sounds, exclamations and vivid imitation, 하고 is also common.

Compare: 민수가 "배고파요"라고 했어요 (direct: exact words, quotation marks) vs 민수가 배고프다고 했어요 (indirect: converted). In speech, you can tell them apart by intonation. Direct quotes are often "performed" in the original voice.

💬 Dialogue: Messages for Mark

Mark comes home from class. His roommate 하은 has been collecting messages. They use 반말 with each other, as in Lesson 1.

Notice 하은's last line: she honours Mark's mother with 어머님 and 물어보셨어, even in 반말 to Mark. And because the person she told not to worry was Mark's mother, the honorific stays inside the command: 걱정하지 마시라고. And notice the dropped 했어 in 새로 생긴 태국 식당이 맛있다고. In conversation, a sentence can end on -다고 alone when the "said" is obvious. You'll see more of this in Lesson 3.

📰 Reading: 전화 메모

A note a coworker left on Michael's desk while he was at lunch (해요체).

⚠️ Common Mistakes

✏️ Practice

🧠 Check Your Understanding

❓ Common Questions

This is a lot of new machinery, and it won't all be automatic by tomorrow. That's normal. Reported speech usually takes a few weeks of noticing before it flows. Try reporting one thing someone said to you each day, and it will come.

🔮 Looking Ahead

Everything you learned today has a faster, shorter spoken version. In real conversation, 간다고 해요 is usually squeezed into 간대요, and 오라고 했어요 into 오래요. In Lesson 3: Reported Speech II: -대요, -래요 & Hearsay you'll learn those contractions, how to confirm gossip with -다면서요?, the 달라고 vs 주라고 puzzle, and the reporting verbs 말하다, 묻다, 부탁하다 and 전하다.