Advanced Reported Speech in Indonesian

In Brief

Indonesian reported speech does not normally shift verbs into a special past form. Instead, choose a reporting verb and connect the report with bahwa for statements, apakah or a question word for indirect questions, and patterns such as meminta/menyuruh + person + untuk + verb for reported requests and commands. Time words and pronouns may still change when the speaker, viewpoint, or situation changes.

Overview

Reported speech presents the meaning of someone’s words without necessarily repeating the exact quotation. At B2, the main challenge is no longer simply turning Dia berkata, “Saya lelah” into Dia mengatakan bahwa dia lelah. You need to report admissions and denials, distinguish questions from commands, and select a structure that fits the reporting verb.

This area is often easier than English in one respect: Indonesian verbs do not change form to mark tense, so there is no automatic backshift like English is → was or will → would. Dia mengatakan bahwa dia lelah can correspond to “He said that he was tired,” while Dia mengatakan bahwa dia akan datang can mean “He said that he would come.” Context and time expressions establish the time relationship.

However, “no tense shift” does not mean “change nothing.” A report may require a different pronoun, place word, or time expression because the viewpoint has moved. Indonesian also uses different complement patterns—a complement is the part that completes the reporting verb—depending on whether the reported content is a statement, question, suggestion, request, or command.

How It Works

Reporting statements with bahwa

Bahwa introduces a reported proposition: the information presented as true, claimed, admitted, denied, or emphasized.

Pattern	Main use	Example
mengatakan + bahwa + clause	say/state	Rina mengatakan bahwa rapat sudah dimulai.
mengakui + bahwa + clause	admit	Dia mengakui bahwa dia salah.
menyangkal + bahwa + clause	deny a claim	Dia menyangkal bahwa dia menerima uang itu.
menegaskan + bahwa + clause	stress or affirm firmly	Menteri menegaskan bahwa aturan itu tetap berlaku.

A clause is a group of words containing a subject and what is said about it. In formal writing, bahwa makes the boundary between the reporting verb and the clause especially clear. In conversation it may be omitted after common verbs such as bilang, mengatakan, and mengaku: Dia bilang dia sibuk. With longer or potentially ambiguous reports, retaining bahwa is helpful.

Reporting a completed action with telah or sudah

Indonesian has no participle equivalent to English “having done,” but it can mark completion with telah or sudah:

• Dia menyangkal telah melakukannya. — He denied having done it.
• Dia mengakui sudah membaca pesan itu. — She admitted that she had read the message.

Telah is common in formal and written language; sudah is neutral and very common in speech. Neither form is required merely because the reporting verb refers to the past. Use one when completion matters.

Some reporting verbs can also take a noun phrase (a noun and the words attached to it) rather than a clause:

• Mereka menyarankan perubahan. — They suggested a change.
• Tersangka menyangkal tuduhan itu. — The suspect denied the allegation.
• Ia mengakui kesalahannya. — He admitted his mistake.

Indirect yes/no questions

Use bertanya apakah + clause for a question whose answer is yes or no:

direct: Dia bertanya, “Apakah kamu sudah makan?”
reported: Dia bertanya apakah saya sudah makan.

The embedded question—the question placed inside the larger sentence—keeps ordinary Indonesian clause order. Do not add a second reporting connector such as bahwa, and normally end the whole sentence with a period rather than a question mark because the full sentence is a statement about a question.

In informal speech, apa or kalau may sometimes introduce the content, but apakah is the safest neutral choice and is preferred in careful writing.

Indirect information questions

When the original question contains a question word, keep that word:

Direct question	Reported pattern
Kapan kereta tiba?	Dia bertanya kapan kereta tiba.
Mengapa rapat dibatalkan?	Mereka ingin tahu mengapa rapat dibatalkan.
Siapa yang menelepon?	Polisi menanyakan siapa yang menelepon.
Di mana kamu tinggal?	Dia bertanya di mana saya tinggal.

Do not insert apakah before an existing question word. Indonesian also does not require the sort of word-order change that English learners must remember in “Where does he live?” versus “I asked where he lived.”

Reporting requests, commands, and prohibitions

A command is usually reported as an action that one person asks, tells, or forbids another person to perform. The person receiving the instruction is placed after the reporting verb.

Meaning	Pattern	Example
request	meminta + person + untuk + verb	Ibu meminta saya untuk menutup pintu.
directive/order	menyuruh + person + verb / untuk + verb	Atasan menyuruh kami mengulang laporan itu.
prohibition	melarang + person + verb / untuk + verb	Petugas melarang pengunjung masuk.
reminder	mengingatkan + person + untuk + verb	Dia mengingatkan saya untuk menelepon.

With menyuruh and melarang, untuk is often omitted before a simple verb. With meminta and mengingatkan, it commonly clarifies the intended action. A negative instruction typically uses tidak or a prohibition verb:

• Guru meminta kami untuk tidak membuka buku. — The teacher asked us not to open our books.
• Dokter melarangnya merokok. — The doctor forbade him to smoke.

Reporting suggestions and advice

Menyarankan has several useful frames:

1. menyarankan + noun phrase
   Mereka menyarankan perubahan jadwal. — They suggested a schedule change.

2. menyarankan agar + clause
   Dokter menyarankan agar saya beristirahat. — The doctor advised that I rest.

3. menyarankan untuk + verb
   Dokter menyarankan untuk istirahat. — The doctor advised resting.

The agar pattern is especially useful when the person expected to act must be explicit. The untuk pattern leaves that person understood from context. For advice directed clearly to a person, menasihati + person + untuk + verb is another precise option: Dokter menasihati saya untuk beristirahat.

Adjusting viewpoint

The wording inside a report follows the reporter’s viewpoint. Compare:

original words: Budi berkata, “Saya akan datang ke sini besok.”
later report elsewhere: Budi berkata bahwa dia akan datang ke sana keesokan harinya.

Possible changes include:

Original viewpoint	Possible reported form	Reason
saya/aku	dia	the original speaker is now referred to as “he/she”
kamu	saya, dia, or a name	depends on who was addressed
di sini	di sana	the reporter is in a different place
sekarang	saat itu	the report refers back to an earlier time
besok	keesokan harinya	“tomorrow” is no longer tomorrow
kemarin	sehari sebelumnya	“yesterday” is viewed from a later date

These changes are contextual, not automatic substitutions. If the report is made in the same place on the same day, di sini and besok may remain fully accurate.

Examples in Context

Indonesian	English	Note
Dia mengakui bahwa dia salah.	She admitted that she was wrong.	Bahwa introduces the admission.
Dia menyangkal telah melakukannya.	He denied having done it.	Formal telah marks completion.
Tersangka menyangkal bahwa ia berada di lokasi itu.	The suspect denied that he was at that location.	Full clause after menyangkal.
Direktur menegaskan bahwa tidak ada pegawai yang akan diberhentikan.	The director stressed that no employees would be dismissed.	Firm statement; no verb backshift.
Mereka menyarankan perubahan.	They suggested a change.	A noun phrase follows the verb.
Dokter menyarankan untuk istirahat.	The doctor advised resting.	The person who should rest is understood.
Dokter menyarankan agar saya lebih banyak beristirahat.	The doctor advised me to get more rest.	Agar introduces an explicit subject.
Rina bertanya apakah saya bisa membantunya.	Rina asked whether I could help her.	Indirect yes/no question.
Kami ingin tahu kapan hasilnya akan diumumkan.	We want to know when the results will be announced.	The question word is retained.
Polisi menanyakan siapa yang terakhir melihat korban.	The police asked who had last seen the victim.	No apakah with siapa.
Manajer meminta kami untuk mengirim revisi sebelum Jumat.	The manager asked us to send the revision before Friday.	Reported request.
Petugas menyuruh penumpang turun dari bus.	The officer told the passengers to get off the bus.	Untuk is naturally omitted.
Guru mengingatkan murid-murid agar tidak terlambat.	The teacher reminded the students not to be late.	Agar tidak gives the desired negative outcome.
Ayah melarang saya mengendarai motor itu.	My father forbade me to ride that motorcycle.	Direct prohibition pattern.
Budi mengatakan bahwa dia akan kembali keesokan harinya.	Budi said that he would return the next day.	The time expression reflects a later viewpoint.

Common Mistakes

Copying English tense backshift mechanically

• Wrong idea: Indonesian must change a present verb into a past verb after mengatakan.
• Right: Dia mengatakan bahwa dia sakit.
• Why: Indonesian verbs do not inflect for tense. Add sudah, telah, sedang, or a time expression only when that meaning is needed.

Using bahwa for an indirect question

• Wrong: Dia bertanya bahwa saya sudah siap.
• Right: Dia bertanya apakah saya sudah siap.
• Why: Bahwa introduces a statement; apakah introduces an embedded yes/no question.

Combining apakah with a question word

• Wrong: Mereka bertanya apakah kapan rapat dimulai.
• Right: Mereka bertanya kapan rapat dimulai.
• Why: Kapan already identifies the missing information, so apakah is unnecessary.

Omitting the recipient of a command

• Unclear: Manajer menyuruh untuk memperbaiki laporan.
• Right: Manajer menyuruh staf memperbaiki laporan.
• Why: Menyuruh normally identifies who is ordered to act. Without that person, the sentence can sound incomplete.

Making the actor in a suggestion ambiguous

• Unclear: Dokter menyarankan untuk mengurangi gula.
• Clearer when needed: Dokter menyarankan agar saya mengurangi gula.
• Why: Untuk + verb can leave the actor implicit. Use agar + subject + verb when identifying that person matters.

Changing every viewpoint word automatically

• Wrong approach: Always replace besok with keesokan harinya.
• Right: Keep besok if the report is still made before the same tomorrow; change it when the reporting time has moved.
• Why: Deictic words—words such as “here,” “now,” and “tomorrow” whose meaning depends on context—follow the actual viewpoint.

Usage Notes

Mengatakan is neutral and works well in speech and writing. Bilang is very common and conversational; it often appears without bahwa: Dia bilang dia belum siap. Mengaku is the everyday counterpart of mengakui in many contexts, but its tone depends on what follows: Dia mengaku lelah simply reports a claim, while Dia mengakui kesalahannya clearly presents an admission.

Menegaskan is stronger than merely “saying.” It signals emphasis, firmness, or confirmation and is frequent in journalism, official statements, and workplace communication. Menyangkal is similarly common in news and formal disputes; in everyday conversation, speakers may use bilang itu tidak benar instead.

Writers usually keep bahwa in formal or information-heavy sentences because it improves clarity. Everyday Indonesian permits more omission, especially after bilang, pikir, kira, and mengaku. This is a register choice, not a tense rule.

The pronouns ia and dia both mean “he” or “she.” Ia is largely associated with written style and appears only as a subject, whereas dia is normal in speech and can occur in other positions. In a long report with several third-person participants, repeat names where necessary; grammatical correctness does not prevent pronoun ambiguity.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

A reporter can distance themselves from a claim by choosing a verb such as mengklaim “claim” rather than neutral mengatakan. Compare Perusahaan mengatakan bahwa produknya aman with Perusahaan mengklaim bahwa produknya aman. The second can imply that the safety claim belongs to the company and has not been independently accepted. Reporting verbs therefore communicate stance as well as content.

Indonesian can also package reported information as a noun phrase: pengakuannya bahwa data itu salah (“his admission that the data was wrong”) or penyangkalan terhadap tuduhan tersebut (“the denial of that allegation”). These compressed forms are common in formal writing, but a finite clause—a clause with an explicit subject and predicate—is usually easier for learners to produce and for readers to process.

Indirect reports need not reproduce every word. A writer may summarize while preserving the communicative act:

• quotation: “Tolong kirimkan berkas itu hari ini,” kata Dita.
• close report: Dita meminta saya untuk mengirimkan berkas itu hari itu.
• summary: Dita meminta agar berkas itu segera dikirim.

The last version uses a passive construction and removes the individual actor. This can be useful in administrative writing, but it also makes responsibility less explicit. At an advanced level, choose between active and passive reporting deliberately rather than treating them as interchangeable.

Finally, punctuation depends on the outer sentence. Dia bertanya kapan rapat dimulai. is grammatically a statement reporting a question, so a period is normal. A question mark is appropriate when the whole sentence itself asks something: Apakah dia bertanya kapan rapat dimulai?

Practice Tips

1. Take five short quotations from a news article or dialogue and label each one as a statement, yes/no question, information question, request, command, or suggestion. Then choose the connector before rewriting it.
2. Build contrast sets around one message: Dia mengatakan bahwa…, mengakui bahwa…, menyangkal bahwa…, and menegaskan bahwa…. Notice how the factual content can remain constant while the speaker’s stance changes.
3. When reviewing a report, check three things separately: structure (bahwa/apakah/agar/untuk), time and aspect (sudah/telah/akan only when needed), and viewpoint (pronouns, place, and time words).

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Indirect Speech — introduces basic reports with bahwa and apakah and the absence of tense backshift in Indonesian.