💬 Reported Speech (Mowa zależna)

Polish reports what people said without shifting the tense — which makes it easier than English, provided you stop doing what English trained you to do.

⚡ The one rule that matters

Polish does not backshift tenses. Whatever tense the speaker used, you keep it. English turns "I am tired" into "he said he was tired". Polish leaves it in the present: powiedział, że jest zmęczony.

English — shifts

"I am tired."
→ He said he was tired.

present → past

Polish — doesn't

Jestem zmęczony.
→ Powiedział, że jest zmęczony.

present → present

Jestem zmęczony. direct

YES-tem zmen-CHOH-ni.

"I am tired."

Powiedział, że jest zmęczony. reported

poh-VYEH-dzhahw, zheh yest zmen-CHOH-ni.

He said he was tired. — still jest, not ✗ był

The logic is that you report the utterance as it was made. He said it in the present, so it stays present. The same holds in every direction:

Byłam w Krakowie. direct

BI-wahm f krah-KOH-vyeh.

"I was in Kraków." — a woman speaking

Powiedziała, że była w Krakowie. reported

poh-vyeh-DZHAH-wah, zheh BI-wah f krah-KOH-vyeh.

She said she had been in Kraków. — past stays past, no pluperfect needed

Jutro przyjdę. direct

YOO-troh PSHI-deh.

"I'll come tomorrow."

Obiecał, że przyjdzie. reported

oh-BYEH-tsahw, zheh PSHI-dzheh.

He promised he would come. — future stays future, no "would"

🔗 Which connector?

What does change is the word joining the two halves. Three options, decided by what kind of utterance you are reporting.

Reporting a…	Connector	Shape
statement	że	że + normal clause
yes/no question	czy	czy + normal clause
question with a question word	keep the question word	gdzie · kiedy · dlaczego · kto…
command or request	żeby (+ personal ending)	żeby + past-tense form

Always a comma before the connector. Polish punctuates subordinate clauses much more strictly than English: Myślę, że masz rację. Leaving that comma out is a marked error in the writing module, and the orthography rules are explicitly part of the B2 standard.

Statements — że

Myślę, że masz rację.

MISH-leh, zheh mahsh RAH-tsyeh.

I think you're right.

Yes/no questions — czy

Czy does double duty: it opens a direct yes/no question and serves as "whether/if" in the reported version.

Czy masz czas? direct

chi mahsh chahs?

"Do you have time?"

Zapytał, czy mam czas. reported

zah-PI-tahw, chi mahm chahs.

He asked whether I had time. — masz → mam because the person changed, not the tense

Nie wiem, czy on ma rację.

nyeh vyem, chi ohn mah RAH-tsyeh.

I don't know whether he's right.

Question words stay put

Gdzie mieszkasz? direct

gdzheh MYESH-kahsh?

"Where do you live?"

Zapytała, gdzie mieszkam. reported

zah-pi-TAH-wah, gdzheh MYESH-kahm.

She asked where I lived. — no inversion to undo; Polish word order was already statement-like

Wyjaśnił, dlaczego się spóźnił.

vi-YAHSH-neew, dlah-CHEH-goh sheh SPOOZH-neew.

He explained why he was late.

❗ Commands — the one that surprises everyone

Reporting an order or request is where Polish does something English has no equivalent for. You do not use an infinitive. You use żeby carrying a personal ending, followed by the past-tense form of the verb.

żeby + personal ending, then the -ł form

żebym — that I
żebyś — that you
żeby — that he / she / it / they
żebyśmy — that we
żebyście — that you (pl)

Przyjdź jutro. direct

pshiych YOO-troh.

"Come tomorrow." — imperative

Powiedział mi, żebym przyszedł jutro. reported

poh-VYEH-dzhahw mee, ZHEH-bim PSHI-shedw YOO-troh.

He told me to come tomorrow. — literally "that I should have come"; the -ł form is required

Zamknij okno. direct

ZAHM-kneey OK-noh.

"Close the window."

Poprosiła, żebym zamknął okno. reported

poh-proh-SHEE-wah, ZHEH-bim ZAHM-knohw OK-noh.

She asked me to close the window.

The -ł form changes with the speaker's gender. A man reports żebym przyszedł; a woman reports żebym przyszła. Since this form only ever appears after żeby and in the conditional, it is easy to forget that it still agrees.

🔄 What does change

Tense stays. Three other things move, exactly as they do in English.

Shifts	Direct	Reported
Person	Mam czas. — I have time	Powiedział, że ma czas. — he has time
Possessives	To jest mój dom.	Powiedział, że to jego dom.
Here/there, this/that	Mieszkam tutaj.	Powiedział, że mieszka tam.

Time words are a judgement call, not a rule. Jutro stays jutro if you are reporting on the same day, and becomes następnego dnia if the moment has passed. Polish leaves this to sense rather than forcing a mechanical substitution.

🧪 Check yourself

Report this	Answer
Marek: „Uczę się polskiego."	Marek powiedział, że uczy się polskiego. — present stays
Anna: „Czy byłeś w Warszawie?"	Anna zapytała, czy byłem w Warszawie.
Mama: „Posprzątaj pokój!"	Mama powiedziała, żebym posprzątał pokój.
Ewa: „Kiedy wracasz?"	Ewa zapytała, kiedy wracam.
Fix: ✗ Powiedział, że był zmęczony (he said "I am tired")	Powiedział, że jest zmęczony. — English backshift leaking in
Fix: ✗ Poprosił mnie zamknąć okno.	Poprosił, żebym zamknął okno. — no infinitive here

📌 Where this shows up in the exam

The B2 standard names mowa niezależna i mowa zależna under syntax, and reporting utterances appears again in the functional catalogue as a communicative function in its own right — "przekazywanie wypowiedzi własnych i cudzych". It is one of very few items listed twice.

Module	How it appears
Grammatical correctness	Transformation: rewrite a quoted line as reported speech. The żeby + -ł pattern is the usual trap.
Writing	A sprawozdanie (report) is largely reported speech by definition.
Speaking	Relaying what someone else said — and the standard explicitly asks you to refer back to a previous speaker's words.

The good news is that the hardest part for English speakers is unlearning rather than learning. Once you stop reaching for the backshift, most of this is just że plus the sentence you already know how to build.