Discours indirect : passé composé → plus-que-parfait

Reported speech is all about the "reporting verb." These are words like dire (to say), expliquer (to explain), or annoncer (to announce). If you use these verbs in the present tense, nothing changes. For example: Il dit qu'il a mangé (He says he ate). Easy, right? But if the reporting verb is in the past, the magic happens. Il a dit (He said) triggers a change. The original action, which was in the passé composé, must shift. It moves to the plus-que-parfait. Why? Because the action of eating happened before the action of speaking. We need a way to show that sequence. It is like a ladder. The plus-que-parfait is the bottom rung. The passé composé is the middle rung. The present is the top. When you report from the middle rung, you look down to the bottom. This shift only happens when the reporting verb is in a past tense. If you remember this one rule, you are halfway there!

1. 1Creating the plus-que-parfait is actually quite simple. If you already know the passé composé, you are 90% done. You just need to change one small part. Here is the three-step recipe:
2. 2Start with your reporting verb in the past (e.g., Il a dit que...).
3. 3Take the auxiliary verb from the original sentence (avoir or être).
4. 4Change that auxiliary verb into the imparfait tense.
5. 5Keep the participe passé (past participle) exactly as it was.
6. 6Let's look at an example. Original: J'ai fini (I finished). Reported: Il a dit qu'il avait fini. We changed ai (present) to avait (imparfait). The fini stayed the same. It is like swapping the engine of a car but keeping the body. If the verb uses être, like je suis allé, it becomes il a dit qu'il était allé. Just remember: avoir becomes avais/avait/avions and être becomes étais/était/étions. That is the whole secret!

You will use this pattern whenever you are a messenger. Think of yourself as a journalist or a storyteller. Here are some real-world scenarios:

• Gossiping with friends: "She told me she had seen him at the mall."
• Job interviews: "I told the boss I had worked in London before."
• Police reports: "The witness said the car had turned left."
• Ordering food: "The waiter told us the chef had prepared a special dish."
• Travel stories: "I explained to the agent that I had lost my passport."

Basically, if you are looking back at a conversation that already happened, you need this. It adds a layer of professionalism to your French. It shows you understand how time flows in a sentence. It makes your stories sound much more natural and fluid.

Don't overcomplicate things! You do not need this shift if your reporting verb is in the present. If you say Il dit que... (He says that...), the next verb stays in the passé composé. For example: Il dit qu'il a faim or Il dit qu'il a mangé. No shift needed! Also, if you are reporting a general truth or a fact that is still true right now, you can sometimes skip the shift. For example: "He said that Paris is beautiful." But for specific actions in the past, stick to the rule. Another time to avoid it? When you are using direct quotes with quotation marks. Il a dit : "J'ai mangé" is perfectly fine. The shift is only for the "indirect" version without the quotes. Think of it like a grammar traffic light. Green light for present tense reporting verbs; red light (stop and shift) for past tense reporting verbs.

The most common trip-up is forgetting to change the auxiliary. Many people say Il a dit qu'il a mangé. This sounds a bit "clunky" to a native ear. It's like saying "He said he has eaten" when you should say "had eaten." Another mistake is using the wrong auxiliary. If a verb uses être in the passé composé, it must use être in the plus-que-parfait. Don't swap them! Also, watch out for the word que. In English, we often drop "that" (e.g., "He said he went"). In French, you must keep que. You cannot say Il a dit il avait mangé. It must be Il a dit qu'il avait mangé. Finally, don't forget to agree the past participle if you are using être. If a girl says Je suis allée, the reported version is Elle a dit qu'elle était allée. Keep that extra e!

How is this different from just using the imparfait? Great question! The imparfait is for descriptions or habits (e.g., "I was eating"). The plus-que-parfait is for a completed action that happened before another past action. Think of it as the "Past #1" and "Past #2."

• Il a dit qu'il mangeait = He said he was [currently] eating (at that time).
• Il a dit qu'il avait mangé = He said he had [already] finished eating.

It is a subtle difference, but it changes the whole story! One is a background scene; the other is a completed event. It is like the difference between a photo (imparfait) and a finished movie (plus-que-parfait).