Indirect Discoursereported speech; ὅτι, infinitive, indirect questions
When the NT reports what someone said, thought, or knew, it uses indirect discourse. This lesson covers direct vs indirect speech, ὅτι clauses after verbs of saying/knowing/believing (and the crucial habit of tense retention), the accusative + infinitive construction, and indirect questions with τίς, ποῦ, πῶς, εἰ. The key reading skill: Greek normally keeps the tense of the original statement where English shifts it back.
- Distinguish direct from indirect speech, and recitative from declarative ὅτι
- Read ὅτι clauses after verbs of saying, knowing, seeing, and believing
- Explain and apply tense retention: Greek keeps the tense/mood of the direct statement
- Recognize the accusative + infinitive construction and its accusative subject
- Recognize indirect questions with τίς, ποῦ, πῶς, πότε, εἰ
- Parse and translate NT indirect-discourse constructions without mistranslating retained tenses
- ὅτι = “that” (or quotation marks when recitative).
- Greek keeps the original tense; English shifts it back.
- Acc + infinitive = reported content (“say me to be…”).
- Do only the first 2–3 trainer sets today.
CorePart 1: Direct vs Indirect Speech
When the NT reports what someone said, thought, or knew, it can do so two ways — quoting directly, or reporting indirectly.
Direct discourse quotes the words: He said, "I am going." Greek often marks this with a "recitative" ὅτι that works like opening quotation marks (you do not translate it as "that"). Indirect discourse reports the content: He said that he was going.
Greek has three main ways to build indirect discourse: a ὅτι clause, an infinitive construction, or — for questions — an indirect question. The most important habit to learn is how Greek handles the tense of the reported words.
CorePart 2: ὅτι Clauses and Tense Retention
After verbs of saying, knowing, seeing, and believing, Greek most often uses a ὅτι clause.
The key difference from English: Greek normally keeps the tense and mood of the original (direct) statement, where English shifts it back ("sequence of tenses"). So Greek says, literally, "he knew that he is the Christ," where natural English reads "he knew that he was the Christ."
ᾔδεισαν ὅτι Χριστὸς ἐστιν — literally "they knew that he is [the] Christ" → "they knew that he was the Christ." The present ἐστιν is retained from the direct form ("He is the Christ"). Recognizing this prevents mistranslation.
CorePart 3: Infinitive Constructions and Indirect Questions
Two more patterns complete the picture.
Accusative + infinitive. After verbs like λέγω, νομίζω ("think"), δοκέω ("suppose"), Greek reports content with an infinitive whose subject is in the accusative: τίνα με λέγουσιν ... εἶναι; — "who do people say that I am?" (lit. "whom do they say me to be?", Mark 8:27). The accusative με is the subject of εἶναι. You saw the accusative-subject rule with infinitives in Lesson 26.
Indirect questions keep the question word — τίς (who/what), ποῦ (where), πῶς (how), πότε (when), εἰ (whether) — but fold the question into a statement: οὐκ οἶδα ποῦ ἐστιν — "I do not know where he is." The verb is usually indicative (occasionally subjunctive or, in Luke, optative [Preview: optative, Lesson 27]).
PracticeWorked Examples — Indirect Discourse
Sixteen indirect-discourse patterns from NT vocabulary: recitative and declarative ὅτι, tense retention, the accusative + infinitive, and indirect questions with τίς/ποῦ/πῶς/εἰ. Surface form first. Attestation checked against the Greek NT.
PracticeTranslation Exercises
Translate, identifying the construction (ὅτι clause, acc + inf, or indirect question) and watching for tense retention.
- ᾔδεισαν ὅτι Χριστὸς αὐτός ἐστιν.
- τίνα με λέγουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι εἶναι;
- οὐκ οἶδα ποῦ ἔθηκαν αὐτόν.
- πεπίστευκα ὅτι σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.
- ἐθεώρει πῶς ὁ ὄχλος βάλλει χαλκὸν εἰς τὸ γαζοφυλάκιον.
- ἐνόμιζον αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ συνοδίᾳ εἶναι.
2. Who do people say that I am? (acc + inf; Mark 8:27.)
3. I do not know where they have put him. (indirect question; John 20:13.)
4. I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God. (ὅτι clause; John 11:27.)
5. He was watching how the crowd put money into the treasury. (indirect question; cf. Mark 12:41.)
6. They supposed him to be in the company. (acc + inf; Luke 2:44.)
ReferenceVocabulary Notes
Verbs of saying/knowing and indirect-discourse markers.
| ὅτι | + clause | that (declarative); or quotation-opener (recitative) |
| οἶδα | οἶδα ὅτι | I know (that) |
| γινώσκω | γινώσκετε ὅτι | I know, learn (that) |
| νομίζω | νομίζω + acc + inf | I think, suppose |
| δοκέω | δοκῶ + inf | I think, suppose, seem |
| ποῦ / πῶς / πότε | — | where / how / when (indirect questions) |
| εἰ | (indirect) | whether |
Deep DiveOptional Deep Dive — A Cultural Note — How Greek Reports a Voice
Greek’s habit of retaining the tense of the original statement is one of the most practical things a reader can internalize. Where English says "he knew that he was the Christ," Greek writes the present — "he knew that he is the Christ" — because it reproduces the words as spoken or thought. Translators smooth this into English sequence-of-tenses; readers of the Greek need to see the retained tense and not be thrown by it.
This matters for reading the Gospels, where so much is reported speech: confessions ("you are the Christ"), questions ("who do people say that I am?"), and inner thoughts ("they supposed…"). Recognizing the construction lets you follow whose voice is being reported and with what certainty. The grammar carries the reporting frame; the narrative supplies who is speaking and why it matters.
- Indirect discourse reports speech/thought three ways: a ὅτι clause, an accusative + infinitive, or an indirect question.
- Tense retention: Greek normally keeps the tense/mood of the direct statement; English shifts it back.
- Recitative ὅτι works like opening quotation marks — do not translate it "that."
- Accusative + infinitive (e.g., after λέγω, νομίζω, δοκέω): the infinitive’s subject is accusative.
- Indirect questions keep the question word (τίς, ποῦ, πῶς, εἰ); the verb is usually indicative.