Indirect speech (indirecte rede) reports what someone said without quoting them directly. In Dutch, the most common structure uses dat (that) as subordinating conjunction: Hij zei dat hij moe was (He said that he was tired). Ze vertelde dat ze naar Amsterdam ging (She told [me] that she was going to Amsterdam). The dat-clause follows normal subordinate clause rules — verb to the end.
Tense in indirect speech: Dutch does not always shift tenses as systematically as English. If the reporting verb is present tense, the reported clause often stays in the tense it was originally: Ze zegt dat ze komt (She says she is coming). If the reporting verb is past, a tense shift may or may not occur: Hij zei dat hij moe was (He said he was tired — was stays past). In practice, Dutch speakers are flexible about tense concordance in indirect speech.
Indirect questions use of (whether/if) for yes/no questions: Ze vroeg of ik mee wilde gaan (She asked whether I wanted to come along). For information questions, the question word stays: Hij vroeg waar ik woonde (He asked where I lived). Commands become indirect with te + infinitive: Ze vroeg me te wachten (She asked me to wait). De leraar zei dat we stil moesten zijn (The teacher said we had to be quiet). These structures are essential for narrative and academic Dutch.