How to Say "He Said" in Korean: -다고 했어요 and -대요

Quick answer: To report what someone said in Korean you don't add a word for "that" — you change the ending of the sentence you're repeating and attach 하다. 간다고 했어요 (gandago haesseoyo) means "he said he's going." In everyday speech it contracts: 간대요 (gandaeyo). Questions use -냐고, commands use -(으)라고, suggestions use -자고.

The plateau has a shape

If you've hit the wall somewhere around TOPIK 2–3, look at the Korean you actually produce. Almost all of it is about you, right now: 저는 커피 좋아해요. 어제 친구를 만났어요. 좀 피곤해요. You can state your own thoughts fine.

Now try to say "My friend said she can't come because her boss told her to stay late." Suddenly you're stuck — not on vocabulary, on structure. Every word in that sentence is a word you know.

That's the plateau. Real conversation is mostly relaying: what someone said, what someone asked you, what you were told to do, what people say about the weather. English does this with almost no machinery — you stick "that" in the middle and move on. Korean rebuilds the inner sentence. Until you own that rebuild, you can only ever talk about yourself, and conversations stay short.

One pattern fixes it. Learn it properly and your Korean roughly doubles in range in a week.

The pattern: change the ending, then add 하다

The quoted sentence goes back to its plain form, takes a quoting ending, and then 하다 carries the tense and politeness.

Four endings, that's the whole system:

• statement → -(ㄴ/는)다고 for action verbs, -다고 for descriptive verbs, -(이)라고 for 이다
• question → -냐고
• command → -(으)라고
• suggestion → -자고

Negative commands work the same way: 하지 말라고 했어요 — "he told me not to do it." If telling someone not to do something is already in your toolkit, this is just the reported version of it.

What Koreans actually say: -대요, -래요, -재요

In conversation, nobody says the full -다고 해요 all day. It contracts.

• 친구가 오늘 못 온대요. — My friend says she can't come today.
• 내일 비 온대요. — They say it's going to rain tomorrow.
• 민수 씨가 언제 끝나냬요. — Minsu is asking when it finishes.
• 친구들이 내일 영화 보재요. — My friends want us to see a movie tomorrow.

내일 비 온대요 is worth memorizing on its own. It's how Koreans talk about forecasts, gossip, rumors — anything you heard rather than witnessed. "They say" with no "they" in sight, which is very Korean. Like a lot of natural Korean, the subject just isn't there and context does the work.

When do natives use the long form instead? When they want to be clear or emphatic — repeating something, correcting a misunderstanding, or in careful/formal speech. 제가 못 간다고 했잖아요. — I told you I can't go. That's the full form doing emphasis work, often with the "you already know this" ending -잖아요.

Three details that make it sound native

1. Tense doesn't shift backwards. English says "He said he was tired" even though he said "I am tired." Korean doesn't do that.

• 어제 민수 씨가 피곤하다고 했어요. — Minsu said yesterday that he was tired.

Using 피곤했다고 here would mean he was tired at some point before he spoke. Keep the inner sentence in the tense he actually used.

2. 저/나 usually becomes 자기. When you report someone's words about themselves, 자기 is the natural stand-in.

• 민수 씨가 자기는 안 간다고 했어요. — Minsu said he isn't going.

3. 주다 becomes 달라고 when the request comes toward the speaker.

• 친구가 돈을 빌려 달라고 했어요. — My friend asked me to lend him money.
• 친구가 동생한테 책을 주라고 했어요. — My friend told me to give the book to my brother.

달라고 = give it to me/us. 주라고 = give it to someone else. Learners default to 주라고 for everything, and it quietly sounds off.

With people above you, the honorific sits on the outer 하다: 선생님이 숙제 먼저 하라고 하셨어요. — The teacher said to do the homework first. If -(으)시- isn't automatic for you yet, this is a good place to drill it, because reporting what a boss or teacher said comes up constantly.

What the mistakes sound like

• ✗ 그 사람이 바빠요고 했어요 → ✓ 그 사람이 바쁘다고 했어요. Never glue -고 onto a 요-form. Go back to the plain form first.
• ✗ 민수 씨가 가다고 했어요 → ✓ 민수 씨가 간다고 했어요. Action verbs need -ㄴ다/-는다, not the dictionary form.
• ✗ 뭐라고 말했어요? in casual speech → ✓ 뭐라고요? for "Sorry, what?" The short 뭐라고요? is what people actually say when they didn't hear you.

To a Korean ear, the 바빠요고 version isn't just wrong, it's unparseable — like hearing "he said that I'm busy please" in English. The others sound like a textbook read aloud.

The fix: the relay drill

Here's the concrete change for the plateau. Five minutes a day, take three things you heard today — in any language — and relay them in Korean out loud.

엄마가 일찍 오라고 했어요. 친구가 주말에 바쁘대요. 동생이 그거 진짜냐고 물어봤어요.

That's it. The reason this breaks the plateau is that it forces you out of first-person-present Korean, which is the only Korean most intermediate learners have automated. You'll also notice your listening improves fast, because -대요 and -래요 fly past constantly in real speech and you've been hearing them as noise.

FAQ

What does -대요 mean in Korean?

-대요 is the contracted form of -다고 해요 and means "(someone) says that..." or "they say...". 친구가 바쁘대요 means "my friend says she's busy." It marks the information as secondhand — you heard it, you didn't see it yourself.

How do you say "he said" in Korean?

There's no standalone "he said" that you put in front of a sentence. You attach -다고 to the end of what he said and add 했어요: 간다고 했어요 ("he said he's going"), 바쁘다고 했어요 ("he said he's busy"). 하다 is more natural here than 말하다 in everyday speech.

What's the difference between -다고 and -라고?

-다고 reports a statement (춥다고 했어요 — "she said it's cold"), while -(으)라고 reports a command (오라고 했어요 — "she told me to come"). 이다 is the exception: it uses -(이)라고 for statements, as in 학생이라고 했어요.

Practice

Rewrite each one as reported speech in 해요체.

1. 수진 씨: "저 오늘 못 와요."
2. 엄마: "일찍 자." (honorific on 하다)
3. 친구: "우리 같이 점심 먹을까?"
4. 동생: "형 어디 가?"
5. The forecast says it'll rain tomorrow. (use the short form)