Indirekta

Indirekta is the Swedish term for indirect, used as an adjective to describe forms and relations that are not direct. In linguistics and grammar it labels constructions that convey information without stating it in a straightforward, literal way. The form indirekta is the plural form of the adjective indirekt, used with plural nouns such as tal (speech) or sätt (methods).

Indirekta tal, or indirect speech, is the most common use in language study. It involves transforming a direct quotation into reported speech, often with changes to pronouns, tense, and time words. For example, direct: “Hon säger: ‘Jag kommer.’” becomes indirect: “Hon säger att hon kommer.”

Indirekt objekt refers to the recipient or beneficiary of an action, typically expressed through a prepositional phrase or pronoun in many languages. In Swedish, you might see examples where the indirect object appears with pronouns such as mig (to me) or dig (to you), as in “Katten gav mig en boll” (The cat gave me a ball), where mig is the indirect object and en boll is the direct object.

Indirekta frågor are embedded questions within a larger sentence, e.g., “Jag undrar om han kommer.” This construction preserves the meaning of a question without forming a standalone interrogative sentence.

Other domains use indirekta to describe non-direct influences or methods, such as indirekta effekter (indirect effects) or indirekt bevis (indirect proof) in logic and mathematics. Bevisbyrden can vary by context, with some languages preferring phrases like bevis genom motsägelse for proof by contradiction.

In sum, indirekta is a flexible term across linguistics, logic, and everyday usage, denoting non-direct forms and relationships. See also direkt tal (direct speech) and indirekt bevis for related concepts.