I was told to do X if Y

Question

I have no idea how to translate this sentence pattern into Japanese. If I try with basic grammar, it sounds very wrong and overly complex.

What is the most natural way of expressing this? If there is a more business version, please share it as well.

For example

• 電話が鳴ったら早く電話に出ると言われました
• それが出来ると課長に報告してと言われました.

Answer 1

If you want to avoid using quoted speech, the common idiom worth memorizing is "Xするよう(に)言う".

Your translation attempt is not bad, but here are a few comments:

• In the first example, are you intentionally using the plain form 出る as an imperative? That makes sense, but it's better to simply use the imperative form 出ろ.
• No need to say 電話 twice.
• In the second example, this それ is usually omitted.
• Replace 出来ると with 出来たら. Explaining the difference between と and たら is difficult for me, but you can see this page: Conditionals | Learn Japanese

How about these?

• 電話が鳴ったら早く出ろと言われました。
• 電話が鳴ったら早く出るように言われました。
• 出来たら課長に報告してと言われました。
• 出来たら課長に報告するよう言われました。