He said that: reported speech and the shift of tenses
English retells someone's words by shifting the tense back — 'I am coming' becomes 'he said he was coming'. Spanish is stricter: if the verb of speech stands in the past, the whole clause shifts one step back. It is called the sequence of tenses, and without it the retelling sounds like an error. For example: “El presentador dijo que el partido empezaba a las nueve” — The anchor said the match started at nine. A…
How it works
English retells someone's words by shifting the tense back — 'I am coming' becomes 'he said he was coming'. Spanish is stricter: if the verb of speech stands in the past, the whole clause shifts one step back. It is called the sequence of tenses, and without it the retelling sounds like an error.
The shift is always the same. Present (viene) becomes imperfecto (venía). The perfect (ha venido) and the indefinido (vino) — pluscuamperfecto (había venido). Future (vendrá) — condicional (vendría). Imperfecto and condicional are already shifted and move no further. If the verb of speech is in the present — dice que… — nothing changes: dice que viene.
Along with the tense, everything else travels: person (yo → él), place (aquí → allí), time (hoy → aquel día, mañana → al día siguiente) and demonstratives (este → ese). 'Come tomorrow', they told me, turns into me dijeron que fuera al día siguiente.
A yes-no question is retold through si: ¿tienes visado? → me preguntó si tenía visado. A question with a question word keeps the word and its accent: me preguntó cuándo llegaba. And a request or an order goes into the subjuntivo: llámame → me dijo que le llamara. Unlike English, there is no infinitive here — no 'he told me to call'.
Finally, the verb of speech is not just one. Decir is the neutral 'say', contar — 'tell', explicar — 'explain', comentar — 'mention', añadir — 'add', asegurar — 'assure', admitir — 'admit'. Newspaper language lives on exactly these, and según fuentes oficiales — 'according to official sources' — replaces the verb altogether.
Table
| direct speech | after dijo que… | example |
|---|---|---|
| presente: viene | imperfecto: venía | dijo que venía |
| pretérito perfecto: ha venido | pluscuamperfecto: había venido | dijo que había venido |
| indefinido: vino | pluscuamperfecto: había venido | dijo que había venido |
| futuro: vendrá | condicional: vendría | dijo que vendría |
| imperativo: ven | subjuntivo: viniera | dijo que viniera |
| a question without a word: ¿vienes? | si + verb | preguntó si venía |
| hoy / aquí / este | aquel día / allí / ese | dijo que llegaba aquel día |
By example
- El presentador dijo que el partido empezaba a las nueveThe anchor said the match started at nine
- Me preguntó si había leído el artículo enteroHe asked whether I had read the whole article
- El periodista aseguró que publicaría la entrevista al día siguienteThe journalist assured me he would publish the interview the next day
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
He said that: how does it work in Spanish?
English retells someone's words by shifting the tense back — 'I am coming' becomes 'he said he was coming'. Spanish is stricter: if the verb of speech stands in the past, the whole clause shifts one step back. It is called the sequence of tenses, and without it the retelling sounds like an error.
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“El presentador dijo que el partido empezaba a las nueve” — The anchor said the match started at nine. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.