“Dijo que…”: reporting what somebody said
CEFR B1 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
“Si tuviera tiempo…”Building the three conditional patterns, and above all the unreal one: “si” plus…“Es aburrido” is not “está aburrido”The adjectives whose meaning changes with the verb: “aburrido”, “listo”, “rico”…False friends: “embarazada” is not embarrassedThe words that look like an English word and mean something else: “embarazada”…“Busco a alguien que hable inglés”Choosing indicative or subjunctive after “que” depending on whether the person or thing…“Tan”, “tanto”, “tal”: one “so”, three wordsUsing “tan” with adjectives and adverbs, “tanto” with verbs and nouns —agreeing— and…“Ser” or “estar”: two verbs for one “to be”Choosing between “ser” and “estar” in everyday sentences: who you are and what you are…The rule, in three lines
Moving a sentence into dijo que… shifts the tense one step back: present becomes imperfect (trabajo to trabajaba), future becomes conditional (iré to iría), and the preterite usually stays. The person, the possessives and the time words move too: aquí becomes allí, hoy becomes aquel día. An order becomes an imperfect subjunctive: ven becomes dijo que viniera.
The usual slip. Keeping the original tense —dijo que trabaja— or moving it the way English would when the two languages disagree.
Why it catches you out. English backshifts too, so the idea itself is familiar and that half is free. The pairs are what differ. And the last one has no English equivalent at all: a command does not become an infinitive, it becomes a subjunctive — “dijo que viniera”, never “dijo venir”.