Spanish · Chapter 33 · Lesson 2 · Grammar primer
Reported speech
On the AQA A-level grammar list.
The short version
A present reporting verb shifts nothing
The backshift is the past reporting verb's job alone. Dijo que estaba cansado slides back a step; dice que está cansado does not move at all. Learners who have just learned the rule over-apply it and produce dice que estaba. Check the tense of the reporting verb first, then decide whether anything shifts.
Dice que está cansado.
The que English drops is compulsory here
English throws the conjunction away without noticing: he said he was tired. Spanish never does. Dijo estaba cansado is an error, not a casual shortcut, and the same holds for comentó que, explicó que, contestó que and the rest. If there is a reporting verb, there is a que after it.
Dijo que estaba cansado.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
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10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 22 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.
Lesson 2 of 11 in this chapter