Kilo Lingo

Spanish 路 Chapter 23

Reported speech: tense backshift

10 vocabulary lessons, 5 grammar primers, 2 story milestones.

Start this chapter
Take the chapter quiz

  1. Vocabulary

    Words 2001 to 2010

  2. Review session

    Conjugation Sprint review session

    Sixty seconds on the endings of the verbs this chapter has drilled so far.

  3. Vocabulary

    Words 2011 to 2020

  4. Review session

    Word Bubbles review session

    Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

  5. Vocabulary

    Words 2022 to 2031

  6. Review session

    Conjugation Sprint review session

    Sixty seconds on the endings of the verbs this chapter has drilled so far.

  7. Vocabulary

    Words 2032 to 2041

  8. Grammar primer

    Reported speech: tense backshift

    Estoy cansado becomes dijo que estaba cansado: after a past reporting verb the present becomes the imperfect, the preterite the pluperfect, the future the conditional. After dice que nothing moves.

  9. Grammar primer

    Reported speech: que, people, time and place

    Que is never dropped, yo becomes 茅l, mi becomes su, and hoy, ma帽ana and aqu铆 move to aquel d铆a, al d铆a siguiente and all铆.

  10. Vocabulary

    Words 2042 to 2051

  11. Review session

    Word Bubbles review session

    Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

  12. Vocabulary

    Words 2052 to 2061

  13. Review session

    Conjugation Sprint review session

    Sixty seconds on the endings of the verbs this chapter has drilled so far.

  14. Read a story

    Extra reading: In the shop: a phone that does not work

    En la tienda: un m贸vil que no funciona. Paula takes a phone with a dead screen back to the shop, and says no to everything. Asking for your money back, politely.

  15. Vocabulary

    Words 2062 to 2071

  16. Grammar primer

    The imperfect subjunctive: the forms

    Hablara, tuviera, fuera: take the ellos preterite, drop -ron, add -ra. Every preterite irregular carries straight over. You need it for 'he told me to come': me dijo que viniera.

  17. Grammar primer

    Reported questions: me pregunt贸 si

    me pregunt贸 si..., me pregunt贸 d贸nde...: yes/no questions take si, open questions keep their question word and its accent, and the verb stays straight after it.

  18. Grammar primer

    Reported commands: me dijo que viniera

    A command cannot be reported in the imperative: ven becomes me dijo que viniera. Pedir, decir and ordenar, and dijo que ven铆a (said) against dijo que viniera (told to).

  19. Vocabulary

    Words 2072 to 2081

  20. Review session

    Word Bubbles review session

    Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

  21. Vocabulary

    Words 2082 to 2091

  22. Review session

    Conjugation Sprint review session

    Sixty seconds on the endings of the verbs this chapter has drilled so far.

  23. Vocabulary

    Words 2092 to 2100

  24. Common mistake

    dijo que es, or dijo que era?

    Put the reporting verb in the past and the reported verb steps back with it.

  25. Themed review

    En la ciudad

    Finding your way around. pueblo is a town and also its people - the same word for the place and everyone in it.

  26. Read a story

    Story milestone: top 2100 words

    Written inside the top 2100 words, all of them taught by now; any new word is listed at the top of the story.

  27. Arcade review

    Arcade review

    Replay this chapter's words as games - a different kind of repetition, and it counts.

Play this chapter's words

Conjugation Sprint Sixty seconds drilling exactly these verbs' endings.Word Bubbles Pop this set by matching each word to its meaning.Crossword Cross this chapter's vocabulary, clued in English.
Chapters 1 and 2 free

This chapter ends in a story you can read

New words a few at a time, a grammar article and drill where you need it, games on the same words, and a graded story to finish. Chapters 1 and 2 are free.

Chapters 1 and 2 free, forever. Plus: 7 days free, then $5 a month for all eleven languages.

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