📖LearnModule 11 · Lesson 21 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C1, first halfUnit 5 · Relatar y conectar
El discurso indirecto
Module 11 of the free Spanish course (CEFR C1, first half), lesson 21 of 30: Report what was said and the tenses step back: «vengo» becomes dijo que venía. On this page: 10 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
Report what was said and the tenses step back: «vengo» becomes dijo que venía; «vendré» becomes dijo que vendría; «he venido» becomes dijo que había venido.
Y también · And also
Presente → imperfecto, futuro → condicional, pretérito perfecto → pluscuamperfecto, and the pretérito usually stays or becomes pluscuamperfecto. That is the whole concordancia de tiempos, and you already own every tense it needs.
Ojo · Watch out
With the reporting verb in the past: presente becomes imperfecto, futuro becomes condicional, he venido becomes había venido. las declaraciones is plural for what was said; una cita is a quotation, not only an appointment.
afirmar, pretérito — the table
yo afirmé · tú afirmaste · él/ella/usted afirmó · nosotros afirmamos · ustedes afirmaron · ellos/ellas afirmaron
responder, condicional — the table
yo respondería · tú responderías · él/ella/usted respondería · nosotros responderíamos · ustedes responderían · ellos/ellas responderían
terminar, pluscuamperfecto — the table
yo había terminado · tú habías terminado · él/ella/usted había terminado · nosotros habíamos terminado · ustedes habían terminado · ellos/ellas habían terminado
Do it now — on paper
Say all 10 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with dijo que vendría.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out afirmar, pretérito and responder, condicional and terminar, pluscuamperfecto in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.