📖LearnModule 7 · Lesson 16 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, completedUnit 4 · Contar lo que dicen
Dice que — passing on a statement
Module 7 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B1, completed), lesson 16 of 30: Reported speech is how you repeat what someone said without quoting them. On this page: 8 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.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
ella dice que está cansada
she says she is tired
EH-yah DEE-seh keh ehs-TAH kahn-SAH-dah
el estilo indirecto
reported speech
ehl ehs-TEE-loh een-dee-REHK-toh
repetir
to repeat
rreh-peh-TEER
las comillasplural
the quotation marks
lahs koh-MEE-yahs
según él
according to him
seh-GOON ehl
la frase
the sentence
lah FRAH-seh
acerca de
about (a topic)
ah-SEHR-kah deh
yo digo la verdad
I tell the truth
yoh DEE-goh lah behr-DAHD
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
Reported speech is how you repeat what someone said without quoting them. Direct: «Estoy cansada». Reported: ella dice que está cansada — she says she is tired. The que is compulsory in Spanish; English can drop its that, Spanish never does.
Y también · And also
While the reporting verb stays in the present (dice), the tenses inside do not move at all. Only the PEOPLE change: yo becomes ella, mi becomes su, estoy becomes está. Decir is irregular in the present: digo, dices, dice, decimos, dicen.
Ojo · Watch out
With the reporting verb in the PRESENT, the tenses inside do not move: ella dice que está cansada. Only the people change: yo becomes ella. And que never drops: dice que, never dice está.
decir, presente — the table
yo digo · tú dices · él/ella/usted dice · nosotros decimos · ustedes dicen · ellos/ellas dicen
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with ella dice que está cansada.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out decir, presente 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.