Tense shifts get all the attention, but they are only one third of the work that goes into a Spanish reported sentence. The other two thirds — pronouns and deictic adverbials — quietly reshape the temporal and spatial anchors of the original utterance. Hoy (the speaker's today) is not the reporter's today; aquí (the speaker's here) is not the reporter's here. Every adverbial that pointed at the original speaker's now/here has to be re-anchored to the reporter's now/here when those frames no longer coincide. The same logic flips motion verbs: venir and traer, which point toward the speaker, become ir and llevar, which point away, whenever the reporter is no longer standing where the original speaker was. This page lays out the full shift table, explains the deictic-shift principle that drives it, and is honest about when no shift is needed.
The full shift table
Here is the inventory of deictic items that shift in standard reported speech.
| Direct (speaker's anchor) | Indirect (reporter's anchor) |
|---|---|
| hoy | ese día / aquel día |
| ayer | el día anterior / la víspera |
| anteayer | dos días antes |
| mañana | al día siguiente / al otro día |
| pasado mañana | dos días después |
| esta semana | esa semana / aquella semana |
| este mes / este año | ese mes / ese año / aquel mes / aquel año |
| ahora | entonces / en ese momento |
| hace una semana | una semana antes |
| dentro de un mes | un mes después |
| aquí | allí |
| este (libro) | ese (libro) / aquel (libro) |
| esto | eso / aquello |
| venir | ir |
| traer | llevar |
This is not a vocabulary list to memorise mechanically. It is the surface of a single principle.
The deictic-shift principle
Every shift on the table above follows from one idea: a deictic item is a pointer whose meaning depends on who is pointing. Hoy means "the day on which this utterance is taking place." Aquí means "the place where the speaker is now." Este means "the entity proximate to the speaker." Venir means "to move toward where the speaker is."
When you report someone else's words, the deictic anchor is no longer the original speaker — it is you, the reporter. So every pointer has to be re-aimed: hoy (their today) becomes ese día (a day in the past, from my vantage point); aquí (their here) becomes allí (over there, from where I am now); este (close to them) becomes ese or aquel (further from me).
Spanish deictics encode location with more precision than English: the three-way demonstrative system (este / ese / aquel) distinguishes "near me" / "near you (or the topic at hand)" / "far from both of us, or distal in time". When you report someone's este libro, you have a real choice between ese libro (still in play, recent) and aquel libro (distal, finalised). English collapses these into that book.
Pedro dijo: «Hoy he comprado este libro.»
Pedro said: 'Today I've bought this book.' (direct)
Pedro dijo que ese día había comprado ese libro.
Pedro said that on that day he'd bought that book. (indirect — recent, still in conversational play)
Pedro dijo que aquel día había comprado aquel libro.
Pedro said that on that day he'd bought that book. (indirect — distal, finalised, narrative)
Both indirect versions are grammatical. Ese / aquel is a stylistic choice driven by temporal distance and conversational salience.
The motion-deictic flip: venir / ir, traer / llevar
The two motion-deictic pairs are easy to overlook because nothing in their form signals that they are deictic. But venir and traer both encode "toward the speaker's location" — and when the reporter is no longer at the original speaker's location, both verbs flip.
María dijo: «Vengo mañana.»
María said: 'I'm coming tomorrow.' (direct — she's promising to come to where I, her addressee, am)
María dijo que iba al día siguiente.
María said she was going the next day. (indirect — from the reporter's vantage, María's movement is no longer 'toward me'; it's 'going away to that place')
«Te traigo el libro mañana.» → Me dijo que me llevaría el libro al día siguiente.
'I'll bring you the book tomorrow.' → He told me he'd take the book to me the next day. (traer → llevar, mañana → al día siguiente)
Notice that this only applies when the reporter is no longer in the location toward which the original speaker was moving. If you are reporting "I'll come tomorrow" from inside the location the speaker was promising to come to, venir can stay:
(Standing at the office) María dijo que venía al día siguiente.
María said she was coming the next day. (the reporter is at the destination; venir stays)
A four-shift worked example
Real reported speech rarely involves a single shift. Most sentences shift in two, three, or four places at once. Take this direct utterance:
«Hoy he venido aquí con este libro para enseñártelo a ti.» "Today I've come here with this book to show it to you."
Now, suppose Marta said this to me last Tuesday, in her flat, and I'm telling a friend about it on Friday in a café. What shifts?
- Hoy (her today, last Tuesday) → ese día / aquel día (the day she said it).
- He venido (movement toward where she was) → había ido (motion verb flip + tense shift).
- Aquí (her flat) → allí (away from where I am now).
- Este libro (proximate to her) → ese libro or aquel libro (no longer near me either).
- Para enseñártelo a ti (you = me, the addressee at the time) → para enseñármelo a mí (the addressee was me, so the pronouns shift accordingly).
The result:
Marta me dijo que aquel día había ido allí con aquel libro para enseñármelo.
Marta told me that on that day she had gone there with that book to show it to me.
Five deictic items, five shifts, all driven by the same principle: re-anchor everything from the original speaker's coordinates to the reporter's coordinates.
When NOT to shift: the deictic-still-valid rule
Here is the honest part. The shifts are defaults, not rules. Each shift fires only when the deictic anchor has changed between the original utterance and the report. If the anchor is still valid for the reporter, no shift is needed.
Same day, same place
If you are reporting "I'll come tomorrow" on the same day it was said, the mañana still points to tomorrow from your vantage point too. No shift needed.
Marta me ha dicho que mañana viene a verme.
Marta has told me she's coming to see me tomorrow. (still today; 'mañana' still means tomorrow for the reporter)
Esta mañana mi vecina me ha pedido que esta tarde le riegue las plantas.
This morning my neighbour asked me to water her plants this afternoon. (esta mañana and esta tarde are still current; no shift)
Still-current location
If you are reporting "I'm leaving here" from the same location, aquí can stay.
(Still at the same office) Me ha dicho que se va de aquí en septiembre.
He told me he's leaving here in September. (the reporter is still at the location; 'aquí' stays)
Still-current content
If the content of the reported clause is still true at the moment of reporting — your friend told you yesterday that the train arrives at five, and the train really does still arrive at five — peninsular Spanish prefers the unshifted form:
Me dijo que el tren llega a las cinco.
He said the train arrives at five. (no shift — the fact is still current)
The unshifted form signals that the speaker still vouches for the content; the shifted form historicises it.
Source-language note: English vs Spanish three-way demonstratives
For English speakers, the trickiest piece of this page is the ese / aquel choice. English has only two demonstratives — this and that — and that covers everything that's not this. Spanish carves the not-este territory into two: ese (near the listener or recently mentioned) and aquel (distal in space, time, or conversational relevance).
In peninsular Spanish, aquel is actively used. It is not archaic. Madrid speakers will produce aquel verano en Cádiz, aquellos años de la facultad, aquellas vacaciones. In reported speech, the choice between ese and aquel tracks how distant or finalised the reported content feels from the reporter's vantage point.
Me contó que ese día había estado lloviendo todo el rato.
He told me that on that day it had been raining the whole time. (recent, still in play conversationally)
Me contó que aquel día había sido el peor de su vida.
He told me that that day had been the worst of his life. (distal, finalised, narrative weight)
Pick aquel for narrative remoteness; pick ese for conversational proximity.
A note on este / ese / aquel in time
Time periods take the demonstrative system too. Esta semana (this week, the current one); esa semana (that week, the one we were just talking about); aquella semana (that week, some time ago, story-mode). The same three-way distinction governs which one shows up in reported speech.
Mi profesora dijo que esa semana teníamos examen final.
My teacher said that that week we had a final exam. (recent, still talking about it)
Mi abuela me contaba que aquella semana había estado sin luz durante tres días.
My grandmother used to tell me that that week she had been without electricity for three days. (distal, narrative)
Common Mistakes
❌ Pedro dijo que hoy había llovido mucho.
Wrong if 'hoy' is no longer the same day — the deictic should shift to 'ese día' or 'aquel día'.
✅ Pedro dijo que ese día había llovido mucho.
Pedro said that on that day it had rained a lot.
❌ María dijo que mañana venía a verme.
If the conversation took place days ago and 'mañana' has already passed, this fails to shift.
✅ María dijo que al día siguiente iba a verme.
María said she was going to see me the next day. (mañana → al día siguiente, venir → ir)
❌ Me dijo que aquí estaríamos cómodos.
If reported from a different place, 'aquí' should flip to 'allí'.
✅ Me dijo que allí estaríamos cómodos.
He told me we'd be comfortable there.
❌ Me explicó que este verano había estado en Cádiz.
If 'este verano' was the original speaker's anchor but isn't anymore, it should shift.
✅ Me explicó que aquel verano había estado en Cádiz.
He explained that that summer he had been in Cádiz.
❌ Me dijo que me traería el libro al día siguiente.
If the reporter is no longer at the location the book was being brought to, 'traer' should flip to 'llevar'.
✅ Me dijo que me llevaría el libro al día siguiente.
He told me he'd take the book to me the next day.
Key takeaways
- Every deictic in the original utterance gets re-anchored from the speaker's coordinates to the reporter's coordinates: hoy → ese día, aquí → allí, este → ese / aquel.
- The motion-deictic verbs flip in parallel: venir → ir, traer → llevar. These are easy to forget because their form gives no clue they are deictic.
- The peninsular three-way demonstrative system gives a stylistic choice: ese for recent / in-play; aquel for distal / narrative.
- Shifts are defaults, not laws. If the original deictic is still valid at the moment of reporting (same day, same place, still-current fact), no shift is needed.
- Real reported sentences usually contain multiple shifts at once — apply them all, driven by the same single principle.
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