The verbs of speaking — decir, contar, explicar, preguntar, responder, gritar, susurrar, mencionar, comentar, anunciar, advertir — are some of the most frequent verbs in Spanish, and they share a case-marking pattern that often trips up English speakers. The message is the direct object (what is said); the addressee is the indirect object (the person told). In English we say I told Marta a story with a bare addressee; in Spanish the addressee is always introduced with the preposition a when it appears as a full noun, and a dative clitic is normally also present — le dije a Marta lo que pasó (I told Marta what happened), with both le and a Marta referring to the same person.
This page gives you the pattern, the verb-by-verb collocations, and the cases where Spanish departs from what an English speaker expects.
The basic frame
Sujeto + (clitic dative) + verbo + mensaje + (a + destinatario)
The addressee is dative. The message — whether it is a direct object, an embedded clause, or a quoted utterance — fills the direct-object slot.
Le dije a Marta que no podía ir.
I told Marta I couldn't go.
Mi abuela siempre me contaba historias de la guerra.
My grandmother always used to tell me stories from the war.
¿Quién te ha dicho eso?
Who told you that?
The dative clitic (me, te, le, nos, os, les) is almost obligatory in spoken Spanish even when the full a + person phrase is present. Dije a Marta… without le sounds bookish; le dije a Marta… is the natural spoken form.
Decir: the workhorse
Decir is the all-purpose verb of saying. Its complements are extraordinarily flexible: a quoted utterance, a noun, an embedded que-clause (indicative for reporting facts, subjunctive for reporting orders), or a que + interrogative.
Me dijo que llegaría tarde.
He told me he would be late. (reporting a fact — indicative)
Me dijo que llegara temprano.
He told me to arrive early. (reporting an order — subjunctive)
No le digas nada a tu hermano.
Don't tell your brother anything.
Dime la verdad.
Tell me the truth.
The indicative/subjunctive split in the que-clause encodes a real meaning difference: indicative for what is being reported as said (a fact-claim); subjunctive for what is being reported as wanted (an order). Me dijo que venía — he told me he was coming (reporting his statement). Me dijo que viniera — he told me to come (reporting his command). This split is exclusive to verbs that can do double duty as informing verbs and influencing verbs, and decir is the prototype.
Contar: telling as narrating
Contar is the verb of narrative telling — recounting an event, telling a story, sharing news that unfolds. It does not take a que-subjunctive for orders (you cannot contar someone to do something); it stays in the narrative register.
Cuéntame qué tal te ha ido el día.
Tell me how your day went.
Le conté a mi madre lo que había pasado en el cole.
I told my mother what had happened at school.
No me lo cuentes, que quiero verla sin saber el final.
Don't tell me — I want to watch it without knowing the ending.
A second meaning of contar is to count (numbers); the two senses share the verb but rarely cause confusion in context. Contar con — to count on, to rely on — is a third pattern, with its own preposition.
Explicar: the trap for English speakers
Explicar is the verb that sends most English speakers wrong, because English explain takes a to + addressee phrase: I explained the problem to Marta. Spanish puts the addressee in the dative, exactly as with decir and contar:
Le expliqué a Marta lo que había pasado.
I explained to Marta what had happened.
No me lo expliques otra vez, ya lo he entendido.
Don't explain it to me again, I've got it.
El profesor nos explicó la diferencia entre ser y estar.
The teacher explained the difference between ser and estar to us.
¿Me puedes explicar cómo funciona esto?
Can you explain to me how this works?
There is no explicar a alguien algo without the dative clitic in natural Spanish: the dative is required. The mistake to avoid is treating the addressee as a directional complement with para or con: ❌ expliqué para Marta / ❌ expliqué con Marta are both wrong.
Preguntar and responder: the question-answer pair
Preguntar (ask a question) and responder / contestar (answer) follow the same dative pattern for the addressee.
Le pregunté al camarero si tenían vino sin alcohol.
I asked the waiter whether they had non-alcoholic wine.
No me respondió al mensaje hasta dos días después.
He didn't reply to my message until two days later.
¿Quién te ha contestado el teléfono?
Who answered the phone for you?
Two distinctions worth flagging:
- Preguntar (ask a question) vs pedir (ask for something). English collapses both into ask; Spanish keeps them separate. Le pregunté la hora — I asked him the time (asking for information). Le pedí la sal — I asked him for the salt (requesting a thing or action).
- Responder a vs contestar (a). Both mean to answer. Responder takes the preposition a before the thing being answered (responder a una pregunta, responder a un correo); contestar takes a optionally — contestar el teléfono is just as natural as contestar al teléfono. Both responder and contestar take the addressee in the dative as with the other verbs.
Gritar and susurrar: the volume verbs
Gritar (shout) and susurrar (whisper) name a manner of vocalization, and they follow the standard dative-for-addressee pattern.
Le gritó al árbitro desde la grada.
He yelled at the referee from the stands.
Me susurró al oído que no dijera nada.
He whispered in my ear not to say anything.
No me grites, que no estoy sordo.
Don't yell at me, I'm not deaf.
Note that gritar a alguien can be ambiguous between shout at someone (hostile) and shout to someone (just loud over distance); context disambiguates. For unambiguous "shout for help," peninsular Spanish prefers pedir socorro a gritos or gritar pidiendo ayuda.
Mencionar, comentar, indicar, anunciar
These verbs cluster around the meaning report briefly or mention. They all take a dative addressee and a direct-object message.
Me mencionó de pasada que se mudaba a Bilbao.
He mentioned in passing that he was moving to Bilbao.
¿Te comentó algo de la entrevista cuando le viste?
Did he say anything about the interview when you saw him?
El director nos indicó que tomáramos asiento.
The director indicated to us that we should take our seats.
La empresa anunció ayer el cierre de la planta.
The company announced the closure of the plant yesterday.
Among these, indicar and anunciar often appear in formal contexts (press releases, official communications). Comentar is the most conversational — it is the verb you reach for when you want to say "did so-and-so happen to say…?"
Advertir, avisar, informar: warning and informing
These three verbs share a case-marking quirk: the addressee is the direct object, not the indirect object, in some constructions.
- Advertir a alguien de algo — to warn someone about something. The person is direct (with personal a), the message is introduced with de.
- Avisar a alguien (de algo) — to notify someone (about something). Person direct, message optional with de.
- Informar a alguien de algo — to inform someone about something. Person direct, message with de.
Te advertí de los riesgos hace meses.
I warned you about the risks months ago.
Avísame en cuanto llegues.
Let me know as soon as you arrive.
El médico nos informó de los resultados por la tarde.
The doctor informed us of the results in the afternoon.
Watch the de: informar que without de exists and is increasingly common, but in careful peninsular Spanish informar de que with de is still preferred. Dequeísmo (adding de where it doesn't belong) and queísmo (dropping it where it does) are mirror-image errors that Spanish speakers themselves disagree about; with informar the conservative norm is de que.
Reported speech: the subjunctive trigger
Communication verbs are major triggers of the indicative/subjunctive split in their que-clauses. The rule:
- Indicative when reporting a statement, fact-claim, or assertion.
- Subjunctive when reporting a command, request, or wish.
Me dijo que vendría.
He told me he would come. (reporting a statement → indicative)
Me dijo que viniera.
He told me to come. (reporting an order → subjunctive)
Te aviso que no voy a estar.
I'm telling you I won't be there. (indicative — informing of a fact)
Te aviso que tengas cuidado.
I'm warning you to be careful. (subjunctive — issuing a warning)
This is fully covered on the reported-speech and subjunctive-triggers pages; the takeaway here is that the mood of the embedded verb is a signal of how the communication is being framed.
Common mistakes
❌ Expliqué a Marta el problema.
Missing the obligatory dative clitic in peninsular Spanish.
✅ Le expliqué a Marta el problema.
I explained the problem to Marta.
❌ Le pregunté para un café.
Confusing preguntar (ask a question) with pedir (request).
✅ Le pedí un café.
I asked for a coffee.
❌ Dije a él que no venga.
No prepositional pronoun a él without a contrastive reason; default to dative clitic le. Mood probably wrong too (depends on intent).
✅ Le dije que no viniera.
I told him not to come. (reporting an order)
❌ Conté el secreto para mi hermana.
Para is for purpose. The addressee is dative with a.
✅ Le conté el secreto a mi hermana.
I told the secret to my sister.
❌ El director informó que la planta cerraría.
In careful peninsular Spanish, informar takes de que.
✅ El director informó de que la planta cerraría.
The director informed (us) that the plant would close.
Key takeaways
The verbs of speaking share a tight case pattern: the message is the direct object, the addressee is the indirect object, the dative clitic almost always appears even when the full a + person phrase is present. Explicar is the trap for English speakers — it takes the same dative pattern as decir and contar, never para. The indicative/subjunctive split in embedded que-clauses encodes whether you are reporting a statement (indicative) or an order or wish (subjunctive). And a few verbs — advertir, avisar, informar — case-mark differently, taking the person as direct object and the message with de. Internalize the dative pattern and you have unlocked most of the construction.
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- Pronombres de complemento indirecto: me, te, le, nos, os, lesA1 — The indirect object pronouns mark the recipient or beneficiary of an action (me, te, le, nos, os, les) — and Spanish uses them in many situations where English doesn't, including the famous gustar-type pattern.
- Estilo indirecto: visión generalB1 — Reported speech in Spanish reshapes a quote along three dimensions — tenses, pronouns, and time-place adverbials — and the reporting verb decides what introduces the clause: que, si, a wh-word, or que + subjunctive.
- Verbos de influencia: pedir, mandar, recomendarB2 — Verbs that try to make someone else act — pedir, mandar, recomendar, aconsejar, sugerir, prohibir, permitir — all trigger the subjunctive in the subordinate clause, and most take a dative pronoun pointing at the person being influenced.