Mi abuela decía que, si trabajábamos con paciencia, siempre teníamos éxito.

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Breakdown of Mi abuela decía que, si trabajábamos con paciencia, siempre teníamos éxito.

• mi: my
• nosotros: we
• trabajar: to work

Questions & Answers about Mi abuela decía que, si trabajábamos con paciencia, siempre teníamos éxito.

Why is decía in the imperfect tense instead of dijo?

The imperfect tense in Spanish describes habitual or ongoing past actions. By saying Mi abuela decía…, you convey “my grandmother used to say…” or “she would always say….” Using dijo would imply she said it only once, at a specific moment.

What is the function of que after decía?

After verbs of speaking, thinking or feeling, Spanish uses the conjunction que (that) to introduce what is being said or thought. So decía que simply means “she used to say that…”

Why are trabajábamos and teníamos both in the imperfect indicative?

The sentence describes a repeated past condition and its outcome. Spanish expresses general or habitual past “if…then” statements (type-0 conditions) with si + imperfect indicative in both clauses. Here, “if we worked with patience, we always succeeded” refers to a pattern in the past, not a one-time event or hypothetical.

Could we say si trabajáramos and tendríamos éxito instead?

No. That combination—si + imperfect subjunctive (trabajáramos) followed by the conditional (tendríamos)—is used for hypothetical or contrary-to-fact situations (“if we were to work with patience, we would succeed”). The original sentence states a factual, repeated past occurrence, so the indicative is required.