Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): El pasajero herido movía el hombro con cuidado, pero decía que estaba bien. - The injured passenger moved his shoulder carefully, but said he was fine.

Movía is the imperfect tense, and movió is the preterite. Both translate as “moved” in English, but they express different aspects of the action in Spanish.

Movía el hombro ≈ “was moving his shoulder” / “would move his shoulder”
- Describes an ongoing, background, or repeated action.
- It sounds like you’re painting the scene: at that moment, the passenger was (carefully) moving his shoulder, not just once, but as part of the situation.
Movió el hombro ≈ “he moved his shoulder (once)”
- A single, completed event.
- Would sound more like a specific action in a sequence of events:
  El pasajero herido movió el hombro con cuidado y luego se quedó quieto.
  “The injured passenger moved his shoulder carefully and then stayed still.”

In your sentence, movía works because it gives a descriptive, continuous feel: while all this was going on, he was (gingerly) moving his shoulder and saying he was fine.

Why is it decía instead of dijo?

Again, it’s imperfect vs preterite:

Decía que estaba bien ≈ “he was saying that he was fine” / “he kept saying he was fine”
- Suggests something repeated or ongoing: he insisted on it, or that’s what he was saying at that moment in the scene.
- Fits with the descriptive tone created by movía.
Dijo que estaba bien ≈ “he said that he was fine”
- A single, completed act of speech.
- Sounds like a specific line in a timeline:
  El pasajero herido movía el hombro con cuidado, y finalmente dijo que estaba bien.
  “The injured passenger was moving his shoulder carefully, and finally he said he was fine.”

So decía makes it feel like his repeated or continuous reaction while he was injured: he was moving his shoulder carefully but (kept) saying he was okay.

Why is it estaba bien and not era or estuvo bien?

All three use “to be”, but with different nuances:

Estaba bien (imperfect of estar)
- Describes a temporary state in a background/ongoing way.
- Here, it’s what he claimed his condition was at that time.
- English: “he was fine / he was okay (at that moment, according to him).”
Estuvo bien (preterite of estar)
- A completed, time-limited state: “he was fine (for a while / then that ended).”
- More often used with clear time frames:
  Estuvo bien después del accidente. – “He was fine after the accident.”
Era bien is simply wrong in standard Spanish.
- With bien, you virtually always use estar, not ser.
- Ser bueno / malo vs estar bien / mal is a classic contrast:
  - Es bueno. – He is good (a good person).
  - Está bien. – He is fine / okay / all right (state/condition).

So estaba bien fits because:

it’s a state,
it’s temporary, and
it’s part of the ongoing situation being described in the imperfect.

Why is it movía el hombro and not movía su hombro?

In Spanish, when talking about parts of the body (and also clothes), it’s very common to use the definite article (el, la, los, las) instead of a possessive (mi, tu, su, etc.) when it’s clear whose body part it is.

So:

Movía el hombro.
Literally: “He was moving the shoulder.”
Naturally understood as “He was moving his shoulder.”

Some patterns:

Me duele la cabeza. – My head hurts.
Le lavé las manos al niño. – I washed the child’s hands.
Cerró los ojos. – He/She closed his/her eyes.

You only really need su hombro if:

you want to contrast it with someone else’s shoulder:
- Movía su hombro, no el del otro pasajero.
you have no other way to make it clear whose it is.

Here, el pasajero herido is the subject. There’s no ambiguity, so el hombro is the most natural choice.

Could you say se movía el hombro or él se movía el hombro?

The natural options here are:

Movía el hombro. – He was moving his shoulder. (as in the original)
El hombro se movía. – The shoulder was moving. (focus on the shoulder as subject)
Se movía. – He was moving. (his body in general)

A few important points:

Mover vs moverse
- Mover algo (non‑reflexive) = to move something:
  - Movía el hombro. – He was moving his shoulder.
- Moverse (reflexive) = to move oneself:
  - Se movía. – He was moving (changing his body position).
Se movía el hombro is not standard in the sense “he was moving his shoulder” in most varieties.
- It sounds odd because se suggests reflexive moverse, but then you still have el hombro after it.
- If you want reflexive, you’d typically say se movía (without the body part), or change the subject:
  - El hombro se movía.

So the original movía el hombro is the clearest and most idiomatic way to say “he was moving his shoulder.”

What is herido here? Is it a verb form or an adjective? Why after pasajero?

Herido is the past participle of the verb herir (“to wound, to injure”), but in this sentence it’s functioning as an adjective:

el pasajero herido = “the injured passenger”

About its position:

In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the noun:
- un coche rojo – a red car
- una casa grande – a big house
- el pasajero herido – the injured passenger

Placing an adjective before the noun is possible but:

less common,
often adds an emotional, literary, or subjective nuance.

For example, el herido pasajero would sound very unusual and stylistically marked, almost poetic or awkward in normal prose. The natural phrase is el pasajero herido.

So: herido is an adjective formed from a participle, placed in the typical noun + adjective order.

Why is it herido and not herida?

Adjectives in Spanish must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.

pasajero is masculine singular, so:
- el pasajero herido (masculine singular)
With a female passenger:
- la pasajera herida (feminine singular)
With more than one:
- los pasajeros heridos (masculine plural / mixed group)
- las pasajeras heridas (feminine plural)

So herido matches pasajero in:

gender: masculine
number: singular

If the story were clearly about a woman, you’d expect la pasajera herida movía el hombro…

Why El pasajero herido and not Un pasajero herido?

The difference is mainly about how specific the passenger is:

El pasajero herido – the injured passenger
- Refers to a specific, identifiable passenger.
- The speaker assumes you know which one:
  - because he was mentioned earlier,
  - or because there’s only one injured passenger in the context.
Un pasajero herido – an injured passenger
- Introduces the passenger as new information.
- The listener/reader is not expected to know who he is yet:
  - “An injured passenger was moving his shoulder carefully…”

So el suggests this passenger is already part of the narrative or shared context, not just any random injured passenger.

Why con cuidado and not cuidadosamente?

Both are grammatically correct:

con cuidado ≈ “carefully”
cuidadosamente ≈ “carefully”

Differences:

Frequency and style
- Con cuidado is more common in everyday speech and neutral writing.
- Cuidadosamente sounds more formal, sometimes heavier or more “written” in tone.
Nuance
- Con cuidado literally means “with care” and often feels slightly more natural and conversational.
- Cuidadosamente is a straightforward adverb in -mente, typical of more formal description.

So:

Movía el hombro con cuidado is what you’d most naturally hear.
Movía el hombro cuidadosamente is correct but a bit more formal/literary in tone.

Why is it decía que estaba bien (both imperfect) and not, for example, decía que está bien?

This is about reported speech and sequence of tenses in Spanish.

Original “direct speech” might be:

Estoy bien. – “I’m fine.”

When you report that in the past, Spanish normally shifts the tense:

Decía que estaba bien. – “He was saying that he was fine.”

Key points:

The main verb is in the past (decía).
The subordinate (what he said) also goes to a past tense (estaba), usually imperfect if it’s a state happening at the same time.

Using decía que está bien is possible but has a different feel:

It makes the content sound still valid now, or more “live”:
literally “He was saying that he is fine (now).”
In most narratives, decía que estaba bien is the normal, more natural choice.

Why is there no subject pronoun Él at the beginning?

Spanish normally omits subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) when the subject is clear from:

the verb ending, and/or
the context.

In this sentence, the subject is clearly el pasajero herido, so there’s no need for él:

El pasajero herido movía el hombro…
Not: Él el pasajero herido movía el hombro… (incorrect/odd)

You could use él if:

you had already mentioned him and wanted to emphasize or contrast:
- Él movía el hombro con cuidado, pero los demás gritaban.
  - He was moving his shoulder carefully, but the others were shouting.

But with the full noun phrase el pasajero herido, adding él would be redundant and unnatural.

Is there anything particularly “Spain Spanish” about this sentence?

This sentence is perfectly natural in Spain, but nothing in it is exclusive to Spain:

pasajero, herido, mover, hombro, con cuidado, decir, estar bien – all are standard and widely understood throughout the Spanish‑speaking world.
The imperfect tenses (movía, decía, estaba) are used in the same way in Spain and Latin America in this context.

So this is a good, neutral example that works for European Spanish but will also sound correct to Latin American speakers.