Word
El farmacéutico me dijo que tomara una pastilla si la garganta me seguía doliendo.
Meaning
The pharmacist told me to take a pill if my throat kept hurting.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of El farmacéutico me dijo que tomara una pastilla si la garganta me seguía doliendo.
una
a
me
me
que
that
tomar
to take
Questions & Answers about El farmacéutico me dijo que tomara una pastilla si la garganta me seguía doliendo.
What exactly is tomara here? Is it a past tense meaning I took?
No. Tomara here is the imperfect subjunctive of tomar.
In this sentence, it does not mean I took. It is being used after me dijo que... to report what someone told or recommended.
So:
- me dijo que tomara = he told me to take
- not he told me that I took
This is a very common Spanish pattern after a past verb of saying, ordering, recommending, etc.
Why does Spanish say me dijo que tomara instead of using an infinitive like English does in told me to take?
Because Spanish normally uses this structure:
- decirle a alguien que + subjunctive
So:
is the normal way to say The pharmacist told me to take a pill.
English uses to + verb, but Spanish usually does que + finite verb here. So me dijo tomar would not be the standard choice.
A useful comparison:
- Direct speech: Toma una pastilla...
- Reported speech: Me dijo que tomara una pastilla...
Could I also say tomase instead of tomara?