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¿Quién te dijo que enterraron el oro en la tierra?

¿Quién te dijo que enterraron el oro en la tierra?
Who told you that they buried the gold in the ground?
From Lesson 104:Irregular preterite stems·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about ¿Quién te dijo que enterraron el oro en la tierra?

Why is the verb dijo instead of a regular past tense ending for decir?
decir (to say/tell) is highly irregular in the preterite (past) tense. Instead of a normal ending, the stem changes to dij-, and the he/she/it ending is -o. Since quién (who) is treated as a singular subject (just like 'he' or 'she'), we use dijo.
Why is te placed before dijo?
In Spanish, indirect object pronouns like te (to you) usually go immediately before the conjugated verb. So instead of putting 'to you' after the verb like in English, the Spanish structure is quién te dijo (who to you told).
Can I leave out que like we often drop 'that' in English?
No, you generally cannot skip it. In English, it is perfectly fine to say 'Who told you they buried the gold.' But in Spanish, the connecting word que is mandatory to link the two actions together.
Why use tierra for 'ground' instead of suelo?
tierra means dirt, earth, or land (as well as the planet Earth). Since burying gold involves digging into the dirt, tierra is the most natural word. suelo usually refers to the floor inside a building or the hard surface you walk on.
Who is 'they' in enterraron if the sentence doesn't mention a specific group?
The sentence doesn't specify who did the burying, which is why the verb enterraron is in the 'they' form. Just like in English, using 'they' is a common way to talk about an unknown group of people or an unspecified 'someone' in the past.

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