Breakdown of El ladrón confesó que quería escapar.
querer
to want
que
that / than
el ladrón
thief
escapar
to escape
Questions & Answers about El ladrón confesó que quería escapar.
Why is quería in the imperfect tense here?
This sentence uses reported speech. The reporting verb (confesó) is in the past. When reporting what someone said in the past, any verbs they originally used in the present tense shift to the imperfect tense. Since his original thought was in the present tense, it becomes the imperfect quería.
What were the thief's exact original words before they were reported?
His direct quote would have been Quiero escapar (I want to escape). The present tense quiero changes to the imperfect quería when we report it later using a past tense verb like confesó.
Why isn't escapar conjugated in this sentence?
When you have two verbs together and the subject is the same person (the thief is the one who wants, and the thief is the one escaping), only the first verb is conjugated. The second verb stays in the infinitive form. So we use the conjugated quería plus the infinitive escapar.
Could we use the preterite quiso instead of quería?