Word
El fiscal preguntó si usted quería declarar.
Meaning
The prosecutor asked if you wanted to testify.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of El fiscal preguntó si usted quería declarar.
usted
you (formal)
querer
to want
preguntar
to ask
si
if
Questions & Answers about El fiscal preguntó si usted quería declarar.
Why is quería in the imperfect tense instead of the preterite?
This is an example of reported speech. The prosecutor's original question was in the present tense: ¿Quiere declarar? ("Do you want to testify?"). Because the reporting verb (preguntó) is in the past, the present tense in the original quote shifts a step back into the past, becoming the imperfect (quería).
Is fiscal related to money, like the English word "fiscal"?
It can be, but not here. It is a bit of a false friend! While fiscal can mean "financial" in business contexts, in the legal system el fiscal or la fiscal means "the prosecutor" or "the district attorney".
Why use si here instead of a question word?
You use si (meaning "if" or "whether") to report a "yes or no" question. Since the original question was "Do you want to testify?"—which requires a yes or no answer—we connect the reporting verb (preguntó) to the reported action (quería declarar) using si. Notice that it does not have an accent mark.
Why is the pronoun usted included? Could we just say si quería declarar?