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Un exalumno mencionó que el profesor envejecía muy mal.

Un exalumno mencionó que el profesor envejecía muy mal.
An alumnus mentioned that the teacher was aging very badly.
From Lesson 357:Reported speech (present to imperfect)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Un exalumno mencionó que el profesor envejecía muy mal.

Why is envejecía in the imperfect tense here?
This is an example of reported speech. The original statement was likely in the present tense: el profesor envejece muy mal (the teacher is aging very badly). Because the reporting verb mencionó is in the past, the present tense from the original quote shifts one step back in time to the imperfect tense (envejecía).
If the student originally used the imperfect tense, would the reported sentence look different?
No, it would look exactly the same! If the original quote was already in the imperfect tense (el profesor envejecía muy mal), it does not shift any further back. In reported speech triggered by a past-tense reporting verb, both the present and the imperfect tense end up as the imperfect.
Why is exalumno written as a single word without a hyphen?
In Spanish, prefixes like ex are written joined directly to the base word (exalumno, exesposa), unlike English which often uses a hyphen. You only write ex as a separate word if the base concept is made of multiple words, like ex primer ministro.
Can envejecer mal be used for things other than people?
Yes! While here it means the teacher physically aged poorly, envejecer mal is also widely used to say that a movie, a joke, or a past prediction has not stood the test of time, exactly like saying something 'aged poorly' in English.

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