Breakdown of Él juró que no recordaba el apodo del chico canoso.
él
he
de
from / of
no
no, not
el chico
the boy (older / teenager)
Questions & Answers about Él juró que no recordaba el apodo del chico canoso.
Why is recordaba in the imperfect here instead of the preterite?
This is a classic example of reported speech. The reporting verb, juró (he swore), is in the past. His original direct words would have been in the present tense: "No recuerdo" (I don't remember). When we report present tense speech after a past tense reporting verb, the present tense backshifts to the imperfect, becoming recordaba.
What if his original words were already in the past, like "I didn't remember"? How would that backshift?
Could I say que no se acordaba del apodo instead of que no recordaba el apodo?
Yes, absolutely! Recordar and acordarse both mean to remember and are interchangeable here. Just keep in mind that acordarse requires the preposition de, while recordar takes a direct object without a preposition. So, no se acordaba del apodo would be perfectly natural.