Reporting speech in the past
When you want to report what someone said in the past, you usually use a past-tense reporting verb like dijo (said). If the person's original words were in the present tense, you must shift the reported verb into the imperfect tense.
For example, if a psychologist originally says, "Tengo mucha ansiedad" (I have a lot of anxiety), you report it by changing tengo (present) to tenía (imperfect).
| The psychologist said that he had a lot of anxiety. | El psicólogo dijo que tenía mucha ansiedad. |
| My sister told the psychologist that she was depressed. | Mi hermana le dijo al psicólogo que estaba deprimida. |
Other reporting verbs
This rule applies to any verb used to report information, such as explicar (to explain), responder (to reply), or contar (to tell).
| The doctor explained that the therapy was very useful. | El médico explicó que la terapia era muy útil. |
| The boy replied that he felt depressed every day. | El chico respondió que se sentía deprimido todos los días. |
Therapy and mental health vocabulary
You will often use this structure when discussing health and personal feelings. Here are a few more examples using words like la autoestima (self-esteem), afrontar (to cope with), and el trastorno (the disorder).
| She explained that the therapy improved her self-esteem. | Explicó que la terapia mejoraba su autoestima. |
| He said that he could not cope with the trauma. | Dijo que no podía afrontar el trauma. |
| He read that the disorder changed the mind. | Leyó que el trastorno cambiaba la mente. |
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