Word
Me dicen que el operador está ocupado.
Meaning
They tell me that the operator is busy.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Me dicen que el operador está ocupado.
estar
to be (location/state)
ocupado
busy / occupied (taken, in use)
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
me
to me / myself (reflexive) / me (direct object)
Questions & Answers about Me dicen que el operador está ocupado.
Who is 'they' in dicen, and why isn't there a pronoun like ellos?
The verb dicen (they say/tell) is used here impersonally. We don't know exactly who is telling us this, or it simply isn't important. In Spanish, you drop the pronoun to show that the subject is an unspecified group. If you included ellos, it would sound like you are referring to a specific group of people you've already mentioned.
Could this sentence also translate to 'I am told that the operator is busy'?
Yes, exactly! Because dicen is used impersonally here, it often translates perfectly to the English passive voice ('I am told'). English uses the passive voice much more often than Spanish does for general statements where the subject isn't important.
Why do we use está instead of es for 'is busy'?
We use está (from estar) because being busy (ocupado) is a temporary state or condition, not an inherent characteristic. If you used es ocupado, it would sound strange, almost like being busy is the operator's permanent personality trait.
Why does me come before the verb dicen?
Me is an indirect object pronoun meaning 'to me'. In Spanish, these object pronouns generally go immediately before a conjugated verb. So, literally, the structure is 'To me they tell that...'.