Dice que está cansado.He says he's tired.

To report what someone said, Spanish uses decir que ("to say that") followed by the statement itself, with que always present — Spanish can't drop it the way English can drop "that." Whether the tense inside changes has a lot to do with the tense of decir, but it's not a mechanical rule: what really decides it is whether the reported content is still current from the point of view of whoever is reporting it now.

Quick shortcut: decir in the present → the reported verb normally keeps its own tense. decir in the past (dijo) → shifting the tense back one step is common (Dijo que estaba cansado), but keeping the original tense is also correct whenever the reported content is still true or its time reference still applies (Dijo que está cansado, if he's still tired now).

When decir is in the present

If the reporting verb is in the present, the statement inside que normally keeps whatever tense it originally had:

"Estoy cansado." → Dice que está cansado. (He says he's tired.) "Voy a llegar tarde." → Dice que va a llegar tarde. (She says she's going to be late.)

Pronouns and words like hoy or aquí aren't automatically fixed in place, though — they still change whenever the shift in who's speaking, to whom, or from where actually requires it, present-tense decir or not.

When decir is in the past: shifting back is common, not automatic

Once the reporting verb is in the past (dijo), shifting the reported tense back one step is a common, natural choice — especially once the reported content is itself now over or no longer current:

Direct speech Often shifts to
present: "Estoy cansado." imperfect: Dijo que estaba cansado.
present perfect: "He comido." pluperfect: Dijo que había comido.
preterite: "Llegué tarde." pluperfect: Dijo que había llegado tarde.
future simple: "Vendré mañana." conditional simple: Dijo que vendría.

But none of these shifts are obligatory the way English backshift usually is. If the reported content is still true, or its original time reference still applies, the original tense can simply stay:

Dijo que está cansado. (He said he's tired — and still is, right now.) Dijo que llegó tarde. (He said he arrived late — a plain past event, no extra distancing needed.) Dijo que vendrá mañana. (He said he'll come tomorrow — reported on the same day, before tomorrow has arrived.)

The shifted and unshifted versions aren't interchangeable in meaning — they just both exist, and which one fits depends on the situation being described, not on a fixed grammar rule triggered by dijo.

Pronouns and time/place expressions shift when the perspective requires it

Since a reported sentence is often told from a different point of view than the original, subject pronouns, object pronouns, possessives, and words like hoy, mañana or aquí frequently need to change to keep pointing at the right person, time or place:

"Yo llevo mi coche." → Dijo que él llevaba su coche. (He said he was bringing his car.) "Llego mañana." → Dijo que llegaba al día siguiente. (He said he was arriving the next day.)

Direct speech Reported speech
hoy ese día
mañana al día siguiente
ayer el día anterior
ahora entonces
aquí allí
este/esta ese/esa

None of this is automatic, though. If the statement is being reported on the very same day, in the same place, by the same speaker, hoy can simply stay hoy — there's no fixed formula, only whether the original word still points to the right thing from where the report is now being made.

Common mistakes

  • ❌ Dijo estaba cansado → ✅ Dijo que estaba cansado. (que is required in Spanish reported speech — it can't be dropped the way English optionally drops "that.")
  • ❌ Dijo que "estoy" cansado meant to report what the original speaker said about themselves → ✅ Dijo que estaba cansado. / Dijo que está cansado. (left as estoy, the sentence would instead say that whoever is reporting it now is the one who's tired — the verb needs to describe the right person from the new point of view.)
  • ❌ Dijo que estuviera cansado → ✅ Dijo que estaba cansado. (reporting a plain statement with decir que takes the indicative, not the subjunctive — the subjunctive after decir que is reserved for reporting a command or request, a different construction from the one in this lesson.)

Quick check

  1. Report in the present: "Estoy ocupada." (ella dice...)
  2. Report in the past, with the tense shifted back: "Voy a llamar." (él dijo...)
  3. Report in the past, with the tense shifted back: "He terminado el trabajo." (ella dijo...)
  4. Why can Dijo que vendrá mañana be just as correct as Dijo que vendría al día siguiente?
Show answers
  1. Dice que está ocupada.
  2. Dijo que iba a llamar.
  3. Dijo que había terminado el trabajo.
  4. Both are correct — vendrá mañana keeps the original tense and time word, natural if it's reported on the same day before "tomorrow" has arrived; vendría al día siguiente shifts both, natural once more time has passed. Neither is forced by grammar alone.

Key takeaways

  • Decir que + statement reports what someone said, always with que — it can't be dropped.
  • Decir in the present → the original tense normally stays.
  • Decir in the past (dijo) → shifting the tense back one step is common (present → imperfect, present perfect/preterite → pluperfect, future simple → conditional simple), but it's not automatic — keeping the original tense is equally correct whenever the reported content is still current.
  • Pronouns, possessives, and time/place words like hoy, mañana and aquí shift when the change in speaker, listener, time or place actually requires it — not as a fixed rule.
  • Reporting a plain statement with decir que takes the indicative; the subjunctive belongs to a different construction (reporting a command).