Help with que.

Question

Why would you use the word que in this sentence.

Ella dijo que sí. o Dijo que sí.

I said Ella dijo sí, and was corrected, But they could not explain why que had to be there.

clever question - 00494d19, NOV 6, 2009

Answer 1

Hola Cyndee:

Whenever you have someone saying something in the preterit with "decir" you need that "que" in there, so it looks like the following:

Dije que no (I said no)

*Dijiste que no (You said no)

Dijo que si (She/he/usted said yes)

Dijimos que si (We said yes)

Dijeron que si (They said yes)

So just think of "decir + que" as a phrase rather than two separate words.

Thank you Marianne, You just gave me understanding. I don't know why, but this was so hard for me. - 0021954c, NOV 6, 2009

Not just the preterite. It can be pretty much any tense. - samdie, NOV 6, 2009

Answer 2

HI cyndee, I am not the best on grammar I must admit, but this is an indirect statemente and the que needs to be there, like in English "that" (which is not normally mentioned)

He said: Yes. I am going.

He confirmed that he was going.

My students would say: He said that yes, he was going. Very typical Spanish structure.

Spanish:

Dijo: Sí, voy.

Dijo que sí, que iba.