Past tense commands confusion

Question

''Dijiste que no hable y me denunciaste a la policía''

This is from a song, shouldn´t it be ''Dijiste que no hablara''?

If both tenses can be used i would imagine that they would be seperate ideas for the command. I am a little confused though.. could someone explain and perhaps give some examples? Thanks guys.

Always good to get an opportunity to trip up! - annierats, Oct 6, 2012

Answer 1

I think, but I don't know: It's not a command, it's reporting what the person said to you.. : You told me not to speak and then ( you went and) reported me to the police.

I'm rather brave to answer this one, bet ter people will come along and give proper explanations.

You get my vote for trying! - francobollo, Oct 6, 2012

Answer 2

I agree with you that "Dijiste que no hablara y me denunciaste a la policía." sounds much better. If the rest of the song indicates that "You told me not to talk and then turned me in to the police." makes sense, I am tempted to just call this a native speaker error. Certainly there are plenty of English language songs littered with grammatical and lexical errors. I'm still trying to think of another way to interpret the line so that it doesn't require the imperfect subjunctive but I really can't think of one.

To avoid the subjunctive you could say: Dijiste: "No hables", y me denunciaste a la policía. But that would probably mess up the rhyme. - francobollo, Oct 6, 2012

Answer 3

It's a song, so there's probably some degree of poetic license allowed. However, you are 100% correct. Dijiste que no hablara o hablase.

Oh well, I should have kept my mouth shut! - annierats, Oct 6, 2012