"Que quieres que te diga?"

Question

hi,

a few days ago I tried to speak Spanish with someone who speaks Spanish natively. but then he asked me this question that confused me like hell. I told him "say something" and he replied: "que quieres que te diga?" then i told him "wait why did you say DIGA, how is the diga has to do with this sentence? isn't diga the formal way for commands?? he couldn't explain why.

someone help please..

thanks

Welcome to SpanishDict. We require that you use proper capitalization and punctuation here. - rac1, Jan 17, 2017

No problem :) - 89yakir, Jan 17, 2017

Answer 1

To add a little more explanation of this sentence to what Jtaniel provided:

¿Qué quieres que te diga?

Qué- What

quieres- do you want

que- that

te diga- I tell you (subjunctive)

Diga here is the first person (yo) subjunctive. It is the same as the third person, but here it is first person.

Querer is a verb of influence. Querer que ( eg, alguien haga algo)- will always require that the conjugated verb that follows be subjunctive. (Note my use of "be"- English subjunctive, because require also is a verb of influence, although in English you can say "is" instead you cannot do the equivalent in Spanish).

What do you want that I tell you- is English subjunctive.

We normally say- what do you want me to tell you- but that is not how it phrased in Spanish, in Spanish it is phrased like the above.

Here is another lesson:

http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/subjunctive_verbs_of_influence_1

Excellent explanation!! Finally its all clear now. Thank you very much! - 89yakir, Jan 17, 2017

De nada. :) - bosquederoble, Jan 17, 2017

Answer 2

Yes, diga is used for commands, but it's also the subjunctive, which has many uses, including the expression of desires.

Thanks! - 89yakir, Jan 17, 2017

Answer 3

The thing is that in most cases, que triggers the subjunctive.
The interesting part is to see how it is extracted from the English original utterance.

• ¿Qué quieres que te diga? (= what do you want me to tell you?)

In a literal way, we'd be saying ¿qué quieres de mí decirte? But it's rephrased as before since the English utterance has two clauses, and in Spanish we often use the subjunctive when the second clause is given.

Though, it also depends on the verb, but when it comes to using verbs such as querer, this is one of the cases.

Great explanation, thank You! - 89yakir, Jan 17, 2017

Answer 4

It is use when talking in a more proper manner. It can also be used as a greeting when you answer the phone (Si Digame??) Note that even though it means "say" it does not have the same connotation. You would use "dime" for your friends, family and known people. "diga" would be more for showing respect.

Got it, Thanks! - 89yakir, Jan 17, 2017