Decir (to say) · All tenses

Decir = to say specific words or to tell (always with a content object): 'digo que sí' (I say yes), 'le digo a Juan que vaya' (I tell Juan to go). Hablar = to speak / to talk (the act of talking, often without object): 'hablo español' (I speak Spanish), 'estamos hablando' (we're talking). A common error is using 'hablar' where 'decir' is needed: 'le habla la verdad' should be 'le dice la verdad'.

About a dozen Spanish verbs add a 'g' to the yo form: decir → digo, hacer → hago, tener → tengo, poner → pongo, salir → salgo, venir → vengo, caer → caigo, traer → traigo. This pattern (verbos con yo irregular en -go) comes from Latin sound changes that hardened a soft consonant before the final '-o' ending. Once you know one, the others follow a similar shape.

The preterite of decir is: yo dije, tú dijiste, él/ella/usted dijo, nosotros/as dijimos, vosotros/as dijisteis, ellos/ellas/ustedes dijeron. The stem switches to 'dij-' across all persons. Critically, the 3rd-person plural is 'dijeron' (not 'dijieron') — the 'i' is dropped after the j.

Verbs with a j-stem preterite drop the 'i' from the 3rd-person plural ending: decir → dijeron, traer → trajeron, traducir → tradujeron, conducir → condujeron. The 'i' is absorbed by the preceding 'j' phonetically. This is one of the few patterns where a typo (writing 'dijieron') would create a clearly non-native form — and it's tested heavily in Spanish proficiency exams.

Use 'dije' for a specific act of saying something at a clear moment: 'Le dije la verdad ayer' (I told him the truth yesterday). Use 'decía' for ongoing or habitual past speech, or for quoted speech with no clear endpoint: 'Mi abuela siempre decía que...' (My grandmother always used to say that...). 'Decía' also introduces indirect speech in narrative: 'El profesor decía que era importante' (The teacher was saying it was important).

Decir is regular in the imperfect: yo decía, tú decías, él/ella/usted decía, nosotros/as decíamos, vosotros/as decíais, ellos/ellas/ustedes decían. The accent on 'í' is required in every form. None of decir's three present-tense irregularities (g-yo, e→i, j-preterite) carry over here.

Use 'decía' for habitual or ongoing past speech: 'Cuando era niño, mi padre decía que...' (When I was a child, my father used to say that...). Use 'dije' for one-time completed acts of saying: 'Ayer le dije la verdad' (Yesterday I told him the truth). 'Decía' also works for ongoing speech that gets interrupted: 'Decía algo cuando entré' (He was saying something when I walked in).

Reported speech with decir follows backshift rules: present indicative + 'que' + indicative ('dice que viene' = he says he's coming); past indicative + 'que' + imperfect or subjunctive ('decía que venía' = he said he was coming, or 'me dijo que viniera' = he told me to come). Commands trigger the subjunctive: 'me dijo que viniera' (he told me to come).

The present subjunctive of decir is: yo diga, tú digas, él/ella/usted diga, nosotros/as digamos, vosotros/as digáis, ellos/ellas/ustedes digan. The stem 'dig-' comes from the indicative yo form 'digo' — standard rule for irregular subjunctive stems in Spanish.

Use it after triggers of doubt, emotion, will, or impersonal expressions: 'Quiero que digas la verdad' (I want you to tell the truth), 'No creo que diga eso' (I don't think he'd say that), 'Es importante que diga algo' (It's important he say something). Indirect commands also trigger the subjunctive: 'Le dije que viniera' (I told him to come).

Spanish irregular subjunctive stems come from the yo form of the present indicative. Decir → yo digo → subjunctive stem 'dig-'. The e→i stem change of the indicative (dices, dice) doesn't apply to the subjunctive because the yo form 'digo' already has the 'i' — so 'diga' is internally consistent. The same rule produces hacer (hago → haga), tener (tengo → tenga), and salir (salgo → salga).

The future of decir uses the irregular stem 'dir-': yo diré, tú dirás, él/ella/usted dirá, nosotros/as diremos, vosotros/as diréis, ellos/ellas/ustedes dirán. The infinitive 'decir' contracts to 'dir-' before the future endings — same pattern as hacer → har- (the only other Spanish verb that contracts this dramatically).

Decir and hacer are the only Spanish verbs whose future stems contract by more than one letter — dir-, har- instead of decir-, hacer-. Both were extremely high-frequency in Latin and Old Spanish, and everyday repetition wore the stems down faster than the more modest 'tendr-', 'pondr-', 'sabr-' contractions. Compare French 'dire → dirai' (same contraction) for a parallel.

Both express future speech. 'Diré' (simple future) feels slightly more formal, more committed, or further in time. 'Voy a decir' (going-to future) is more conversational for near-term plans. The simple future also expresses conjecture: '¿Qué dirá Juan ahora?' = 'What could Juan be saying now?' — a meaning the going-to future cannot carry.