01 · Reporting a yes/no question
Me preguntó si quería café.
She asked me if I wanted coffee.
Si is the word doing "whether" here — never "que." That single swap is the most common slip in this pattern.
andbefluent.com/spanish/say-what
Say What
Report what someone asked — si, dónde, por qué — smoothly, in real spoken exchanges.
To report a yes/no question, use si: me preguntó si quería café, no sé si viene a la fiesta — never que. To report an information question, keep the question word with its written accent but drop the question marks and the inversion: no sé dónde dejé las llaves, me preguntó qué estaba haciendo. And when the reporting verb is in the past, the tense shifts back with it: me preguntó si había comido; quería saber dónde vivía. Everyday openers do the embedding for you: no sé, no recuerdo, quiero saber, me gustaría saber.
Below: the phrases that carry reported questions, how locals really relay them, the accent and word-order traps — and how &Be trains the transformation by saying it, not by rewriting sentences in a workbook.
The warm-up pack
How to relay what someone actually asked, without ever using a question mark.
01 · Reporting a yes/no question
Me preguntó si quería café.
She asked me if I wanted coffee.
Si is the word doing "whether" here — never "que." That single swap is the most common slip in this pattern.
02 · Saying you don't know, politely
No sé si viene a la fiesta.
I don't know if he's coming to the party.
Same si, now inside a shrug instead of a report — it works exactly the same way.
03 · Passing on a favor
Dime si necesitas ayuda.
Tell me if you need help.
This is you offering, not asking — the si-question structure works for statements too, not just reported questions.
04 · Reporting what someone wanted to know
Me preguntó qué estaba haciendo.
She asked me what I was doing.
The question word survives the trip into reported speech — it just loses its question marks.
05 · Passing along a location question
Dime dónde vives ahora.
Tell me where you live now.
Dónde keeps its accent here even though there's no "¿" in sight — that accent never disappears in Spanish, question or not.
06 · No inversion, no question marks
Me preguntó dónde estaba mi hermana.
She asked me where my sister was.
Say the direct version out loud — "¿dónde estaba mi hermana?" — then notice the word order doesn't flip when you report it.
07 · Total honesty about not knowing
No tengo idea de cuánto cuesta.
I have no idea how much it costs.
Cuánto keeps its accent too — this whole family of words never loses it, embedded or not.
08 · The past pulls the tense back with it
Me preguntó si había comido.
She asked me if I had eaten.
Because "preguntó" is past, the embedded question shifts back too — había, not he. That backshift is the hardest habit to build.
09 · Same backshift, a different verb
Quería saber dónde vivía.
He wanted to know where I lived.
Quería is already past, so vivía has to match it — keeping "vivo" here is the giveaway that you translated word by word.
10 · The polite way to ask anything
Me gustaría saber cuánto tarda.
I'd like to know how long it takes.
Wrapping a question in "me gustaría saber" is the softest, most natural way to ask something in Spanish — hotel-desk register, not a demand.
11 · Admitting you've lost something
No sé dónde dejé las llaves.
I don't know where I left the keys.
This exact shape — no sé + question word — is probably the most useful sentence in the whole badge. You'll say some version of it weekly.
FLUENT
Finally, someone to talk to in Spanish.
Ten-minute spoken lessons. A teacher who answers back — and gently fixes what you got wrong.
First 10 lessons freeandbefluent.com/spanish/say-whatRegional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
No transformation worksheets — in the Say What lessons, Carla fires a direct question at you — ¿Dónde trabajas? — and you report it straight back: Me preguntó dónde trabajaba. Out loud, tense backshift and all. She has you soften blunt questions into polite ones — Me gustaría saber..., Quería preguntarle..., ¿Sabe usted si...? — and rebuild a ¿Por qué...? or ¿Cuánto...? as No sé por qué... / Quiero saber cuánto..., where the accent stays even though the question marks are gone.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 5 lessons and Say What is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Me preguntó si... — me preguntó si quería café, pregúntale si tiene tiempo. Yes/no reported questions always take si, never que.
Yes. Qué, quién, dónde, cuándo, cómo, por qué, cuánto keep the written accent even without question marks: no sé cómo se llama el restaurante, quiero saber por qué cancelaron la reunión.
Me preguntó si venía. Using que to report a yes/no question is one of the most common slips — si is the word doing the 'whether' work.
A past reporting verb pulls the reported tense back too: me preguntó si había comido (she asked if I had eaten), me preguntaron cómo me llamaba. Keeping the present — me preguntó si tengo tiempo — is the giveaway; say me preguntó si tenía tiempo.
Embed it in a soft opener: Me gustaría saber cuánto tarda; ¿Sabes si hay una farmacia cerca? It's the polite hotel-desk register — the question hides inside a statement, no inversion needed.