decir
to say
Expressing, conveying, or reporting information through words
Encoding Strategies:
linguistic
declare
to say / declare
+
-ir
verb suffix
Decir means to say and is related to the English word declare0, which means to say or declare something0.
decir
to say, to tell
To literally say something.
- Me dijo que llegaría tarde = He told me he would be late
- ¿Qué dijiste? No te escuché = What did you say? I didn't hear you
to think, to believe (to give an opinion)
"Decir" can mean "to think" when asking someone's view on something. Just like in English, "What do you say?" really means "What do you think?"
- ¿Qué dices tú sobre este plan? = What do you think about this plan?
- ¿Y tú qué dices, vamos o no? = And what do you say, are we going or not?
decirse
to say to oneself, to think to oneself
When you say something to yourself (in your own head), you're thinking to yourself or talking to yourself.
- "Esto no puede ser", se dijo al ver los resultados = "This can't be," she said to herself when she saw the results
- Se dijo que era hora de cambiar = He thought to himself that it was time to change
querer decir
to mean
Spanish expresses meaning as what something "wants to say" (its intended message or significance).
- ¿Qué quiere decir esta palabra? = What does this word mean? (What is this word trying to say?)
- ¿Qué quiere decir "efímero"? = What does "efímero" mean?