¿qué acabas de decir?
In Spanish, "what did you just say?" is translated as ¿qué acabas de decir?
This phrase can be used both to ask for clarification because you didn't hear, or to express shock/offense at something someone just said.
Which one should you use?
While ¿qué acabas de decir? emphasizes that the action happened a moment ago, ¿qué dijiste? is a more general way to ask what someone said.
How does it change in a sentence?
To use the formal usted form, change acabas to acaba to get ¿qué acaba de decir? To ask a group of people what they just said, use the plural form acaban to say ¿qué acaban de decir?
Did you know?
- To express that you 'just' did something in Spanish, you use the verb acabar, which means 'to finish'. Therefore, the phrase ¿qué acabas de decir? literally translates to 'What have you finished saying?'
- If you want to ask 'what?' very informally because you didn't hear, you might simply say ¿Cómo? While it literally means 'How?', it is the most common way to ask someone to repeat themselves.
- The verb decir originally meant 'to show' or 'to point out' in its ancient Proto-Indo-European roots. This connection suggests that to say something is fundamentally to make it visible to others.
Examples in context
- No te oí bien, ¿qué acabas de decir?I didn't hear you well, what did you just say?
Example conversation
Javier and Elena are in a noisy cafe.
- Javier¡Hay mucho ruido aquí!It's very noisy in here!
- ElenaDije que podemos ir a otro lugar.I said we can go somewhere else.
- Javier¿Qué acabas de decir?What did you just say?
- ElenaQue busquemos otra cafetería.That we look for another cafe.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries de, decir, qué, CC BY-SA 4.0.
