Wrong verb in English.

Question

Mi jefe me ________que fuera más puntual por las mañanas. My boss asked me to be more punctual in the morning.Should “asked” be “told”?

Accepted Answer

Hola Shirley
The verb decir also conveys the idea of "command" like in this sentence. The boss is "asking" as in "telling me to do something" - this is why we are translating it into "ask". 
Other examples could be:

Su novio era muy celoso y le dijo que no hablara con otros chicos en la fiesta.
Her boyfriend was very jealous and asked her not to talk to other guys at the party.
Mi padre me dijo que volviera a casa temprano.
My dad asked me to come back home early.

I hope it clarifies it.
Saludos
Inma

Answer

Hola Marcos
When the direct speech is using the imperative we then report by using "dijo que... + imperfect subjunctive"- So, in this case, (although as explained to Shirley, the nuance here is more of a command: asked me to...) we imagine the boss said:
Direct speech:

¡Sé más puntual por las mañanas!
Be more punctual in the morning!

and then she reported:

Mi jefe me dijo que fuera más puntual por las mañanas. 
My boss said/told me to be more punctual in the morning.

We have an article about reported speech and the usual correlation of tenses, depending on what is used in the original direct speech before reporting. Have a look here. 
I hope it helps. 
Saludos
Inma

Answer

Do we always use the imperfect subjunctive with these reported command structures?Thanks.