Prepare: Recover a message without assigning it to the wrong person.
Choose a scene in which one person passes on a call or message. Draw three named circles before adding arrows. A messenger can quote an instruction, report a tentative plan, and add their own comment in the same turn. Keep those sources separate. This example contains no actual phone audio. The lines are preparation for a real recording you choose.
A worked Spanish exchange
This is an invented teaching example. Read the Spanish first. Use the translation to check meaning, not as a substitute for real listening.
| Spanish | English meaning |
|---|---|
| Ha llamado Marta. Dice que la reunión empieza a las diez. | Marta called. She says the meeting starts at ten. |
| ¿No era a las nueve? | Wasn't it at nine? |
| Sí, pero Luis ha pedido cambiarla. | Yes, but Luis asked to change it. |
| Marta quiere que le confirmes si puedes ir. | Marta wants you to confirm to her whether you can go. |
| Yo todavía no sé si llegaré a tiempo. | I still do not know whether I will arrive on time. |
Your turn / Evidence before guesses
Make your record
Assign the call, change request, confirmation request, and uncertainty to the correct people. Record the old and reported new meeting times. Identify who should receive the listener's confirmation. Then decide whether the messenger has confirmed their own attendance or whether Luis's attendance is known. Do not let a person's role in changing the meeting imply that they will attend it.
Open the answer key
Marta made the call and reports the ten o'clock start. Luis requested the change from the earlier nine o'clock arrangement. Marta asks the listener to confirm to her whether the listener can attend. The messenger is unsure of arriving on time. Neither the messenger's attendance nor Luis's attendance is confirmed. The new time comes through Marta's reported message, not a direct statement from Luis in the scene.
Try a changed version
Make an arrow from Marta to messenger for the call, then from messenger to listener for the relayed message. Add a return arrow from listener to Marta for confirmation. Put Luis beside the time-change request only. Now rewrite the final line as Yo ya he confirmado, meaning I have already confirmed. Only that change supplies a confirmation by the messenger. Keep the other people's status unchanged.
The detail that changes the meaning
Dice marks reported information. Le in le confirmes points to Marta, the person requesting the reply. Yo in the final line shifts focus back to the messenger. That explicit pronoun matters because several people have been mentioned. Todavía no sé keeps the messenger's arrival unresolved. A clear future form inside an uncertainty statement does not turn the whole statement into a promise.
Take the task to a real video
In a real scene, pause when the speaker changes from reporting another person to stating their own plan. Use initials in notes so references remain short. Check a caption around a pronoun or name if two people could fit. End with a message record that names the source and the required recipient. If the source itself is uncertain, preserve that uncertainty instead of writing a firm announcement.
Tool note / Our app
We make Jibber Jabber. Check the caption around a name or reference word when two people could fit the message. Keep the source and recipient arrows in your notebook. Lookup supports meaning, but it cannot confirm what an absent person actually intended or turn reported information into a direct statement from that person.
Questions & answers
Who must receive the confirmation?
Marta. The messenger reports that she wants the listener to confirm to her.
Is the messenger definitely coming?
No. The final line says the messenger still does not know whether arrival on time is possible.
Did Luis call?
The text says Marta called. Luis is mentioned as the person who requested the change.
Sources for this worksheet
The dialogue, task, variation, and key are original editorial teaching material. They are not a transcript, a quotation, or a report of a real transaction.
- Official Jibber Jabber sources — supports the tool description and plan limits, not a claim about learning results. Retrieved 9 November 2026; source reviewed 28 October 2026.
- Workbook method — explains the evidence labels and the limits of the written key.
Continue this practice path
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Useful task terms: Reference word
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How the related sites connect
This workbook is one of a coordinated collection of comprehensible input guides published by Jibber Jabber. They share one publisher and are not independent endorsements. See Related websites. We make Jibber Jabber.
Cite this worksheet
Jibber Jabber. “A Spanish phone message: who said what, and to whom?.” Spanish Fieldnotes. Updated 9 November 2026. https://spanishcomprehensibleinput.com/phone-message-who-said-what/