1. Decir la verdad
To tell the truth

2. IOP
Person who receives Me Te Le
Nos Os
Les

3. Decir = to say/tell Digo Dices Dice Decimos Decís Dicen
Stem-changing verb
Stem = dec  dic
Digo
Dices
Dice
Decimos
Decís
Dicen

4. And combine! IOP comes first
Person who receives + person who tells + “the truth”
“the truth” = la verdad
I tell you the truth  think of it as “to you I tell the truth”
IOP for you + decir in the form of “I tell” + the truth

5. (Literally: You I tell the truth.)
La respuesta
Te digo la verdad.
I tell you the truth.
(Literally: You I tell the truth.)

6. Practicamos I tell you the truth. You tell me the truth.
I tell her the truth.
We tell them the truth.
But how can we specify that we tell the truth to CARLOS? Or to MARIA? (because we’ve been very vague)
Think about what we do with “gustar”

7. With gustar… He likes pizza. Or…. TO HIM pizza is pleasing.
A él le gusta la pizza.
So… when “telling the truth…..” (using decir la verdad…)
We tell the truth TO CARLOS.
Le decimos la verdad a Carlos.

8. What if the person TELLING the truth is vague?
Such as… Te dice la verdad.
Who tells?!
We can clarify that in the beginning of the sentence.
Mi madre te dice la verdad.
My mom tells you the truth.

9. Practicamos otra vez Maria tells you the truth.
You tell Maria the truth.
My mom tells me the truth.
I tell my mom the truth.
My friends tell Juan the truth.
Juan tells my friends the truth.

10. Extraño… Me digo la verdad Te dices la verdad Nos decimos la verdad
Os decis la verdad
BUT this COULD happen:
Le dice la verdad (Who could be telling who the truth?!)