Signifiqué

Signifiqué is the first-person singular preterite indicative form of the Spanish verb significar. Significar means to signify, to mean, to indicate, or to be a sign of something. The preterite form signifiqué denotes a completed action in the past in which the speaker indicated, signaled, or intended a meaning through words, gestures, or signs. It can express both a literal sense of marking something and a figurative sense of implying a meaning.

Usage notes: In everyday speech, speakers often prefer phrases such as “quise decir” or “quería decir” to convey intended meaning rather than “signifiqué.” Signifiqué is more common in formal, literary, or descriptive narration, where a past act of signaling or indicating is being reported.

Conjugation: Yo signifiqué; tú significaste; él/ella/Ud. significó; nosotros significamos; vosotros significasteis; ellos significaron. Note the spelling change in the yo form (-qué) due to the -car verb pattern, with the accent on the í.

Etymology: Significar comes from Latin significare, meaning “to indicate” or “to signify,” from signum “sign” plus the verb-forming element -ficare.