Anabel

Now, here comes the last joke.

And it is very nice because it uses a very interesting grammar point that might be a bit tricky for some learners, but it is very, very useful.

El chiste dice así.

Doctor, dígame la verdad, ¿tengo problemas de memoria?

Que sí.

The translation is something like Doctor, tell me the truth.

Do I have memory problems?

And the doctor says Yes, you do.

What I like about this joke is that it is subtle and that the giveaway is a very interesting and super useful grammar point which is the use of que there at the beginning of the sentence.

The doctor is not saying sí.

They are saying que sí.

So, what does it mean?

Well, first of all, maybe you have heard phrases like que aproveche or que lo pases bien, which are wishes.

And that is why we have the subjunctive in aproveche and pases.

We start with que because when we say que aproveche, it's like saying espero que aproveche.

Or espero que lo pases bien in que lo pases bien.

However, that espero is not necessary because we get it from the context that it is a wish.

Ahora bien, ese es uno de los usos de que, pero no es el uso de este chiste.

So that is one of the uses of que when it appears at the beginning of the sentence, but it is not the use that we are using here in this joke.

The type of que used in que sí is a bit different.