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I'm confused about what to do when I want to use "you" in a hypothetical statement or generalization but "you" isn't actually refering to the person I'm talking to. If I wanted to tell someone, for example, "To get to the store you have to take Main St." would I use the 3rd person singular form of the verb? What about if I said something like "You can't drink alcohcol before you're 21"? In this case I mean in general everyone can't even though I'm only talking to one person. Can anyone help?

Posted Oct 25, 2009
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seth446

I struggled with this for a while, too.

There are different ways to communicate this type of expression, the most popular will vary depending on where you are and what is customary there.

The passive "se" is useful for this. I'll use your example:

"No se puede consumir alcohol con menos de 21 años."

"Para llegar a la tienda, se sigue la calle Main."

The passive se is a tricky concept for non native speakers. It is generally used as a substitute for saying that something generally occurs or doesn´t occur.

Also, when wanting to say "you must" or "you have to" as you did in one of your examples, "hay que" is useful:

"Para llegar a la tienda, hay que seguir la calle Main."

The concept of "hay que" doesn´t have a comfortable equivalent in english. It´s used to express something that is to be done.

Finally, in some cases you can simply use the "tu" form when speaking in such situations. I doubt that most textbooks will say you can, but I´ve heard native speakers do so.

"Para llegar a la tienda, tienes que seguir la calle Main."

Hope this was helpful.