Habla con su madre VS. quiero que hablas con su madre

Question

Hi there , in English we would say : speak to your mother.....or I want you to speak to your mother. Why is it when I translate into Spanish I get ......'habla con su madre' and then it changes to 'quiero que hablas con su madre' if its a command?

Answer 1

The first sentence if fine, but the second has misspelled word.
Habla con su madre
Quiero que hables con su madre

• Right, the subjunctive would be the better choice. - Austin5670 Feb 15, 2012
• But shouldn't it be "tu madre", and not "su madre", since the tú-form of hablar allready is used? - inridk Feb 15, 2012
• both forms are correct you can use either - arajei Feb 15, 2012

Answer 2

The most consequent ways would be:

Either, using the familiar "tu": Habla con tu madre. Quiero que hables con tu madre.

Or, using the formal "usted": Hable con su madre. Quiero que hable con su madre.

In both cases, the first sentence uses the imperative, while the second uses the present subjunctive. In the "usted" case (third personal singular) they are identical.

Take care

Answer 3

I'm not an expert on spanish by any means but the second sentence doesn't look right to me.

Answer 4

'quiero que hables con su madre' (subjunctive)

• See vikingo. With hables use tu. - CaliforniaDr Feb 15, 2012
• Quiero que hables con tu madre = I want you to talk to your mother - chileno Feb 15, 2012
• Quiero que hables con su madre = I want you to talk to his/her mother. - chileno Feb 15, 2012
• Is it any better? :) - chileno Feb 15, 2012
• Oh, I'm just a user of my own language. ;) - chileno Feb 15, 2012

Answer 5

I want to talk to your mother in spanish is quiero hablar con su madre. but when you say; 'I want you to talk to your mother' you will say quiero que hables con su madre. You have to use subjunctive.

Better get idea about use of subjunctive link text

• I have to agree that "su" is, at best, confusing here! I tend to translate su as "their" according to the the now popular usage - Lector_Const Feb 15, 2012
• Quiero hablar con su madre = I want to talk to your/his/her mother. - chileno Feb 15, 2012

Answer 6

Habla con tu madre o hable con su madre

• Talk to your mother = habla con tu madre (informal) - chileno Feb 15, 2012
• hable con su madre (formal)= talk to your/his/her ( mother) - chileno Feb 15, 2012