How would you say Enjoy Yourself?

Question

I'm new here, and I'm making some greeting cards, and on the inside I want to say Enjoy Yourself.

I found a number of ways to say it, which way is the best''? I was thinking of using:

que se diverta.

Help!

Laurie

Answer 1

Everyone sounds to be in agreement that divertirse*[/i] is Laurie's best verb choice for her notes, but with regard to the interesting side discussion of disfrutar as a candidate -

I think that you have to say 'Disfruta/Disfruten de tus/sus vacaciones.? I'm pretty sure that 'disfrutar de algo? means 'to enjoy something', but I may be wrong.

I think 'disfrutar de? would be possible here, but many times it gives the idea of 'enjoy the benefit of,? as in 'Juan disfruta de buena salud? or 'En aquellos tiempos, el país disfrutaba de una mejor economía.?

• I found that the dictionary provides two separate "acepciones" for disfrutar as an intransitive verb: 1) divertirse[i]* and 2)disfrutar de algo[i][/i] ,for which the "de algo" is "de privilegio/derecho". All the examples listed with the second meaning use "de", as pointed out in hhmdirocco's post:

Disfrutaron de buen tiempo.
Con este vale disfrutará de un descuento del 5%.
La mujer no siempre disfrutó del derecho al voto.

However, the entry for disfrutar as a "sinónimo aproximado" for divertirse also includes an example of disfrutar followed by "de", as in Nick's post: Espero que hayan disfrutado de la travesia.

But the "near divertirse" meaning also includes:
disfrutar with no preposition: Disfruta mientras eres joven,
disfrutar with the prepostion "con": Disfrutan mjucho con la película,
and disfrutar with a gerund: Disfruto viéndolos comer.

Finally, disfrutar is also given as a transitive verb - as you mentioned, htmrocco, when a "viaje" or "espectáculo" is to be enjoyed. As a transitive verb, the English provided is "to have" as well as "to enjoy" (in the sense of "to have", we can be sure) for "beneficio" or "derecho".

Answer 2

Thanks for all the replies! This is such a helpful forum!

Best to all!

Laurie

Answer 3

Que te diviertes (as it is more personal), meaning that you have fun, is what I would say, or perhaps Disfrútate, enjoy yourself.

"¡Que te diviertes!" can, however, be understood (given the right intonation, this is) as "¡So you are enjoying!", since you are declaring that you are enjoying.

There is a James Bond movie, where 007 is "in Spain" (or so they want us to believe), and at some point he escapes, and some "Spanish" guys (without a native accent) shout:

¡No se mueven!

which, of course, means "They are not moving!", declaring that some guys are not moving. After the initial shock, I quickly realized that they meant "¡No se muevan!", giving an order, rather than a declaration.

Answer 4

I think "disfrutar de" would be possible here, but many times it gives the idea of "enjoy the benefit of," as in "Juan disfruta de buena salud" or "En aquellos tiempos, el país disfrutaba de una mejor economía."

Another possibility is simply, "¡Disfruta/Disfruten!"

Where are all the natives when you need them'? They will clarify this one for us.

Answer 5

I think that you have to say "Disfruta/Disfruten de tus/sus vacaciones." I'm pretty sure that "disfrutar de algo" means "to enjoy something", but I may be wrong.

Answer 6

Welcome, Laurie.

Nathaniel gave you a good one, "¡Que te diviertas!", which means "I/We hope you (singular) have fun!" That may or may not be the exact sense you want. Other options here would be:

¡Que se diviertan! - plural
¡Diviértete! = Have fun! (singular, more forceful)
¡Diviértanse! = Have fun! (plural, more forceful)

"Disfrútate" is not what you want to say. The way I understand it, it has the connotation of "enjoying yourself" as you would actively (transitively) enjoy a movie, a dessert, or a massage.

¡Que disfrutes tus vacaciones! = I/We hope you enjoy your (singular) vacation!
¡Que disfruten sus vacaciones! = I/We hope you enjoy your (plural) vacation!
¡Disfruta/Disfruten tus/sus vacaciones! = Enjoy your vacation! (singualar/plural, more forceful)

Other options would be:

¡Que lo pases/pasen bien! = I/We hope you (singular/plural) have a good time!
¡Pásalo/Pásenlo bien! = Have a good time! (singular/plural, more forceful)

All of the singualar examples in this post are in the familiar (tú) form as opposed to the formal (usted); this is probably more appropriate for greeting cards.

Answer 7

Actually, it would have to be: Que te diviertas (informal) or Que se divierta (formal), if you wanted to use that sort of indirect command with the subjunctive.

You're right. I thought that was what it was, but I went to the conjugator to double check myself and for some reason I didn't see diviertas so I changed what I wrote.

Thanks!

Answer 8

I'm new here, and I'm making some greeting cards, and on the inside I want to say Enjoy Yourself.

I found a number of ways to say it, which way is the best''? I was thinking of using:

que se diverta.

Help!

Laurie

Que te diviertes (as it is more personal), meaning that you have fun, is what I would say, or perhaps Disfrútate, enjoy yourself.

Actually, it would have to be: Que te diviertas (informal) or Que se divierta (formal), if you wanted to use that sort of indirect command with the subjunctive.

Answer 9

I'm new here, and I'm making some greeting cards, and on the inside I want to say Enjoy Yourself.

I found a number of ways to say it, which way is the best''? I was thinking of using:

que se diverta.

Help!

Laurie

Que te diviertes (as it is more personal), meaning that you have fun, is what I would say, or perhaps Disfrútate, enjoy yourself.