Informal command of parar?

Question

I would assume that it would be "para" but I've seen it "pará" as well...I'm not sure which is correct. Can someone help me?

Thanks!

I searched past questions and most of them had the formal command or linked to the definition of parar which I've looked at plenty of times. - knkurz, Mar 1, 2010

Thanks to everyone who answered!! Muchas gracias! - knkurz, Mar 2, 2010

Answer 1

That's easy. The "tenga" is both the subjunctive and the usted command form of tener while "ten" is the informal form. As far as I know tener and detener follow each others forms.

Edit: Tenlo = have it. Detenlo a ese hombre = Stop that man. Detente = stop (you informal). stop yourself.

Answer 2

From yahoo answers: PáraTE with that TE pronoun is usually used only for the same meaning as English "stand up". If you want to say "stop", it is better to say simply "PARA" or "DETENTE".

About "Párale", that's a very mexican way of saying STOP. It is a very usual trait in Mexican Spanish to add the pronoun LE after some verbs (or even any other word), like: párale, ándale, órale, híjole, échale, (this LE is used only to give emphasis, those words are more like interjections).

As I stated above, I hear Detente all the time but I have never heard Parate. I avoid of because of the confusion with "stop" vs "stand" not mention the fact that "para" is a very common word in and of itself. Calvoviejo is more conversationally fluent than I am however, but then I usually deal with people from Mexico so it could be different in Colombia. Who knows. There are many different ways to say things in Spanish but my advice is detente over parate. I'd love for some natives to come in and give a voice to one of the two stated opinions in here. Preferably someone from Mexico.

Answer 3

Jeezzle is right again about the conjugation of tener/detener.

However, here in Colombia, "parar" is usually the verb to be used. The stop signs for traffic use "para".

Now that I've written that, I have to admit that I don't know if the stop signs say "para" or "pare". I think they use the informal, "para".

I think they are talking about the informal way to ask someone to stop on the street, wouldn't that be "detente" and not "para" or am I mistaken? - jeezzle, Mar 1, 2010

The question was specifically about the verb parar. When asking someone walking by, I would still use "parate". "Detente" would sound a little stilted. - CalvoViejo, Mar 1, 2010

Weird. I hear detente all the time everyday. Never have I heard parate. Just about every show I've ever seen has had someone saying "Detente!" to someone on the street or wherever. Never "parate". - jeezzle, Mar 1, 2010

Answer 4

Hm, I didn't know that. Thanks!

Along those lines, where does "detente" come in with conjugation? "Tener" conjugates to "tenga" so why isn't "detener" "detenga" in this instance?

Answer 5

I would agree with Jeezzle. I often hear that detente is far more common that para.

Answer 6

The conjugator lists it as "para" but I certainly wouldn't use that to be an informal command for "stop". I would say "detente" from detener which is far more common from what I hear.