Get up or stand up
To give the following orders:
siéntate = sit down
levántate (de la silla, of course) = get up (or stand up) ????
Is it more correct "get up" or "stand up"?
Thank you.
11 Answers
The two are interchangeable to some degree, but, for me, "get up" implies one is lying down in bed or is sitting or lying on the floor. For your classroom game, I would use "stand up" because you specifically want them to stand and not do anything else.
In actual conversations, however, we rarely tell people to get out of their chairs. We just command or ask them to do whatever (for example, "Go to the office!") and if it requires they get out of the seat, they will do so.
In the occasions when we do ask someone to get out of their chair, I would tend to say things like...
- Stand up (they would stand by the chair in this case)
- Please rise. (if addressing a group of people, very common in court and church)
- Get up out of your seat and come over here. (Could simply say "Come over here")
- Get out of your seat and stand by the wall. (Could simply say "Stand by the wall")
The game consists in following the orders that I give her (I mean, sit down and stand up or get up). What she does after that is unimportant.
In this context (of a game played by children), I think that "stand up" would be a good one to use.
There is a similar game that children play called "Simon says" (perhaps you are familiar with it). In this game, one person is chosen to give the commands (Simon), and the other players must follow that person's commands as long as each command is preceded by the words "Simon says." If a player follows a command that is not preceded by these words then that player is out of the game for that round.
In this game, basic commands such as "stand up," "sit down," "touch your nose/ears/eyes/etc.," "tap your neighbor on the shoulder," "walk/run/hop in place," etc. are given in order to help the child develop and reinforce basic language concepts such as the names of body parts, basic non-stative conditions such as standing, sitting, hopping etc. At this age level/level of language proficiency, it is usually an understanding and reinforcement of the concepts themselves that is the focus of such exercises.
Social/behavioral awareness, in regards to language (i.e. ideas of what might be considered courteous, brusk, officious, rude, etc), is usually learned at a gradual pace, and represents, relatively speaking, a fairly advanced level of language proficiency.
I would not get too caught up in such ideas if your goal is to teach more basic concepts of language. Many children (at least in the U.S.) are used to being addressed by their elders (teachers, parents, etc) in ways that might be considered rude should the person being addressed be an adult (i.e. - children are often told what to do, often with very little formality and many times in the absence of such pleasantries as the word "please"). That being said, it would probably not hurt to integrate elements of socially acceptable behavior into such games For example, "Simon says 'do something' please," as Ian had mentioned earlier.
Both "get up" and "stand up" are correct when you want someone to rise from their seat. Both are also very harsh commands, so you might want to add "please." 
If I translate the sentences into Spanish I would have the following result:
Get up - levantarse (I get up in the morning)
Stand up- ponerse de pié (I stand up) (from the chair).
This way is how I understood "get up" and "stand up". But I have seen "get up" to refer to leave the chair. For that reason I asked my question.
That is true, but just remember (and if you have forgotten, have a look at Ian's post on the subject) that the word "get" is used in many different contexts.
When the word "get" precedes an adverb that refers to a relative direction (up, down, out, in etc) the resulting verbal phrase describes a motion from the current position and in the direction described by the adverb, so that if you say, "get up" and the person is in bed, then the motion is "up" and from the bed. In the same way, if you say, "get up" and the person is seated in a chair then the motion is "up" and from the chair. In both cases, the direction is away from the "down" position that the person was previously in (whether it be "sitting down" or "lying down").
Often, (although, I suspect that this might be a colloquial usage) the same idea might be conveyed by saying "out of" or "up (and) out of." Here, "out of" conveys the idea of "from." For example:
• Get up, out of bed/get out of bed
• Get up and out of your chairs/seats (to a crowd)
• Get up out of the car/get out of the car.
By contrast, the phrase "ponerse de pie" can also be translated to a similar English idiomatic expression, "get on your feet (stand)." Here the direction is to move onto something (in this case your feet - i.e. to a standing position) and off of something else - a chair or bed, for example (presumably, from an initially seated or recumbent position). To really see the contrast between the possible uses of the two phrases, consider the following sentence that might be said by a parent to a child who is seated in front of the television past their bedtime, "Get up, and go to bed." Here, the emphasis is on the second statement "go to bed," and the order of "get up" (stand up) is really secondary and doesn't necessarily mean "stand up" as much as it does "pick yourself up off of the ground (i.e. quit the position that you are in now) and go to bed." - that is that the parents do not want the kid to get up and stand there, they want them to rush off to bed.
I had always assumed that "levantarse" could be used similarly (although, after reading your comments, perhaps I may have been mistaken). I had previously heard these lyrics "este indio tiene lo que tú no vales, tiene brazos fuertes para levantarse y al levantarse jamás recoge lo que han recogido antes," and I had always assumed that "levantarse" here was being used to basically say (figuratively) pick himself up off the ground (as in after having been knocked down) and not necessarily to mean "get up" (as in out of bed).
From my point of view, stand up is "ponerse de pié". I stand up at eight o'clock in the morning (yo me pongo de pié a las ocho de la mañana). From the grammatical point of view, it should be correct. This expression is completely correct but in Spanish it is unusual to express this way when you actually want to say that you get up in the morning (tú te levantas por la mañana).
The way you have phrased this in English (I stand up at...) reminds me of a similar English expression, "up and at 'em." Where one might say something like, "I am usually up and at 'em by eight o'clock every morning." Again, this is also often said, "I usually get up by eight o'clock every morning," or "I am usually on my feet (and out the door) by eight o'clock every morning." While any of these expressions might be used, I would venture to guess that the most common in this context would still probably be "get up" (I get up at...).
get up, stand up more less the same. no lenghty explanations needed.Adidng please is always a good idea.
In the context of your game (which sounds very much like our "Simon says"), "stand up" is the best choice. "get up" is mostly used to mean "despiértate" or "levántate" (that is, it needn't imply that one is/was asleep but usually implies from a prone/reclining position).
The situation is made more complicated by sentences such as "Get up off of your butt!" or "Get up from that chair!" However, I think that in these (and similar constructions), it is the addition on some prepositional phrase that makes the use of "get up" understandable.
If they were interchangeable, I could say:
I stand up at eight o'clock in the morning.
I get up at eight o'clock in the morning.
You're right. They are not interchangeable in that situation.
It would be very odd to say "I stand up at eight o'clock in the morning" when you mean to say that you "get up" in the morning.
Hi Nila
Another one of your intriguing questions about English.
levántate (de la silla, of course) = get up (or stand up) ????
I would probably say "get up" because I would mean that the person should "leave" the chair and not be too worried if they were actually going to stand or do something else like walk away or sit on the floor.
Does that make sense?
Hi, Nila!
"Get up" and "Stand up" are used interchangeably in my opinion. "Stand up" may be slightly more formal.
If I translate the sentences into Spanish I would have the following result:
Get up - levantarse (I get up in the morning)
Stand up- ponerse de pié (I stand up) (from the chair).
This way is how I understood "get up" and "stand up". But I have seen "get up" to refer to leave the chair. For that reason I asked my question.
If they were interchangeable, I could say:
I stand up at eight o'clock in the morning.
I get up at eight o'clock in the morning.
From my point of view, stand up is "ponerse de pié". I stand up at eight o'clock in the morning (yo me pongo de pié a las ocho de la mañana). From the grammatical point of view, it should be correct. This expression is completely correct but in Spanish it is unusual to express this way when you actually want to say that you get up in the morning (tú te levantas por la mañana).
I would probably say "get up" because I would mean that the person should "leave" the chair and not be too worried if they were actually going to stand or do something else like walk away or sit on the floor.
Consí, consá (more or less) but I do not want her to walk or something like that. I want her to stay in front of her chair like an statue. And after that, she should sit down.
The game consists in following the orders that I give her (I mean, sit down and stand up or get up). What she does after that is unimportant.
