¡Calla a esos niños!
Tell those children to be quiet!
¡Dile a esos niños a se calla! or
¡Calla a esos niños!
I would pick the 1st myself.
3 Answers
¡Diles a esos niños que se callen.
This is the correct form. The other sentence means: Shut those children up!
She posted exactly what I did fox. See that I haven't edited my post? What did I say....Diles a esos niños que se callen, and then I pointed out the issues between Dile and Diles a ellos, and gave you a rather detailed explanation of how que works in the sentence. Thanks.
It's late and I'm really tired so some of this may be wrong or wierd but.......this question makes me wonder for a couple of reasons. From what I can see "Dile a esos niños" and "Diles a esos niños" both seem acceptable because "Dile a esos niños" should be "You tell them" and "Diles a esos niños" should be "Tell them" since the first hits the pronoun "you" and the second hits the plural marker for "those kids".
Having said that I don't like either but I think the second works for "Shutup those kids" though I could be wrong.
The first is better phrased like this: Diles a esos niños que se callen. Whether Dile and Diles are both acceptable for "tell them" is a question that I don't have the answer to at the moment but your first sentence is not right, for a bunch of reasons.
Check it out:
Do you want me TO get her number for you? ¿Quieres QUE consiga su numero para tí? Tell him to cut you (cut is a restaurant word and cortar is also used by the Mexicans at work to mean cut as in relieve you from active duty for the night) Dile que te corte. Dile al jefe que te corte. Tell him to cut you.
I hope this helps you understand the relationship between to and que and understand that a is not always to in the English sense of the word. Now if only someone will remark on the Dile VS Diles issue. Maybe I will ask a question myself.
