mandatos when informal plural?

Question

I'm using mandatos/commands to tell my friends what to do.

I believe these two are right. Chad, barre la cocina. Bernice, limpia la sala.

These two below I'm unsure about because I'm trying to command two people at once. Please help with these ones especially. Chad y Bernice, usan pasar la aspiradora en mi dormitorio. Don y Luis quitan el polvo de las mesas.

Answer 1

Just remember that in Spain you would be using the vosotros form of the command for 2nd person, plural informal.

Don y Luis, quitad [vosotros] el polvo de las mesas.

Don y Luis, quiten [Uds.] el polvo de las mesas.

And if I am not mistaken, in Latin American, the 2nd person, plural, formal is used for plural, informal commands. (there exists no 2nd person, informal, plural:vosotros). There is only 2nd person, informal, singular (tú) and 2rd person, singular and plural formal.(Ud., Uds.)

Not a native. I may be way off base there.

In Latin America (commands)

	singular	plural
2nd person informal	tú	vosotros
2nd person formal	Ud.	Uds.

My apologies for ignoring the voseo.

I think this make alot of sense, I think i'm going to view some tuts and check back here again. - rcmango, Dec 7, 2010

Answer 2

RC, Lesson 2.12 on this site has a good explanation of informal comands. Lesson 2.14 on this site explains formal commands. Each video takes about 10 minutes to watch. They can be very helpful in understanding the command sentence structure and the verb imperatives.

To view the videos, go to "Learn Spanish", then "Learn Spanish 2", then select Lesson 2.12.

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

what if there is a group of people, i'm speaking to informally,

In Latin America, which uses "ustedes" in both formal and inform situations, you'd say:

"Coman la comida."

In Spain, you'd say:

"Comed la comida."

Thankyou! This is what I needed! - rcmango, Dec 7, 2010

Answer 4

Okay, I've viewed/watched the tutorial from here, and read through several tuts, I'm not really seeing my question..

Which is, "If i'm speaking to more than one person and giving an informal command, how does this conjugate"

For another, example: to one person singular, informal:

Come tu comida.

However, what if there is a group of people, i'm speaking to informally, and i'm telling them to eat their food. Would this conjugate differently?

I think qfreed has it right. Thanks.

Please don't forget to capitalize properly and use punctuation...we have English learners on this site that may read your posts. - --Mariana--, Dec 7, 2010

Okay, my english has been corrected. So feel free to read through my english, looks much better now. :) - rcmango, Dec 7, 2010

Answer 5

Q said:

in Latin American...plural, formal is used for plural, informal commands.

Yes, this is true (see below).

---

Usted and ustedes commands (affirmative and negative):

All formal commands are based on the third person forms of the present subjunctive. The plural forms are the same as the singular except for the addition of an -n.

Affirmative commands (usted and ustedes):

¡Hable! ¡Coma! ¡Viva! Speak! Eat! Live! (singular)

¡Hablen! ¡Coman! ¡Vivan! Speak! Eat! Live! (plural)

Negative commands (usted and ustedes):

¡No hable! ¡No coma! ¡No viva! Don't speak! Don't eat! Don't live! (singular)

¡No hablen! ¡No coman! ¡No vivan! Don't speak! Don't eat! Don't live! (plural)

More examples of formal commmands follow. Note the position of negatives, and subject and object pronouns.

No le dé nada. Don't give him anything. (singular)

Dígale algo. Tell him something. (singular)

Venga usted pronto. Come soon. (singular)

¡Váyanse! Get out of here! (plural)

Búsquenlo ustedes. Look for it. (plural)

¡Nunca lo hagan! Never do it! (plural)

It doesn't deal with plural commands at all...just singular tú - 0074b507, Dec 7, 2010

Yes..Sorry, I read the lesson too quickly. I have edited to add some relevant information. - --Mariana--, Dec 7, 2010

Thanks Marianne, I think I see the answer from your quote from qfreed. Thanks for your feedback. - rcmango, Dec 7, 2010