"¡Vendenos tu carro!" (Accent or no accent for vendenos?)

Question

"¡Vendenos tu carro!"

I saw this written last night on a billboard on the way home.

No accent marks in vendenos. I am wondering if there ought to be and why?

Answer 1

[You-tú] Sell us your car as DJ says. It is the informal tú command.

Véndenos tu carro.

[usted] Véndanos su carro. formal command

If we are going for misspellings, then let's go with the nosotros command.

Vendamos tu coche. Let's sell your car.

Do you know of a resource I could read for this "stress before the pronoun was attached" explanation? I don't notice any stressing before the pronouns are appended. - Fredbong, Jun 13, 2011

Using the word "grave" and a former recollation of "esdrújula" I found a resource to understand this better. - Fredbong, Jun 13, 2011

Start by reading the Reference article on Accents which gives the 4 rules for how stress is determined. Defines aguda, grave, esdrújulas, etc. - 0074b507, Jun 13, 2011

The information about placing of tildes is in one of Paralee´s video lessons in section 4. - Encalada, Jun 13, 2011

Great stuff Q =) - DJ_Huero, Jun 13, 2011

Answer 2

It must have an accent:

Véndenos tu coche

¿Quien es la copiona ahora, preciosa? - 005faa61, Jun 13, 2011

grrrrrr, you beat me by a second, lol - 00494d19, Jun 13, 2011

Do you know of an explanation for why the é is on the first e and not the second? I don't understand this "stress" stuff. - Fredbong, Jun 13, 2011

The stress must remain on the word where it was before the pronoun is attached. The stress on Vende is on the 1st e, because the word is grave (ends in a vowel, n or s). So you must put an accent there to maintain the stress because vendenos would be - 0074b507, Jun 13, 2011

stressed on the 2nd e; not the 1st e. - 0074b507, Jun 13, 2011

Answer 3

Please don´t take this as a definitive answer, there are many here wiser than I.

In the course of learning conjugations it appears that in the nosotros form for most verbs that the tilde is not used. I am sure there are exceptions though.

Note In checking the conjugations for "vender" it carries the tilde in the conditional, the imperfect, and subjunctive forms,otherwise it does not.

I'll vote that... good info frank - DJ_Huero, Jun 13, 2011

Answer 4

It means, "sell us your car!".

I would think there should be an accent here, vendénos, but I'm not quite a pro yet. We'll see what others say... i'm going to be watching too.

That is where I thought an accent mark ought to be as well, but I've seen in the past similar imperatives that put the accent mark on the first vowel. For example, dejar, for some reason, has it on the "e." Usually. - Fredbong, Jun 13, 2011

Yea, because you anunciate stronger on the "e" not the "a". That makes sense to me... it's a matter of how it's pronounced... usually that will tell you where the accent goes. - DJ_Huero, Jun 13, 2011

It should be véndenos. The accent goes where the stress was before the pronoun(s) is attached. - 0074b507, Jun 13, 2011

The accent puts emphasis on that letter's sound. Anyways, that being sound, it may be on the first "e" instead of the second because of the way you'd say it. =) - DJ_Huero, Jun 13, 2011

Jaja... exactly what I was think Q... and you said it, right as I typed my second part. Thanks =) - DJ_Huero, Jun 13, 2011

By the way Q, post it in an answer so we can vote it, and accept it. :-) - DJ_Huero, Jun 13, 2011

Answer 5

There are two possibilities. It´s either a misspelling or it´s lacking a tilde.

Vendemos tu carro ...... We will sell your car

or

Véndenos tu carro ..... Sell us your car

---

Personally, I would "coche" in place of "carro," but this is a regional thing.

Answer 6

Our translator (2 out of 3) have this.

véndanos su coche

Answer 7

Vendamos tu coche. Let's sell your car.

That would be really weird.

Vendamos would imply that the seller had a part in this.

Julian is right Vendemos tu coche

Maybe he is funning s special on repairing and detailing cars so that you can sell it or trade it in. But you are right, it is weird. I was just commenting on possible spelling variations. - 0074b507, Jun 13, 2011

¡Vendámonos tu coche pues! ja ja - 005faa61, Jun 13, 2011

Answer 8

To throw a spanner in the works, shouldn't it be véndenos? My guess is that like English, advertisements, books and newspaers don't always use grammar in the manner that some believe it should be used. Here's another car advertisement I saw: http://www.carnopolisusa.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=205&lang=es

They use vehículo because they may be dealing with trucks and other vehicles besides cars. - 0074b507, Jun 13, 2011

Sorry, gfreed, I cut and pasted. Shall change back to auto. Meant to point out only that it should be véndenos... - Encalada, Jun 13, 2011