Using ¨que¨ to start a sentence

Question

I´m not sure I understand how to begin a sentence with que, or why it´s done. I´m not talking about qué, or lo que, or anything like that. It seems like the sentence is a shortened version of another sentence but I can´t quite work out how it´s used or why.

Most recent examples that come to mind are:

Que voy el lunes.

y

¡Que tengas un buen día!

Answer 1

"Que" actually does not start a grammatical sentence, because there is normally an implicit start to it:

[Te he dicho] Que voy el lunes.

[I have told you] That I'm coming on Monday.

¡[Espero] Que tengas un buen día!

[I hope] that you have a good day!

that's really insightful - dewclaw, Jul 17, 2011

Amazing explanation Sir. I also have the same question as the gentleman above and I could logically conjecture the same thing which you have explained .. But I have another sentence in my book ,, Which is "que pase el siguente" , what is the implicit part - 00b055e0, Mar 10, 2014

Answer 2

This may help Que or Qué

Que can often be used to start a sentence and is short for Ojalá que - I hope/wish that ..... but be careful because if you then have a change of subject (ie I wish that you/he/she etc do or have something) you will need to follow que with a verb in the subjunctive because you're not declaring what someone else is doing only what you wish them to do.

¡Que tenga un buen día! not ¡Que tiene un buen día!

thanks for the reply ma'am but I am already aware of that use of que at the start (espero que or ojala que). but in the example I have stated above the ojala que doesn't make sense so there must be some other implied beginning removed to shorten the sente - 00b055e0, Mar 14, 2014

sentence* - 00b055e0, Mar 14, 2014

it could be "te he dicho que" or "te pido que" I think.. but how is the other person suppose to figure out .. haha - 00b055e0, Mar 14, 2014

Try by translating it as 'may' may you this or that and see if that works :) - Kiwi-Girl, Mar 17, 2014

Answer 3

Yeah, this is sort of what I pieced together. I´m still not really sure why it´s used though. Also, not sure how I´m supposed to know if the person´s saying "I told you I´m coming Monday", or "I´m telling you I´m coming Monday" or "I hope that I´m coming Monday", because there´s obviously a big difference.

yes sir I agree with you completely, I don't think this is a very efficient way to say it because a part of the message would be at the mercy of the recipient and he/she may draw a diff meaning altogether, but the natives use it so we have to learn it :) - 00b055e0, Mar 14, 2014

Answer 4

well one example I know is when somebody doesn't hear you and you repeat yourself. example

Voy al mercado a comprar agua...

the other person doesn't hear you and says what?

and you say...

que voy al mercado a comprar agua

but there are many ways to use it other than that.

but in this case also the logic still seems to be the same as explained above by lazarus1907.. that it has a hidden implicit starting (te he dicho) que voy al mercado a comprar agua .. I said to you that I am going to the market :) - 00b055e0, Mar 10, 2014