Diles que no estoy/esté aqui

Question

I read in a book recently:

'Diles que no estoy aquí.'

On further examination, I am confused as to why it doesn't read 'diles que no esté aquí'.

Diles - comes from the imperative Decir followed by 'que' prompting the change of clause.

Answer 1

In this case the subjunctive form,(esté), is not used because the location of the subject is not in doubt, but rather a fact. (native speakers please correct me if I am wrong about this.) Thanks in advance.

This makes perfect sense. Thank you. - theyearof2010, Apr 11, 2012

anytime! - kireiprincess19, Apr 11, 2012

Answer 2

Di is from the 2nd person singular (informal) imperative form of the verb decir. Les is the direct object of the verb. Who must that person tell the message to? Les is them. 'Tell them that I'm not here." Esté is a derivative of the the demonstrative pronoun Este (masculine pronoun for this). With an accent on the letter 'e,' it means 'this one,' to which one is referring to earlier or to another thing of the same kind. Este radio se apagó de repente. (é)ste es mio y anda bien. (This radio turned off suddenly. This one is mine and it works fine.) I hope this helps.

Esta radio...... Este es mío... (no tilde) - 00d312f5, Apr 11, 2012

ah thanks. sorry i forgot to put the correction. the accent was meant to be put in front actually for this one.' - kireiprincess19, Apr 11, 2012