"tus manos debes levantar"

Question

This song says "tus manos debes levantar" but since it's referring to "manos" shouldn't the third person plural "deben" be used rather than "debes"?

song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyYWHrilezY
(3:20 is where she says it)

I haven't listened to the song, but "You should raise your hands" makes a lot of sense to me. - jtaniel, Dec 31, 2015

"You should raise your hands" does make sense, but i'm saying that it seems strange to me that "debes" is used instead of "deben" - Kuwabara, Dec 31, 2015

"You" is second person singular. Thus, "debes." The hands are not the subject. - jtaniel, Dec 31, 2015

Ahhh, I see now. It helps to imagine the sentence restructured by putting the verbs first.. Thanks Jtaniel - Kuwabara, Dec 31, 2015

It'sthe person that lifts the hands, not the hands that lift themselves. - annierats, Dec 31, 2015

Answer 1

The girl´s pronunciation is difficult to understand on this video, however "tus manos debes levantar" is what she says, which means "you must raise your hands" - not "should raise".

Because Spanish has liberal sentence structure, this phrase can be spoken in common usage (not only in literature) as in the video, or in a more elementary way: debes levantar tus manos.

I loved the song....it has a beautiful melodyand the girl is very beautiful, too lol! :) I was able to pick up the girl's pronounciation of these words - FELIZ77, Dec 31, 2015

Answer 2

Deber can mean ''To must, ought, or should'' and she is saying it wrong, the right way is ''Debes levantarte las manos'' or '' te debes levantar las manos''

In this case, "levantar" can used pronominally or not. "Debes ... you must" / "Deberías ...you should" - 005faa61, Dec 31, 2015

Using the conditional tense just means that you're using it in a nicer way. It's still the same. - chrisxr, Dec 31, 2015

You seem to be confusing English usage with Spanish usage. You can speak this way if you want and you will be understood, but they are not the same. "Deberías / you should" - advice. "Debes / you must" - obligation - 005faa61, Jan 1, 2016

Im not confused, using the conditional tense of Deber is just a nicer way of saying that you must, ought, should. That's my opion. - chrisxr, Jan 1, 2016

Welcome to the forum. If you add your language level to your profile you will get appropriate responses - Mardle, Jan 1, 2016

Very well said, Mardle :) - FELIZ77, Jan 1, 2016

Chris, we are all entitled to have and express our opinions in a respectful way here but Spanish natives and those who are fluent like Julian certainly know what they talking about and so we highly esteem what they say and attach more importance to their - FELIZ77, Jan 1, 2016

...advice than those of us non native Spanish -speakers who are still learning! :) - FELIZ77, Jan 1, 2016