Affirmative and Negative Familiar Commands) / Hágale una nota a su pareja dándole consejos para hacer algunos quehaceres domésticos.

Question

I'm supposed to use affirmative and negative informal commands. I really struggled with this. Please help if possible. See below and thank you in advance:

Desde que me voy por unos días, quería dejarte algunos consejos sobre quehaceres domésticas porque no tengo una ama de casa. En primer lugar, le recomiendo que tu quite el polvo del estante. También hice la cama cada mañana, la manta está en la mesita de noche. No te olvides, sacudí la mesa y el estante.. Tienes que aspirar todos los días. Enderezar el ático. Pon las copas en el lavaplatos. Planchaste le ropa y después de secarla de la secadora. Por favor no limpié el garaje, lo haré. No la barra el piso antes de llegar. Muchas gracias por ayudarme a mantener mi casa limpia.

Thanks for filling out your profile with your language proficiency levels. That's worth a vote from me. - AnnRon, Apr 19, 2017

Answer 1

Informal imperative is a little tricky. you have the right idea on some of the sentences, but you use forms of "tener que" which is not an imperative. Also we don't use infinitives for imperatives. You also used one preterit "planchaste" (you ironed) that's not an imperative.

The imperative in Spanish is when you actually tell someone to do something: i.e., Wash the dishes. Clean the floor. take out the garbage. Those are affirmative.

The negative is like this. Don't let the cat out. Don't forget to mop the floors.

Your first sentence le recomiendo que tu quite el polvo del estante has several problems. First of all it's not a command. Secondly you use "tu" (it should have an accent) and you accompany it with "usted" verb forms.

A command would be: "Quita el polvo del estante." The rest of the paragraph has multiple mistakes of various kinds. I recommend you go over whatever you are supposed to study and restudy it. Then do it over for correction. If I were to do corrections on your paragraph I would be doing the whole thing almost totally differently. It would also help if you would include the English version, because in several places the tenses are all mixed up, and like I say, I could do the whole thing for you, but then it wouldn't be yours, and your teacher, would suspect something fishy. I know I'm a Spanish teacher.

:) - rac1, Apr 19, 2017

Answer 2

I believe the affirmative informal imperative for "poner" is "pon." Also to remain informal, you would need "no limpies" instead of "no limpie."

I'll be interested to hear what a native speaker has to say about your use of infinitives to form the positive imperative. I see it a lot, but I've been taught that it is used more for recipes and instruction booklets. Your paragraph is a list of instructions, so maybe it qualifies, or maybe your teacher asked you to express the imperative in as many different ways as you could.

Answer 3

• Ya que me voy por unos días, quería dejarte algunos consejos sobre los quehaceres domésticos porque no tengo empleada en casa. En primer lugar, te recomiendo que pases el plumero al estante. También haz la cama todas las mañanas. La manta está en la mesita de noche. No te olvides de limpiar la mesa y arreglar el estante de la cocina. Tienes que pasar la aspiradora diariamente. No te olvides de limpiar el ático. Pon las copas y los platos sucios en el lavaplatos. Recuerda planchar la ropa después de sacarla de la secadora. Por favor no limpies el garaje, yo lo haré. Barre el piso antes de que yo regrese. Muchas gracias por ayudarme a mantener mi casa limpia.

---

Some words you used could be different in some countries but they are definitely understandable elsewhere.

Empleada is employee but you could use it at least in my country. Sirvienta or criada could be a little rude nowadays. ( servant or maid)..Another word could be limpiadora and it's widely used in my country.

Mesita de noche is literally night table. We say more mesita de luz (light table) but it's easily understandable.

We usually say " pasar la aspiradora" and not " aspirar".

We many times use "altillo" instead or "ático" but we would understand.

When it says .............el garaje, YO lo haré, the YO is important and can't be omitted.

Answer 4

Welcome to the forum. I see you are newish to Spanish. The imperative is something you learn before you start to get to grips with the subjunctive mood. The reason for this is that some of the conjugations for the imperative are the same as the subjunctive. In fact, a negative command for tú [Don't ...] is the same as the subjunctive form of tú but a positive/affirmative command is constructed differently.

Here is a list including some of the irregular ones [including decir, tener and poner]

informal commands

This site has lessons on all aspects of the imperative plus quizzes if you want to test yourself

StudySpanish

When you start to learn the subjunctive you will discover it is used when giving advice like I recommend that ... In English particularly in the UK we find orders impolite and are likely to say 'Please would you open the window? But in Spanish they think that is a waste of words and will just say 'Open the window [please]' It is not considered impolite.

I think your teacher wants you to do a list of imperatives in the tú form including some which are negative eg don't forget ..or don't leave ... The reason for the mix is in the tú form they are different.

I believe she/he expects it to be in the present tense.

Read the links and have another go using the edit button. The reason for homework is to make sure you revise things from class and so your teacher knows what to go through again if it is clear you do not understand.

Daniela will help by telling you if it is wrong, but a perfect piece if in class you do not remember the forms or how they will work will as she says look 'fishy' You are not out to astonish your teacher just please them that you are making an effort and trying to learn.

Buena suerte

:) - rac1, Apr 19, 2017