Not just another Su vs Tu question.
Firstly a massive thanks to Heidita for all the effort she is putting in correcting our errors. It is fantastic to be learning from our mistakes. This has been aided by people either using the strikethrough method of correction, or by leaving their original text and including a separate correction, either of which allows other users to see what was wrong, as well as what is right.
I have also seen Heidi suggest that people post their texts as a question if there are too many errors or if they contain a point/correction worth discussion, which is what I'm doing now. The text in question was in yesterday's pic of the day. To avoid confusion I'll correct the (many) errors not pertaining to my specific su / tu question. I wrote:
¡Oye compañero! ¡Las cuerdas de terciopelo están allí por una razón! ¡Mueva su caballo sácalo de ahí!
Oi mate! The velvet ropes are there for a reason! Get your horse out of there!
I was uncertain about going with "Mueva su" or "Mueve tu." On the one hand I thought it should be formal, because it was an unknown person and a command. On the other I thought it could possibly be informal to reflect a deliberate lack of respect. I also may have created a problem in that "Oi mate" as an address in English can be used to address anyone, whether they are familiar or not, but if they are unfamiliar it can show deliberate disrespect (as opposed to "excuse me sir" for example). But of course, this may not be the case in Spanish, so perhaps Heidi's correction was based on an assumption of familiarity inferred from "compañero"?
All that said, I guess the simple question is, when giving a command that is simultaneously berating someone unfamiliar, would you use the usted or the tú form, and if the latter would it be a reflection of a deliberate lack of respect?
4 Answers
Oye (tú) ... Mueva su (ud.)
You have mixed familiar with formal.
You must be talking to a friend because you say compañero, although for me it sounds unnatural as a title.
In the end you have to be consistant with the use of formal or familiar.
In this case mover and sacar mean the same, so I wouldn´t use them both.
I agree that both imperatives (of “mover” y “sacar”) should be the same, either second or third person singular, but which one? Notice that the caption starts out with “Oye, compañero”. That is second person. “Compañero” could be the key.
In some countries, “compañero (“comrade”) is a standard form of address for all except among family members and very close friends. It implies neither “tú” nor “usted”. However, the “rules of respect” still follow standards. For example, a policeman might address a citizen with “Oiga, compañero” or “Oye, compañero”, but the citizen’s reply should be in the third person to avoid an escalated confrontation.
The use of "tú" or "usted" changes with regions and also times. I was absolutely embarrassed when my teenage son and I went to a female doctor in her sixties many years ago. He began to say "tú" to her. What we call "tutear". I wanted to die at that same moment. Young people "tutean" much more than we did even in the same country. Even to their schoolteachers. We never did.
On the other hand when a person is angry he/she could say "usted" even to someone they love. Or the other way around when you love them very much. I'm sure this is different in every region and changes with time.
I always said "tú" to my parents and grandparents but many decades ago I heard children calling "usted" to their parents especially when they came from the interior of the country.
It should be either:
¡Mueva su caballo . Sáquelo de ahi!
or
¡Mueve tu caballo. Sácalo de ahí!
Jellonz:
I'm not a native speaker, as you know, but my initial thought is that the usted form is generally used with strangers. I am studying the subtitles of Velvet, a show set in 1950's Madrid in the high fashion industry. For example, people use usted when talking to the doctor AND the doctor addresses them as usted. The executives of the company use usted when talking to the police, and the police use usted when talking to them, even though they are asking questions about a murder that they suspect the executive may have been involved with. Maybe current day Spain is different. Remember I'm talking about the 1950's.
To me, the issue goes way beyond tú and usted for the form of the final imperative. First of all, as soon as you said compañero I thought the rest should be tú. Also, if you were going to use usted, I wouldn't have expected to see an "usted command" in this situation. Instead, I would have expected to see:
¿Me puede mover el caballo, por favor?
or even slightly more polite:
¿Me podría mover el caballo, por favor?
¿Quiere mover el caballo, por favor?
Each of the three sentences show a lack of respect. I don't think the overall tone is consistent with usted. I would guess you would only talk this way in tú to a stranger if you didn't really care about a future relationship and you were in a position of authority and the person you were speaking to has repeatedly misbehaved and you were giving him the "what for." The middle sentence...that's what the posts are for...I wouldn't expect to see it said this way if you were using usted. It's a smart-xxx comment, even in American. 
Just my two cents. If I am wrong about any of the above, I would be happy to be corrected and learn from my errors. Please be gentle, however.
By the way, Jellonz, don't take anything I said above as a criticism of what you wrote. First off all, you were writing what some fictional character might have said, not what you would say. I'm really just trying to deal with the tú vs. usted issue.
