Spanish indirect commands
I wrote someone yesterday and asked them to tell me something. Instead of writing "Dime", I wrote "Qué me digas". Was that the proper way? I didn't want to come across as telling them to do a certain thing, since I don't know them all that well. Thanks!
2 Answers
If you don´t know the person well you should use usted.
The most natural way to say it would be simply: Digame, ........................... "Que me digas" doesn´t make a lot of sense.
I sort of agree with Ken, but to say " Por favor, me puedes decir sobre/de ..." sounds very anglofied. In Spanish we don´t do this "can I" and "can you" stuff" as is done in English because we are able to be polite without the nonsense of "political correctness". "Digame por favor" is more than sufficient.
It should also be noted that most of the expressions in the second part of the link that Ken has provided are used on written announcements / signs, ie: "No pisar el césped" and not in conversation. This can be written less demanding by "Favor de no pisar el césped".
The so called "que commands" in the link are not really commands but just sentences missing Yo quiero ...... even though they can be used in a demanding manner.
Spanish indirect commands (without the accent on que) are more often used to indicate that a third party do something, not when talking to someone and trying to influence what they do, as in the situation you are describing.
An exception to this is with:
Que tengas un buen día. (or similar sentences, which is short for)
Quiero que tengas un buen día.
I want that you have a good day.
Have a good day!
While this has the FORM of a command, it really isn't understood as such. You aren't ordering them to have a good day, you are wishing for them to have one.
In terms of making a polite request, instead of using any command form, how about?:
Por favor, me puedes decir sobre/de ... Please, can you tell me about...
Here is a link to an article about "que" commands and infinitive commands.
