16.7 Telling Someone to Do Something Language & Culture Lessons Imagine walking into your Spanish class, and the teacher begins to talk, saying: Buenos días clase. Siéntense por favor. Miren la pizarra. Escuchen por favor. Repitan después de mí. Su atención, por favor! When someone tells you to do something, he or she is most likely using commands. In Spanish, there are formal and informal commands, depending on the person with whom you are speaking. In this lesson, you'll learn how to tell someone to do something in formal situations. Language Lesson Giving Formal Commands First, I want to explain to you how to give formal orders by using the imperative form of verbs. Typically, these are used with anyone you would refer to as Usted or Ustedes. The good news is, there are only two forms of formal commands AND if you are already familiar with the Present Subjunctive - you already know how to form them. So, get started! Empiecen! Formal commands are IDENTICAL to the Present Subjunctive forms of Usted and Ustedes. Te acuerdas? Remember the 3 steps to form the Present Subjunctive? Yes, first, they are made from the 'Yo' form of the present tense. Then, you drop the -o, and verbs ending in -AR will take endings with the letter 'e'. While -ER and -IR verbs will take endings with the letter 'a'. So, the command forms also require the opposite vowel from the present tense. To give a polite command to one person: 1. Take the first person singular('yo' form) of the verb 2. Remove the 'o' 3. Then... If it's an -AR verb Add an 'e' If it's an -ER or -IR verb Add an 'a' To form a plural command : 1. Take the first person singular('yo' form) of the verb 2. Remove the 'o' 3. Then... If it's an -AR verb Add an 'en' If it's an -ER or -IR verb Add an 'an' Check out the following chart for examples of Regular Formal commands for -AR, ER, and -IR verbs: Subject Hablar Comer Abrir Ud. Hable Coma Uds. Hablen Coman Abra Abran Speak! Eat! Open!
Abra la boca bien grande! Open you mouth nice and wide! Practiquen! Now, pretend you are a teacher and practice commanding your students in your class. The first column provides you with the infinitive of the verb and the person (Ud. or Uds.) - practice the commands by covering the left column where I give you the correct affirmative formal imperatives. Prepárense! (Prepare Yourselves!) levantar escuchar abrir mirar pasar repetir Spanish Levanten la mano. Escuchen bien. Abran sus libros. Miren la pizarra. Pasen la tarea. Repitan después de mí. English Raise your hand. Listen well. Open your books. Look at the board. Pass the homework. Repeat after me. STOP! Commanding with Irregular 'Yo' forms As you often find throughout the Spanish language, you must account for Irregularities. Any irregularity in the 'Yo' form of the present tense will also be seen in the formal commands. conducir conocer decir Irregular 'Yo' conduzco conozco digo Ud./Uds. command Conduzca/Conduzcan Conozca/Conozcan Diga/Digan
oir Oiga/Oigan poner salir tener traer venir ver oigo pongo salgo tengo traigo vengo veo Ponga/Pongan Salga/Salgan Tenga/Tengan Traiga/Traigan Venga/Vengan Vea/Vean Commanding with Stem-changing verbs There always seems to be set of stem-changing verbs in Spanish. When there's a vowel change in the stem, keep that stem-change when forming formal commands. Stem change 'Yo' form Command pensar e > ie pienso volver o > ue vuelvo pedir e > i pido Piense/Piensen Vuelva/Vuelvan Pida/Pidan Commanding with Spelling-changing verbs Spelling changes to maintain the sound of the original verb. All verbs that end with -gar, -car, and -zar have spelling changes in the formal command forms: For verbs ending in -GAR Memorizen! The 'g' goes to 'gu' in verbs such as: jugar So, Yo juego becomes Juegue to command one person to "Play!" or Jueguen. This is also true in the verb: llegar (to arrive) Yo llego Llegue or Lleguen "Arrive!" to address more than one person. For verbs ending in -CAR The 'c' goes to 'qu' in verbs such as: buscar (to look for) Yo busco becomes Busque to command someone you usually address as Ud. And, Busquen, for people you address as Uds. Also in the verb: tocar - which means "to touch" or "to play (the guitar)": Yo toco Toque / Toquen (Play!) For verbs ending in -ZAR Memorize the chart below! The 'z' changes to a 'c' in verbs such as: empezar "to begin" The 'Yo' form of the present tense is Yo empiezo. You drop the -o and add 'e' and get: Empieze here's where we have to change the 'z' to a 'c' and the correct command form is: Empiece or for the plural command, Empiecen (Begin!) 'Yo' form Spelling change Command jugar juego g > gu sacar saco c > qu abrazar abrazo z > c Juegue/Jueguen Saque/Saquen Abrace/Abracen Truly Irregular Commands
Some verbs have Irregular formal command forms, that you will have to simply MEMORIZE! The following table shows you the 5 Irregular Formal Commands: 'Yo' form Ud. command Uds. command ir (to go) voy Vaya ser (to be) soy Sea saber (to know) sé Sepa estar (to be) estoy Esté dar (to give) doy Dé Vayan Sean Sepan Estén Den **Note that except for 'saber' (to know), all of the verbs above end in '-oy' in the present tense YO forms. Por ejemplo: Vayan con el maestro. Sea amable. Sepan todo para mañana. Esté aquí a las seis. Den la respuesta. Go with the professor. Be kind. Know everything for tomorrow. Be here at six. Give the answer. Taking a Negative Turn Taking a negative approach when telling someone to do something is a piece of cake. Just take the word 'NO' (Don't, Not) and add whichever command you wish. No sea tonto. No hablen en la clase. No coma con la boca abierta. Don't be foolish. Do not talk in class. Don't eat with your mouth open. Tacking the Pronouns When you talk about commands, you need to know what to do with the pronouns that often get tacked onto them - including reflexive pronouns and object pronouns. So, the last thing to remember about Formal Command forms is the placement of Pronouns! Unlike other conjugated forms, Command forms have unique rules for pronoun placement. 1. When pronouns are used with AFFIRMATIVE command forms, the pronouns are attached to the END. 2. If the command is NEGATIVE, the pronouns must come BEFORE the verb. Take a look at the following examples and see where the pronouns are placed. Note the placement of accent marks! Mírenlo! Mírenlo! Look at it!
POSITIVE COMMANDS Levántense. Sírvalo. Sígame. Póngalas. Límpiense. Get up. Serve it. Follow me. Put them (on). Clean yourselves. NEGATIVE COMMANDS No se levanten. No lo sirva. No me siga. No las ponga. No se limpien. Don't get up. Don't serve it. Don't follow me. Don't put them (on). Don't clean yourselves. ATENCIÒN! As you have seen above, accent marks are required in most affirmative commands with attached pronouns. The rule is... When a pronoun attached to an affirmative command that has two or more syllables, an accent mark is added to maintain the original stress. Culture Football and FIFA No other sport competes in popularity with football worldwide. And by football I refer to soccer or association football, where its players become role-model celebrities for people of all social classes, religions and cultures. Children inherit their family's team, celebrations of an important victory take over the streets, and some workplaces will even stop working if their country is playing at the FIFA world cup. When Football is played among professionals, it's up to the FIFA - the French acronym for International Federation of Association Football- to establish rules, penalties and policies for the 208 country members, each one with its own association. It is also in charge of the organization of the World Cup every 4 years, a wealthy business that in 2006 raised 2.6 billion in marketing and sponsorship revenue. If you ever visit Latin America, you might notice that the working men in general are not as interested in business (their work) as they are in the action on the field.
This passion for soccer is seen at the stadium, through an improvised match at a friend's barbeque or through the gossip pages of a magazine - fully disclosing who the lucky girls are who get to date the players. But don't expect European glamour, like David Beckham selling razor blades and flying on private planes. In Latin America, football legends are middle class, and only a few names in the industry can afford first class tickets or convertible cars. For them, it's all about the sport! Libros Media Ltd. - Copyright 2004-2014 USA: 10660 Page Avenue, PO Box 1261, Fairfax, VA 22038, USA Phone: 703-349-0452 Asia/Pacific: 2-1008 Ferry Road, Woolston, Christchurch 8023, New Zealand Phone: +64-3-384-6350