Learn how to form directive commands in the formal Spanish register
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “Repeat this Spanish after me”. Como siempre estoy aquí con JP. JP ¿cómo estas? |
| JP: Muy bien, gracias. ¿Tú Fernando? |
| Fernando: Muy bien. |
| JP: What are we going to learn about in this lesson? |
| Fernando: En esta lección revisaremos los mandatos directivo en el registro formal. La conversación toma lugar en un restaurante, la conversación es entre Saúl y el joven y estarán utilizando el registro formal. |
| JP: Let’s listen to this dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Saúl: Joven, le pido un salero por favor. |
| Joven: Claro que sí. Aunque sí me permite, la comida viene muy bien condimentada. |
| Saúl: Gracias por la información. Sólo traígame el salero. Yo sabré que hacer. |
| Joven: No se lo dije para molestarle. Es que ya me han dicho otros clientes que la comida no requiere sal. |
| Saúl: Independientemente si ese es el caso, le reitero, tráigame la sal y listo. |
| Joven: Pero señor, ¿aún quiere la sal con todo esto que le acabo de decir? |
| Saúl: El salero es para echarle al limón. Lo acompañaré con el tequila que pedí. |
| Joven: Claro que sí. Se lo traigo enseguida. |
| Saúl: Waiter, could you bring a salt shaker, please. |
| Waiter: Of course. Although, if you don't mind my saying, the food is very well seasoned. |
| Saúl: Thank you for the information. Just bring me the salt shaker. I'll take it from there. |
| Waiter: I didn't say it to irritate you. It's just that other customers have already told me that the food doesn't require salt. |
| Saúl: Even if this is the case, I repeat, bring me the salt and we're all set. |
| Waiter: But sir, you still want salt with everything that I just told you? |
| Saúl: The salt is to add to the lime. I will have it with the tequila that I ordered. |
| Waiter: Of course, sir. I'll bring it to you right away. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: All right, Fernando. We’re back and seems like Saul is just asking for the salt shaker. |
| Fernando: Solo quería eso. |
| JP: “That’s all he wanted.” |
| Fernando: Solo queria eso y el joven al parecer quería entablar un dialogo acerca del sazón de los platillos. |
| JP: He didn’t want to give it to him. It was a very strong warning that the food doesn’t need salt. |
| Fernando: “Joven, le pido un salero por favor.” |
| JP: Literally, this is “Waiter/Young man, I’m requesting from you the salt shaker, please.” Which is the common formula for asking for something, especially in a restaurant. “le pido” – “I’m asking for you”, “I’m requesting of you”. For the translation , I said “Could you bring me a salt shaker, please?” |
| Fernando: Sí en este caso Saúl de hecho no le está haciendo una pregunta le esta dando una orden y aqui la traduccion es en forma de pregunta... |
| JP: Right. |
| Fernando: la traducción. El joven le contesta: Claro que sí. Aunque sí me permite, la comida viene muy bien condimentada. |
| JP: Yes. “aunque sí me permite”, this is an interesting issue of translation. Literally, this is “Although, if you will allow me…” I translated it as “If you don’t mind my saying so…” or “If you don’t mind me saying…” |
| Fernando: Y las dos formas son correctas. |
| JP: So, the waiter’s saying “If you don’t mind my saying, the food is already salty enough.” “The food is very well seasoned.” |
| Fernando: Y el joven se lo dice nadamas para que no vaya a arruinar la comida porque muchos solemos, y me incluyo yo, echarle sal a la comida sin probarla. Es costumbre, creo aunque yo no le echo mucha sal. Le hecho --es como ceremonia para mi. |
| JP: Yes, like a little ritual. |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: Saúl, ya un poquito, digamos apreciando el comentario del joven: “Gracias por la información. Sólo traígame el salero. Yo sabré que hacer.” |
| JP: Right. “Just bring it to me.” “Yo sabré que hacer” – “I will know what to do.” |
| Fernando: El joven un poquito alerta al tono: No se lo dije para molestarle. |
| JP: All right. “I didn’t say it to bother you.” |
| Fernando: “Es que ya me han dicho otros clientes que la comida no requiere sal.” |
| JP: Ok, “The other customers have said that the food doesn’t require any more salt.” |
| Fernando: “Independientemente si ese es el caso” le contesta Saul, “ le reitero, tráigame la sal y listo.” |
| JP: He’s reiterating. Right? He doesn’t want to argue, he’s just repeating his request. “Please, bring me that salt.” |
| Fernando: Es todo. Es muy fácil lo que tiene que hacer el oven. “Pero señor,” sigue el joven “¿aún quiere la sal con todo esto que le acabo de decir?” |
| JP: “You still want the salt even though I said all of these things?” |
| Fernando: Este joven yo creo no le van a dar muy buena propina. |
| JP: No, I don’t think so. |
| Fernando: Saúl ya cansado de todos lo argumentos del joven le explica para qué quiere la sal: |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: “El salero es para echarle al limón. Lo acompañaré con el tequila que pedí.” |
| JP: Ok. So, “The salt is for the lime, and that’s going to go with the tequila that I ordered.” So, the salt was never for the food. |
| Fernando: No creo. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: “Claro que sí. Se lo traigo enseguida.” |
| JP: Now, the waiter approves. Maybe he realized that he should’ve just gone and got it at the first place. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: Ese es el caso. Bueno, pasemos al vocabulario. |
| JP: Let’s do that. |
| Fernando: enseguida |
| JP: “Right away” |
| Fernando: en-se-gui-da, enseguida. El salero |
| JP: “Salt shaker” |
| Fernando: el sa-le-ro, el salero. El limón |
| JP: “Lime” |
| Fernando: el li-món, el limón. Reiterar |
| JP: “To reiterate” |
| Fernando: rei-te-rar, reiterar. El tequila. |
| JP: “Tequila” |
| Fernando: el te-qui-la, el tequila |
| JP: All right. We’re back, Fernando. Let’s have a closer look at the vocabulary that we talked about. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Fernando: Empecemos con el salero. |
| JP: Ok, the “salt shaker”. This is the object that our customer, Saul, has been asking for the whole time. “el salero” – “the salt shaker”. It’s the container, right? |
| Fernando: Así es. El salero. |
| JP: I think in English I would ask for the salt, and they would give it to me, the shaker. |
| Fernando: No creo que el mesero le traiga sal en las manos. |
| JP: Right, he’s not going to pull some out of his pocket or anything. |
| Fernando: Esperemos que no. |
| JP: Ok, “el salero” is the “salt shaker”. Hey, what’s the “pepper shaker”? |
| Fernando: Bueno al menos en México en los restaurantes tenemos pimienta. Pimienta y sal. Y me trae la pimienta y sal. Si vas a pedir las dos cosas, simplemente con decir eso. |
| JP: Ok, with the salt and pepper you don’t have to say the shaker. |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: Pero hay unos que, ya sabes que son los de molino, que son para granear la pimienta. |
| JP: Right. The mill, right? |
| Fernando: Entonces el molino de pimienta. |
| JP: Ok. Add to our vocabulary word before we move on? “El salero” |
| Fernando: La siguiente: el limón. |
| JP: “El limón”. This is “the lime”. |
| Fernando: Este es el limón. |
| JP: “El limón”. This is the green citric thing that’s so important in Mexican cuisine. Now, Fernando, the word looks exactly like the English word for lemon, or well almost exactly. |
| Fernando: Casi igual pero... |
| JP: “Casi igual”. So, if “limón” is “lime”, how do you say “lemon”? |
| Fernando: Lima. |
| JP: “Lima?” like the capital of Peru? |
| Fernando: Claro, sí tambien. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: Sí. |
| JP: Now, are those yellow lemons, are the “lima” very important in Mexican cuisine? |
| Fernando: No tan seguido, |
| JP: No? |
| Fernando: no como en Estados Unidos. |
| JP: No, not at all. And, you know, a lot of my Mexican friends they… When “limones”, the green limes, are out of season, they kind of get irritated. |
| Fernando: No es muy divertido comer--- |
| JP: No. |
| Fernando: comer sin limón. |
| JP: It’s definitely, definitely an important thing. “el limón”. What’s next? |
| Fernando: Reiterar. |
| JP: “Reiterar” – “to reiterate”. This is almost an exact cognate with English. “Reiterar” – “reiterate”. |
| Fernando: Y significa lo mismo. |
| JP: All I can do is repeat it. “Reiterar” |
| Fernando: Entonces pasemos al siguiente: el tequila. |
| JP: “El tequila”, ok. Obviously, this is “tequila”. I included it in the vocabulary because I want to point out that it’s “el tequila”. It’s masculine. |
| Fernando: It’s masculine. |
| JP: “El tequila”. What’s next? |
| Fernando: Enseguida. |
| JP: “Enseguida”, all right. This is all one word and it means “at once” or “right away” or “immediately”. |
| Fernando: Enseguida. |
| JP: Sweet. So, what do we have next? |
| Fernando: Tenemos gramatica. |
| JP: Oh. |
| Fernando: Vamos a hablar de los mandatos directivos en el registro formal. ¿Estoy en lo correcto? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| JP: Absolutely. The dialogue we had today was all in the formal register, and it’s because Saul and the “cliente” have a respect relationship going on. They’re not on a first name bases. |
| Fernando: Definitivamente no. Sobre todo, lo último que quiere Saúl es tener una amistad con este joven. |
| JP: It seems that way. Now, now Saul, like any other customer in the restaurant, is going to use “mandatos”, these are the imperatives, and we hear amused directive command in the formal register when he says “Just bring me the salt shaker.” |
| Fernando: Sólo traígame el salero. |
| JP: “Sólo traígame el salero.”. The “mandato” – the “command” in that sentence is “traígame” and it’s the verb “traer”. |
| Fernando: En el registro formal. |
| JP: Exactly. Fernando, I have a trick for deriving the command form if you know the Infinitive. |
| Fernando: ¿Cuál es? Sí…. |
| JP: You don’t care, you know all of these. |
| Fernando: Aun así es bueno saber. |
| JP: Ok. First of all, let’s start with an Infinitive. In this case, we’re going to start with “traer” which means “to bring”, because eventually we’re going to ask “Bring me the salt shaker.” So, our Infinitive “traer”. Now, to deduce the Imperative form, the first step is to say “I do it.”, so if we’re going to start with “traer”, “I bring.” |
| Fernando: Yo traigo. |
| JP: “Yo traigo”. This is the first person, singular, in the Present Tense. “Yo traigo””. The trick is that this “yo” form is going to give you the stem you need in order to create the directive command in the formal register. So, we’re going to start with “yo traigo”, but I’m not going to use the “o”. Instead, I’m going to use the Subjunctive endings. Now, the Subjunctive endings for “er” verbs like “traer” end in “a”. So, instead of saying “traer”, I’m going to say “traiga”. And there you have it. The stem which is “traig” and then the ending, which is “a”. “Traiga”. Very easy. Two simple steps. That’s why we hear Saul saying “Sólo traígame el salero.”. “Traígame” – “bring to me”. “Bring me the salt shaker.”. Let’s do another example, Fernando. How about the verb for “to write”? |
| Fernando: Escribir. |
| JP: “Escribir”. The first step is to say “I do it”, so “I write”? |
| Fernando: Yo escribo. |
| JP: “Yo escribo”. And then, instead of that “o”, we’re going to use the Subjunctive ending. So, if I want to tell someone in the formal register “Write.”? |
| Fernando: Escriba. |
| JP: “Escriba”. Ok, that’s using “usted”. Fernando, what if it’s plural? What if I’m telling a bunch of people to write? |
| Fernando: Entonces era usted una persona muy importante. |
| JP: Of course. Ok, “Write, you all.” |
| Fernando: Escriban. |
| JP: “Escriban.” Ok. Same rules apply. I just used the plural suffix for the Subjunctive. “Escriban”. One more example. |
| Fernando: Apurarse |
| JP: Good one. “Apurarse” – “to hurry up”. So, the first step is to say “I hurry up” |
| Fernando: Yo me apuro. |
| JP: “Yo me pauro”. So, we’re going to take that stem “apuro”… |
| Fernando: Es reflexiva este verbo. |
| JP: Right. That’s why this is a great example. We’re going to take the stem “apuro” and put on the Subjunctive endings. The Subjunctive endings for an “ar” verb like “apurarse”, have the fin vowel “e”. So, the form would be “apure”. Now, we’re not finished yet, because this is a reflexive verb, so we’re going to need that reflexive pronoun which is “se”. And because we’re talking about a command here, we’re going to attach that “se” to the end. So, “Hurry up, Sir.” |
| Fernando: Apurese señor. |
| JP: “Apurese señor”. How about if it’s a group of people? |
| Fernando: Apurense |
| JP: “Apurense”. And we’re talking in the formal register, so this is all very polite. “Apurense” – “Please, hurry up.” |
| Fernando: Apurense. |
Outro |
| JP: Alright,for now it’s time to go. Hasta luego |
| Fernando: Adios. |
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