4.4 - Estructuras - imperativo: vosotros

 Estructuras

 

In Lección 4.3 we looked at formal commands - los mandatos formales - for when you are addressing someone you don’t know, or showing respect. There are separate commands for people that we are familiar with, friends, family, colleagues. These informal commands are los mandatos informales and we use tú and vosotros to make them.

 

Vosotros(as) commands - afirmativos:

Vosotros(as) are used almost exclusively in Spain. We have been learning how to conjugate and use vosotros(as) along with tú and usted(es) however it is possible that you may not have to use it, if you don’t go to Spain and don’t ever encounter a Spaniard!

 

When would someone use vosotros instead of ustedes? In Spain, it is common for people to use vosotros to refer to any group of people that they are familiar with; for example, a person speaking to a group of their friends or family, or a teacher talking to a class. However, in more formal situations a person from Spain will use ustedes to refer to a group of unfamiliar people, or to show respect; for example, a person speaking to a group of elderly people, or a person speaking to an unfamiliar crowd.

 

OJO: We have to make an important distinction between Spanish in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries. For Spaniards, usted and ustedes are used formally, and tú and vosotros informally. In other Spanish-speaking countries, where they don’t use vosotros, so they use ustedes both formally and informally.

 

We are able to use what we know about tú commands to help us with our vosotros commands. Let's try to say:

 

Gael and Leticia, eat the sandwiches.

 

1. Start with the verb in the sentence: “to eat”, in Spanish: comer
2. Replace the “-r” on the end of the verb with “-d”

 

  To form a vosotros affirmative command:

 

Gael y Leticia, comed los emparedados.

 

¡Qué sencillo! Aquí hay unos ejemplos más:

 

OJO: There are some irregular and stem-changing verbs with vosotros commands, however we are only doing a basic look at the vosotros commands for now.