Work Unit Sixteen: Si está perdido, ¡llame a un policía!

So far in this class, we have using verbs on in the simple present tense. In this lesson, we take a look at another verb form: direct commands, also known as the imperative.

	Read, listen and learn in the About virtual Spanish classroom: 1. You're free to join the class at any time and study on your own schedule. For textbook and other organizational information, see the class introduction. 2. Listen to a brief spoken version of this lesson, which includes the pronunciation of many of the words in the text. With most computer configurations, clicking on the above link or on the speaker logo will download and/or play a RealAudio streaming sound file. If you don't have software installed for listening to streaming sound, see the About.com Multimedia site. To ask questions, the best way is to post them on the About.com Spanish Language bulletin board.  4. Feel free to email the instructor, although answers to questions of interest to others in the class will probably be posted on the board rather than be sent individually.

Of course, we have a long way to go before we learn all the possible verb forms. You'll find that with each verb tense or mood you add to your repertoire, you will greatly increase the flexibility you have with your new language..

Assignment

Complete the lesson on pages 171-8 of the textbook. To hear the story in the lesson read, please listen to the audio lesson.

Be sure to complete the exercises. Although copyright rules and fairness to other students using this book prevent me from publishing all the answers, you can check the answer page to see an answer to the first question in each section to help get you started. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them on the bulletin board.

Background

Before you even began, you may have noticed the punctuation in the lesson's title — it's punctuated differently than the same sentence would be in English. As you probably have already noticed, Spanish uses an upside-down exclamation and question marks; as far as I know, Spanish is the only language to do so. It is important to note at the exclamation and question marks don't go around the entire sentence, but only around the part of the sentence that is the exclamation or question. Thus we would write the translation of "It is true, isn't it?" as Es verdad, ¿no?

Otherwise, exclamation and question marks are used much as they are in English. Although it is somewhat more common in Spanish than in English to use exclamation marks with commands (as is consistently done in the textbook in this lesson), they aren't required.

You also may have noticed that the title of the lesson uses un policía, calling attention to a word that ends in a but is masculine. The combination is actually quite common when talking about professions, when the gender of the noun often depends on the sex of the person. Thus "the policeman" is el policía, but "the policewoman" is la policía (which also is the word for "the police" or "police force"). "A male dentist" is un dentista, but a "a female dentist:" is una dentista. When we're not talking about a specific person, such as in the title of this lesson, normally the masculine form is used: La vida de un atleta es difícil, the life of an athlete is difficult, and the sentence is understood to mean athletes in general, both male and female.

And now some more about the imperative: Although it isn't discussed in the textbook, you may be interested in knowing the forms of commands for the informal second person (tú), which you would use with family members, good friends, and children. You'll also see the tú commands fairly frequently in informal writing. It isn't unusual, for example, to see the phrase haz clic aquí for "click here" on Web sites, and what's being used there is an informal imperative. Both formal and informal forms are used for instructions and on signs. Sometimes even an impersonal form is used. For example, "no smoking" could be rendered as no fume (formal), no fumes (informal), or no fumar (impersonal).

The affirmative informal imperative is fairly easy to learn — with regular verbs it's the same as the third-person present indicative. Thus ella habla ("she speaks") and habla tú ("you speak" as an informal command) both use the same verb form. Note, however, that some of the most common verbs are irregular and don't follow this pattern. The pronouns aren't necessary if the context makes it clear who the verb's subject is.

Here are examples of affirmative familiar commands following the same verbs used in the textbook:
 

¡Canta tú bien! Sing well!

¡Vende tú esto! Sell this!

¡Vive tú aquí! Live here!

¡Di tú más! Say more!

¡Haz la tarea! Do the chore!

¡Oye tú la música! Here the music!

¡Pon tú eso aquí! Put that here!

¡Sal tú pronto! Leave soon!

¡Ten tú paciencia! Have patience!

¡Trae tú dinero! Bring money!

¡Ven tú a casa! Come home!

¡Ve tú el mapa! See the map!

¡Da tú gracias! Give thanks!

¡Está tú aquí! Be here!

¡Ve tú ahora! Go now!

¡Sabe tú esto! Know this!

¡Sé tú bueno! Be good!

Important note: The above chart is for affirmative commands only. This lesson won't go to them in detail, but the negative familiar commands are formed by adding an -s to the usted commands. No cantes tú, don't sing. No traigas tú dinero, don't bring money.

Note also that Spanish has indirect commands and vosotros commands, which we won't be discussing in this lesson.

Coming up:

In the next lesson, we will study possessive adjectives. Although we have already used them in many of the lessons, we will learn more about how they are used.

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