Use of indicative instead of imperative for politeness?

Gary B.C1Kwiziq community member

Use of indicative instead of imperative for politeness?

Asked 6 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hi Gary

The form of the imperative for tú coincides (except for the irregular imperatives) with the 3rd person singular (él, ella) of the present indicative. I imagine you refer to the sentences in the examples that look like a present indicative, e.g "Prepara la carne para él" (Prepare the meat for him [command]). This could also mean "He/she prepares the meat for him" [Affirmative sentence in the present tense indicative]. They coincide in the form.

I hope this clarifies your doubt. If you refer to something different please let us know.

Gracias

Inma

Gary B.C1Kwiziq community member

Hi Imna,

Sorry for the confusion, the message function of the site is broken and the message I wrote got lost, so you can only see the subject. I'm trying again now...

My question is that a test marked my translation of "Give it to me, please" as "Me lo das, por favor" as incorrect and said I should have used "Dámelo, por favor". However, I believed that using the indicative instead of the imperative for a command was correct and relatively common. Is this not correct? This was in a general test, not one specific to "Using double pronouns with El imperativo".

Gary

Alan K.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
I think I'm right in saying that "Me lo das, por favor" means "You give it to me, please" or "You are giving it to me, please".  Neither of these makes much sense, and is not really a true imperative.

Use of indicative instead of imperative for politeness?

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