- Forum >
- Topic: Spanish >
- "Mamá, entra, por favor."
70 Comments
Will someone's mom please come in and settle this! :) Personally my understanding is that mummy is more often used by children that are very young, perhaps, from 3-10 years or so and that this is shortened to mum as the child grows older. Why, even people who are 50+ will still sometimes refer to their mother as mum in everyday conversation. Ok. For example: "Just as my dear old mum says "Keep your wits about you and they will always lead you straight" or some such pearl or wisdom. :)
In Ireland people of all ages continue to use the term "Mummy" whereas in England it is mainly used by young children as you say. "Mom" is an Americanised version of "Mum" but is becoming increasingly adopted by younger British people. Different regions have different cultural variations and nuances in language as with any large area that share a base common language. Just in the same way Spanish in Spain will vary from region to region and will also vary from the Spanish spoken in Spanish in Mexico or Uruguay or Chile for example.
129
"Mama" can be used life long (not Mommy) around here. My 44-year-old younger daughter routinely calls me "Mama" and no one thinks it infantile of her.
1851
Actually in Ireland "mammy", "mam" or "ma" are most commonly used, and used by people of all ages. It comes from the Irish word "mamaí".
1080
I believe that entra is the tú form and entre is the usted form of Entrar. (Isn't this the imperative?)
http://www.wordreference.com/conj/ESverbs.aspx?v=entrar
Pauldev, I think the present indicative (tú entras) is the wrong mood, but the right person (2nd person singular.) But that means duolingo has switched to the imperative without warning. tricky...hmmm?
pauldev- this sentence is imperative, if the child say "tú" to his mother, the imperative will be, entra. If he says "usted" to his mother, the sentence will be, entre. Imperative for Tú, is formed with the third person sing. pres. tense. For all the other persons, you form imperative with subjunctive pres. entra (tú), entre (él), entremos (nosotros), entrad (vosotros), entren (ellos). entras is for tú, present tense.
kc-kennylau- here's a link for conjugaison of entrar, take a look at imperative, tú is formed with 3rd person singular, present indicative- nosotros is formed with, 1 rst person subjunctive present, entremos. an exception for vosotros, it takes D at the end, ENTRAD. http://conjugueur.reverso.net/conjugaison-espagnol-verbe-entrar.html
662
Although some families insist that children use "Ud." when addressing parents, I'd venture to say that most children use "tú," so "entra" is the most appropriate choice here.
273
Because it's an imperative. The speaker of this sentence is telling his mother to come in (e.g. to his room). Entras is declarative; it describes the act of entering (for tú).
603
Mamá is an elder, to which one bestows extra respect by using "usted" rather than the familiar "tu"—therefor "entra" instead of "entras."
Update: Also, I think a more experienced Spanish speaker than I might tell us that "entra" is also a command form, or something like that—this is basically a command (albeit a respectful one ; ) ).
Trying to picture myself commanding mi mamá - respectfully or not - and that's a no go. ;) But, would it be common to be more formal with a parent? We don't really have context for these sentences, but it seems like an adult child talking here, yes? I'm just wondering where the line would be between an adult son or daughter and a mother they were on close terms with, tu' or usted?
603
What I'm saying is that "Mom, enter, please" may technically be a command form use of the verb "to enter." It's not literally commanding like a superior officer; it's just the linguistic term for the conjugation. (Again, a more experienced Spanish speaker can confirm or deny this for me.)
On the other point, it's been my understanding, from past years of learning Spanish in a class setting and from colleagues who speak it natively, that the "formal you" (usted) is traditionally used as a sign of respect for elders, even if they're familiar. It will not surprise me to learn that there are cultural exceptions to this (as such is the nature of living languages), but it's my understanding that those exceptions would be dialectic—not universal.
So in effect, I think it might be fine for you to use tú with your mom, but responding to your original question: "shouldn't this be entras?" If it "should" be anything, I think it's entra, for the above reasons. I hope this makes my point a little better.
Thanks much! It is one thing to see words, another to understand culture. When I was trying to figure out if this was a tú or usted moment, I was being led a bit by DL's use of "Mom." That struck me as less formal, but, living in a totally non-Spanish environment, I have no benchmark for that. I come from Newfoundland and, here, we called most adults in our circle "Aunt" or "Uncle," regardless of whether they were actually related to us. It was the mark of respect in our culture. Sometimes, as children matured, the Aunt or Uncle sort of fell by the wayside, but, that depended on a lot of intangibles. The difference in age was one. A difference of even a decade isn't much if you're 50 and 60, but, more than that, and the title generally stuck. There was also a level or formality beyond that of Aunt/Uncle for, for example, your mother's boss, who you would practically never presume to call Aunt/Uncle, and were always Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So. So we had the equivalent of tú and usted and something in the middle! :) Some changed as you matured, some didn't. It's hard for me to define those lines of separation in my own home town, in my own language, so, defining it in anyone else's is really tough. :) Thanks again for the insight!
603
Wow, that "aunt/uncle" part is really interesting. I'm going to ask my dad if he picked that up at all for the time he lived there!
Also, that mom vs. mother part makes perfect sense, and really it may have more to do with the command-form conjugation than the formality. (Still interested if anyone with more experience than I wants to chime in!)
129
"Mom is American, not English" would more accurately be stated "Mom is [American] English, not [British] English."
American English and British English (and Canadian English and Australian English and Indian English and New Zealand English and so on) are dialects of the same language, mutually understandable (although I have had a bit of trouble with Yorkshire English) forms of the same language, whose differences in pronunciation and vocabulary are virtually negligible compared to the differences of two ways of speaking which are REALLY different languages. I have to study Spanish or French; I don't have to "study" British English - it's just a slightly (really slightly) different form of the language - English - which I speak in an American English form.