"Sir, do you have two books?"
Translation:Señor, ¿tiene usted dos libros?
26 Comments
is "Senor, tu tienes dos libros?" an acceptable alternative? Duolingo didn't accept it.
that's because senor is formal so you must use the respectful version of you which is usted. tu is used for close friends or informal addressing
Shouldn't it be , ¿Usted tiene dos libros? As we are tought that the pronoun comes before the verb.
Tienes is informal and we are addressing someone formally therefore, we use tiene
Usted is formal, but not often used in Spain. I was taught, "señor, ¿tienes dos libros? is acceptable here in Spain.
But the given correct answer is "tiene usted dos libros". Still pronoun after the verb...
I see the same thing... I wrote"usted tiene" and it was different from the duolingo answer but it was marked as correct. Duo lingo
11
Or rather, they are attached to the verb. In normal order they come immediately before the verb, but in switched order, like when used for a question, they come immediately after the verb.
- 224
Why "tiene dos libros usted" is invalid in this case? There are a lot of sentences which are valid with "usted" being at the end of the sentence
- 33
My question too. The word order in Spanish is pretty flexible. It might be an oversight.
- 94
Got it: formal = usted, informal = tu. Thanks for the comments, glad im not the only one.
- 11
Because "tienes" is for you informal. Here, Duolingo addresses someone as "Sir", which it does to indicate this is not someone you are familiar with. Hence, you need the verb form for you formal: Tiene.
