How to give orders and advice in Spanish: verbs of influence In this article we are going to discuss a very important grammar topic: verbs of influence. Today you will learn to transmit your intention to other people. You will especially know how to give orders and advice. You will see how the verbs of
In this article we are going to deal with a very important grammar topic: verbs of influence.
Today you will learn to convey your intention to other people. You will especially know how to give orders and advice.
You will see how the verbs of influence have three structures different, one more direct, another more subtle and another impersonal.
These three structures give a lot of versatility, and you will see how from today you start using the verbs of influence regularly when you speak Spanish.
Furthermore, these verbs are included in a new use of the subjunctive, so you will be expanding your knowledge about this mode of Spanish.
A very complete article, right?
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With learning these verbs of influence, you will take a big step towards mastering Spanish, so let's go for it! 🙌🏻
Verbs of influence, also known as verbs of will or influence, are used when the issuer intends to influence somehow in the receiver.
There are many ways to influence people. It can be through requests, orders, requests, advice, motivations, suggestions, recommendations, prohibitions, etc.
Later we will see many examples and we will focus especially on the advice and orders, which are the ones with the greatest number of verbs.
The verbs of influence that more are used they are:
There are also many verbs of influence with preposition:
We enter fully into the icing on the cake. let's see how to use these verbs.
There are three possible structures, one of them with the subjunctive.
With these structures what we do is mark in a way more or less direct who has to carry out the action that we want.
Do you want to know how to influence people? 😝
Then read on!
In structure 1, we mark that our way of influencing is very direct and we express very clearly who has to do the action.
The structure is as follows:
The verb 2 It is that of influence. Can you guess what mode it's in?
Indeed, in subjunctive. It finally has its star appearance! ✨
If you are not very clear about how the present subjunctive is formed, don't worry!
We have an article in which we explain in detail the shape of the present subjunctive in Spanish, both regular and irregular.
If you need it, check it out!
Now, let's look at some verbs of influence with examples following the structure above, you will see how you understand it very quickly!
Examples:
This way of using the subjunctive in verbs of influence is very common in other uses:
2 subjects and 2 verbs united by the word "that", necessary to link the two sentences.
This structure is repeated, for example, with verbs of desire or feeling.
Although there is a difference here: the personal pronoun in front of the verb 1.
The function of that pronoun is emphasize who the subject is 2, the one who must do the second action.
If we look at the first example again, we have the pronoun "te." Therefore, subject 2 is "you":
Since we are already indicating with the personal pronoun who subject 2 is, there is no need to name it again with "you."
Now pay close attention! ⚠️
Many people are often confused with this personal pronoun and think that it is the subject of verb 1, but this is never the case.
Taking the same example, the pronoun "te" is not the subject. The subject of this first sentence is "I":
This structure is less direct. We want a person to do something but we tell them in one way. more subtle way.
The structure is:
This structure is shorter than the previous one. If you notice, the subjunctive is no longer there, but rather a infinitive.
We also don't have the word "that." This is because already there are no two different sentences with two conjugated verbs, but a verb and an infinitive.
This infinitive is what makes the sentence sound more indirect. The infinitive gives the value of impersonality.
However, we still have a personal pronoun that refers to a subject 2 implicit, which is who we want to do the action of the infinitive.
Let's see some examples:
Taking the first sentence as an example, the subject 1 is "I" and the subject 2, although it is not seen, it would be "you."
We know this because the personal pronoun is "os."
With this structure we speak in a general way.
That is, there is no exact receiver, but rather we are talking about something that would have to be done. all the people in general.
The structure is like this:
The only difference with structure 2 is the personal pronoun. now we don't have it.
In this way we are no longer marking a specific subject 2, but rather we are talking about people in general.
Examples:
For example in sentence 3, who does the teacher require to send the assignments before the 16th? Since it is not specified who must do the action, we understand that all of your students must do it.
So far, we have seen what verbs of influence are, which ones are the main ones, and how they are used.
Now we are going to focus on your most important uses which, as we have already mentioned before, are the orders and advice.
Don't leave yet because now you are going to learn which verbs serve these purposes and some practical examples.
Come on!
In Spanish, we have many verbs for give orders or instructions. It seems that we Spaniards love to command 😝.
The main influence verbs for ordering are:
Let's look at some examples with the structures from before:
The other great use of influence verbs is that of advice or recommendations.
This is a much less authoritarian way of influencing someone than orders.
In general, if we give advice to someone it is because we think we are going to help them.
In this case we fundamentally have three verbs:
Imagine that a friend asks you what you can do to learn Spanish. What advice could we give you?
Come on, we'll leave you some time to think and write them down.
Do you already have it? Let's see if they match ours 😉.
If you want to learn Spanish…
Now it's your turn to work!
We suggest you practice the verbs of influence with exercises that will help you assimilate everything explained.
In the first one you must drag verbs or infinitives to the corresponding sentences.
Easy, right?
Now we suggest you practice the verbs of influence in the subjunctive with exercises.
In these sentences you have the structure 1of influence verbs. You have to write the infinitive that is in parentheses in the correct form of the subjunctive.
To find out who he is subject 2, remember that the personal pronoun it tells you.
If you don't remember the present subjunctive correctly, check the article we mentioned at the beginning.
There you have everything about the regular and irregular form of the present subjunctive.
Good luck with the exercise!
Has it gone well? If you have made it this far and have done the exercises, we congratulate you 👏🏻.
Thanks to your patience and effort you have managed to learn such an important aspect of Spanish grammar such as verbs of influence and their structures.
You have gone up one more step in your adventure of learning the Spanish language. Very good!
Do you like how we explain grammar? Then we encourage you to study with us in Hispania, Spanish school.
Whether for work or study, coming to our school is a great opportunity to achieve that advanced level of Spanish that you dream of so much.
We're done for today, but before we leave we want you to think about the following:
Imagine that we are going to visit your hometown for 3 days.
What should we do in that period of time?
Think about the advice you would give us with the verbs of influence and write them in the comments. We will correct the sentences or tell you if they are perfect.
We look forward to interacting with you.
A hug!
Article written by Carlos Martinez forHispania, Spanish school.
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