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Re: 3rd-person imperative

From:FFlores <fflores@...>
Date:Tuesday, May 9, 2000, 1:25
DOUGLAS KOLLER <LAOKOU@...> wrote:

>Adding "que" captures some of that "may..." or "let..." meaning, but isn't >always necessary: > >Viva el Papa. Long live the Pope.
The thing about "que" is that you can interpret the sentence as one with an implicit verb (like _querer_ 'to want'). The subjunctive/imperative sentences without "que" are very very rare and formal (as in the Lord's Prayer: "Venga a nosotros tu reino"), or have become fixed ("viva" is practically an interjection by now).
>I once heard a very patient Spanish-speaking mother reign in a petulant >child with a "Que tú vengas" ("Why don't you get over here [before I start >counting to three].") as opposed to the more direct "Ven" ("Get over >here!"). Is the former an imperative? You decide.
It's an emphatic form (though usually without the pronoun). "Vení. ¡Que vengas, te dije!" = "Come [here]. Come [here], I tell you!". --Pablo Flores http://www.geocities.com/pablo-david/index.html "... When all men on earth think, day and night, about the Zahir, which one will be a dream and which one a reality?" Jorge Luis Borges, _The Zahir_