Re: Kinda NATLANG: English stupidities: "You both"

Hi Roger, and everyone! I doubt anyone here does
not know or remember me (modesty aside :) but just
in case, I'm back after a sabbatic year... or two.
Whatever. I'm just flashing in to answer to Roger's
tacit question: you can't do "you both"-like things
in Spanish. In Spanish, "ambos" means "both of X",
whatever pronoun X is. This could easily lead to
ambiguities if it weren't for the person/number
agreement in the verb.

"Ambos fueron." = "Both of them went." (agreement: 3p.pl)
"Ambos fuimos." = "Both of us went." (agreement: 1p.pl)

In Latin American Spanish there's this problem with
the 2nd person plural form, which takes the pronoun
"ustedes" and a verb in the *3rd* person plural form.
So "Ambos fueron" above could also mean "Both of you
went."

In any case, "ambos" is not found in the colloquial or
informal register. We tend to use "dos" ("ustedes dos",
"ellos dos", etc.).

There's no equivalent to "both of you" or "the two of you"
in Spanish, as a parallel to "the rest of you" ("el resto
de ustedes"). (The colloquial lang uses "ustedes, los otros"
["you, the others"].)


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.angelfire.com/ego/pdf/ng/index.html

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