Santiago
Ultra Nomad
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Te vrs Tu?
While doing the Friday crossword (in ink). a 5 letter word was clued "'I love you' in Baja". So I start to fill in "AMOTU" but noticed the last
letter was already filled in with "O". I was confident of that word so I wrote "TUAMO" but as I filled out the puzzle, it was clear that the "U" was
wrong, should be an "E".
Fortunately, I heard a leaf blower start up and ran out the door. Fernando was finishing up his weekly 'mow & blow' and I asked him how to say 'I
love you' in espanol. After a long pause that was bordering on the uncomfortable, he said "Te amo". "Not 'tu'?". "No, it's 'TE'". "What's the
difference?". He shrugged and said they mean the same, but use 'Te' to say 'I love you'.
OK, so know there are three ways to say 'you'?
usted, tu and te. I know that 'usted' is formal and 'tu' is informal, is 'te' even more informal?
What's the Diff?
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David K
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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I think the sound has a lot to do with Latin/Spanish words... If it is uncomfortable or feels weird to say "Tu Amo" they adjust it! Te Amo flows much
nicer!
The use of El vs. La is flexible, too. (The) Agua is El Agua, because La Agua is just awkward to say.
Lencho will come in and gives us the correct dope, I bet!
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pauldavidmena
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"tu amo" would never be correct. "tu" is the informal second person singular (and the person who is doing the "loving") and with the verb amar, the
correct conjugation in the present tense would be "tu amas", meaning "you love". In the case of "te amo", "te" is an indirect object pronoun (the
person who is receiving the love), and "amo" is the first person singular present of the verb amar, meaning "I love". Put the indirect object pronoun
together with the conjugated verb and you get "te amo", meaning "I love you".
Here is a good description of the difference, although I'm sure a native Spanish speaker could explain it far better than either me or an article
I found on the internet.
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Skipjack Joe
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I love you translates to yo te amo. You drop the yo because it's implied and you get te amo.
Other examples;
te odio
te quiero
te escucho
te entiendo
but not te madre. It's tu madre (your mamma).
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pauldavidmena
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Quote: Originally posted by lencho  |
Except when it is correct. Consider:
Te amo y quiero casarme contigo y tú conmigo, pero tu amo no se desprende de ti.
(I love you and want to marry you and you me, but your master doesn’t let you go.)
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Rats! I should have consulted WordReference.com, which would have told me that "amo" was also a common noun, meaning "owner" or "master".
My last name, by the way, in addition to being a family name tracing back to northern Spain, is also a common noun meaning "ore". So I'm not sure
whether el "Valle de Mena" is named after my ancestors or the minerals that they likely dug out of the ground. 
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Santiago
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Hay-sus Alou, I'll never get it. I'm happy I sort of get usted and tu, but I'm careful as I'm sure there are underlying meanings that I've completely
screwed up.
Speaking of "tu madre", in the culture I grew up in (well..Bakersfield) 'yo mamma' was a thing you said to your mates when joshing around. It was
not fighting words.
Can amigos say that as well or is the verboten?
An example of something that is close was when I was talking to man I knew pretty well in Baja doing work on our place in Gecko. He had a nick name
that we all called him and in talking about nicknames, I asked if women had nick names also. I got a very stern and direct "NO".
I had clearly crossed a line.
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BajaBlanca
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I find Spanish quite difficult!
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pacificobob
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Direct object pronouns in the same sentence with indirect object pronouns
confuse many students of Spanish.
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