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Re: A case in point... ¿Qué pasa?
Posted By: Darien, on host 207.10.37.2
Date: Wednesday, September 1, 1999, at 11:19:17
In Reply To: Re: A case in point... ¿Qué pasa? posted by el Faux Pas on Wednesday, September 1, 1999, at 09:40:27:

> > > You're right of course. But I have a children's book in Spanish. It's the story of Chicken Little and all through it each new character asks, "Where are you going?" But in Spanish it's "Donde va? Is it possible that the rules are different in other parts of the Spanish speaking world? For example, Mexico or Peru as opposed to Spain?
> > > Howard
> >
> > ... It is possible that it's a colloquialism, but it's not proper Spanish. We have enough in English that it wouldn't surprise me if that were the case.
>
> Rules are slightly different in different parts of the world. For instance, "vosotros" and "nosotros" ("We", emphasizing the one spoken to, and "We", emphasizing the one speaking) are used in Spain; only "nosotros" ("We", no matter how you slice it) is used in Mexico. That's one of the few things I remember from my high school language classes.
>
> -Faux "Las llamas son mas grande que las ranas" Pas

You're right, but wrong. "vosotros" does not mean "we," it means "you all" (for Howard's sake, that's the plural of "you." Vosotros and the more-common-on-Latin-America Ustedes (otherwise known as uds.) are the pair you're thinking of.