Lesson 24: Dar (to give) and Ustedes
Introducing the new and very useful verb 'Dar' and how to be formal when saying 'you' to more than one person.
'Dar' is one of those few verbs in Spanish where the I form is irregular - 'doy' - like 'voy' ("I go" / "I'm going"). But all the rest follow the regular pattern for 'ar' verbs.
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Doy | I give / I'm giving |
| Lo doy | I give it / I'm giving it |
| Los doy | I give them / I'm giving them |
| Da | He gives / He's giving |
| Ellos dan | They give / They're giving |
| Das | You (informal) give |
| Él me da algo | He's giving me something |
| Me dan algo | They're giving me something |
| Me lo dan | They're giving me it |
Way back in an earlier lesson we talked about how to remember word order my remembering 'Me lo di' - "I gave it to myself" as the word "Melody" and here we can see that "Melod" coming in again.
As we have seen before we can use any present tense verb to talk about the future if we add some future contect.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Te lo doy mañana | I'm giving it to you tomorrow |
| ¿Usted me lo da mañana? | Are you (formal) giving it to me tomorrow? |
| ¿Me lo da usted mañana? | Are you (formal) giving it to me tomorrow? |
| ¿Me lo da mañana usted? | Are you (formal) giving it to me tomorrow? |
The three versions here are just to show how the placement of 'usted' is very flexible. In terms of learning to speak you can just remember to put it at the beginning of the sentence but its important to know it can go anywhere so if someone says a sentence to you where they put 'usted' at the end (or in the middle) you aren't thrown.
In deep theory the exact placement make subtle differences on the emphasis of how a sentence is being said but that is something to learn way down the line when you are pretty much fluent in the language.
Ustedes - you plural
In English when we say "you" we could be talking to one person or a group of people. In English if we are talking to a group and we want to make it clear we are talking to the whole group and not one individual person in that group we might say "you guys".
'Ustedes' was a formal way of saying you in the plural but over time it has become much more informal so you can use it in all situations when you want to emphasis you are talking to a group.
We also said previously that when you want to go plural in Spanish you simply add an 's' however if the word ends in a consonant you add 'es' and so we have 'usted' - "you (formal, singular)" - but 'ustedes - "you guys" because 'usted' ends in a 'd'.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Ustedes | You guys |
| ¿Ustedes nos lo dan mañana? | Will you guys give it to us tomorrow |
| ¿Nos lo dan mañana ustedes? | Will you guys give it to us tomorrow |
| ¿Nos lo dan ustedes mañana? | Will you guys give it to us tomorrow |
Now what you've probably noticed is the verb form of 'dar' is the same here as it is for they - 'dan'.
As such 'ustedes' is used quite often to differientiate who is doing the action.
Dar somewhere else
To finish off lets look at 'dar' in a different context but still noting the order of things remains within the "melody" rule.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Quiero dar | I want to give |
| Te lo quiero dar | I want to give it to you (informal) |