Thread: Vámonos
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Old March 29, 2009, 07:05 PM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
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Vámonos is a very common phrase, but is a degenerate form of the imperative vayámonos (1st-person plural imperative of irse, which means to leave). This is a pronominal verb. The -nos suffix is a reflexive pronoun.

To form the imperative in this person, the normal -s ending is dropped before suffixing the pronoun -nos. A similar thing happens with the 2nd-person plural reflexive pronoun, where the normal -d ending is dropped before suffixing the pronoun -os. Have a look at the charts below.

It may be easier to look at a regular verb first.

Here is levantar in the imperative:
 yo  (X)  nosotros,-as  levantemos 
 tú  levanta  vosotros,-as  levantad 
 él, ella, usted  levante  ellos, ellas, ustedes  levanten 

Here is levantarse in the imperative:
 yo  (X)  nosotros,-as  levantémonos 
 tú  levántate  vosotros,-as  levantaos 
 él, ella, usted  levántese  ellos, ellas, ustedes  levántense 

Now, here is the irregular verb ir in the imperative:
 yo  (X)  nosotros,-as  vayamos 
 tú  vé  vosotros,-as  id 
 él, ella, usted  vaya  ellos, ellas, ustedes  vayan 

Here is irse in the imperative (note the exception to the drop-the-d-in-2nd-person-plural rule for this verb):
 yo  (X)  nosotros,-as  vayámonos 
 tú  vete  vosotros,-as  idos 
 él, ella, usted  váyase  ellos, ellas, ustedes  váyanse 


Last edited by Rusty; August 04, 2019 at 07:32 PM. Reason: formatting and content changes
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