Pasenle

[Tyrn]

Hi,

This one is from a movie (subtitles). What is it, exactly? People look like they either greet each other, or suggest something to each other.

[Rusty]

Pásenle.

It means 'come (on) in', 'go ahead', or something similar.
This is a third person plural imperative form of the verb pasar, with a suffixed pronoun (as is usually the case in the imperative).

The pronoun 'le' adds no meaning; it's only there to "soften" the command.
This command may be used with either a plural or a singular subject (supposing it's easier to use just one form of the softened imperative, because you might offend someone), but if you've determined that only one person is entering, the plural ending may be dropped.

I'll defer to a native speaker of Mexico to elucidate further.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I agree with Rusty.
Adding "le" to some verbs in imperative add an emphasis, and the tone, situation and context will determine what it's emphasizing:

- ¡Camínale! / ¡Apúrale! -> A mad person asking the other to walk faster. In this case, "le" emphasizes the command.

- ¡Pásale! / ¡Pásenle! -> I'm urging the other person(s) to come in, as if hurrying them makes me more polite. Showing eagerness to please people is more polite, actually.

- ¿Qué, quieres bronca o qué? ¡Éntrale!
(Colloquial way to start a fight.) What? You want to fight or what? ¡Bring it on!


And we have this jewel:
- ¡Órale! -> Handiest Mexican word to express agreement, surprise, anger, haste, disappointment... you name it. The meaning will depend on the context and the tone.

It must have been originally just "ora" as a contraction of "ahora", like in asking "¿ahora qué?" (now what?), but once "le" was added, it acquired a bunch of different meanings.

[Tyrn]

Thanks! Fantastic

Technically: should be pásenles and addressed to a lot of people (or did the say "the pronoun adds no meaning"?).

In practice: one can address pásenle to a single person, or to a lot of them indiscriminately. Do I have it right?

What about pásele?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

It can't be "pásenles", because this would mean you are passing an amount of items to other people, like in "pásenles estos dulces a los niños" (hand out these candies to the children).

Our "le" in your example, would correspond to an unidentified entity. If I have to assign an identity to this "le", it would be the place to come in, or a situation in all other examples.
"Apúrale" would be like "hurry the whole thing that makes you be slower".
"Éntrale" would be "involve yourself into the situation that is making us fight".
"Pásenle" might be "come into this place".

And it's the same "le" for plural or singular persons: "Pásale" / "Pásele" / "Pásenle"
Apúrale / Apúrele / Apúrenle
Camínale / Camínele / Camínenle
Éntrale / Éntrele / Éntrenle

[Tyrn]

Thank you very much!