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-te ending on verbs

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kc9qii
July 19, 2011, 04:25 PM
So todays latest piece of spanish confusion is from seeing verbs with a -te ending. I know this basically means "to you" like if i was giving a command or putting it at the end of a infinitive like in "como puedo ayudarte" meaning "how can I help you" but I see this situations like "gracias por registrarte" "thank you for registering" or in "cuidate" why would you say that instead of "cuida" and i see it in other verbs too but those are the only examples i can think of right now. So when and why would you use this exactly?

Rusty
July 19, 2011, 04:43 PM
'Te' is a second-person singular pronoun.
It can appear on the end of infinitives and imperatives, and can be tacked onto the end of the gerundio (present participle).

What kind of pronoun is the second half of your question.

registrarse - to register (oneself) (reflexive pronoun)
cuidarse - to take care (of oneself) (reflexive pronoun)
ayudar a alguien - to help somebody (direct object pronoun)

Notice that the last one doesn't have the 'se' suffix. This is because it is not a pronominal verb (the action doesn't refer back to the subject). The help (the action) directly affects another. This appeared in your example.

ayudarse - to help oneself (reflexive pronoun)

Each of these can have 'te' suffixed to them, but only when the 2nd-person singular form of the pronoun is needed.
And, the reflexive ones need the pronoun, but may not have an English equivalent, as in register.

Cómprate una camisa. = Buy yourself a shirt.
Puedes comprarte una camisa nueva mañana. = You can buy yourself a new shirt tomorrow.
¿Estás comprándote una camisa? = Are you buying yourself a shirt?

Hope that helps. There are other pronouns used for 1st- and 3rd-persons.

kc9qii
July 19, 2011, 06:03 PM
ok i got it now, thanks