# Venga = 2nd person?



## vicksanders

I really want to know why VENGA is used in the informal (2nd person singular  - TU) sense when in fact it should be VEN.  EG: "Venga, te presento a mi familia".  A boyfriend is telling his girlfriend to "Come, let me present you to my family".  There seems to be a mix up here!! This is on page 27 of Espana Viva.  I have seen the same problem on page 1 (!!) of Conversational Spanish in 7 Days.  Carmen, the mother, calls to her son, Miguel and says "Miguel, venga!"  Please can someone help me and clarify why VENGA has been used and not VEN!  Gracias )


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## aztlaniano

Welcome, vicksanders! 
"Venga" is not being used literally, but in an idiomatic way, in your first example as a term of encouragement - "come on", "all right now", "let's go", etc., in the second to mean "hurry up".


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## Floor.Viic

I think that is the way that mexicans speak... but I don't think they say it with TU, I think they do with USTED, but not to refer to the person in a formal way, I think they use it in an affective way... but I don't really know... In my Spanish we don't use it like that...


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## azulmaría

*Venga* should be used when the subject is *usted*, not *tú*.
However, a lot of people use it in conversational Spanish... which does not necessarily mean that that is grammatically correct.


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## flljob

_Venga_, en este caso, es una interjección y no se usa en México. Yo la he oído de españoles. Es similar a ¡_Vamos!_

Saludos


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## Floor.Viic

Sí creo que tenés razón, se usa en España con la intención que dijiste


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## vicksanders

vicksanders said:


> Muchas gracias to you all for responding so quickly and trying to help me BUT I am still not really satisfied!!  VEN should be used with the TU person, and VENGA should be used with the USTED person.  It is surely grammatically incorrect and i just find it unnecessary and confusing and ambiguous.
> Referring to the boyfriend and his girlfriend, he then goes on to say to her "MIRA, esta es mi madre" which is correct.  He didn't use "Mire" because the girlfriend is a TU person. And now let's look at page 2 of the other book: Luisa is greeted by Juan, her cousin.  Here we have "Dame tus maletas" (give me your suitcases).  This is correct too.
> Am I missing something?  Thanks ).................
> Oh - wait!  I think I have it at last.  I have just clicked on a thread link and come up with this:
> Pocket Oxford Spanish Dictionary © 2005 Oxford University Press:
> venga interjección (Esp fam)
> (para animar) come on
> 
> So, I guess it is just (as someone responded to me) "idiomatic" and it doesn't really mean "COME" as in the command sense.   Esta bien!!


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## flljob

Venga es una interjección. En este caso no se está usando como verbo. Se emplea para animar a alguien.
¡Venga!, tú puedes.

Saludos


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## aztlaniano

When you say something is "cool", you may or may not be referring to its temperature.
"Venga" is the second person formal imperative of "venir", but it is also used idiomatically.
Example: Your mother urges you to have a second helping of pie. You decline, she insists, finally you say "venga", meaning "all right, give it to me if you must".

Take a look at this:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=817636


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## flljob

aztlaniano said:


> When you say something is "cool", you may or may not be referring to its temperature.
> "Venga" is the second person formal imperative of "venir", but it is also used idiomatically.
> Example: Your mother urges you to have a second helping of pie. You decline, she insists, finally you say "venga", meaning "all right, give it to me if you must".



En este caso sí tiene función verbal. Es tercera persona, del subjuntivo, presente. 

Venga [la segunda rebanada de pastel]

Saludos


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## ACQM

"¡Venga!"  no se modifica en persona o número ni se refiere exactamente a un imperativo sobre la persona con la que se habla, es como una interjección. No sé si es lo más correcto pero es como se usa. No se dice ¡Venga, usted! ni ¡Ven tú!, eso tendría otro significado diferente. Se dice ¡Venga! o ¡Venga ya! o ¡Ala, venga!

Venga, te presento a mi madre = Come on, let's meet my mother.
Ven, te presento a mi madre = Come with me and you'll meet my mother.
Venga, dejad de pelearos. (No se dice Vengan)


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## vicksanders

Muchas gracias por todo.  Ustedes son muy simpaticos.  Estoy contenta!!  Victoria )


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## mhp

I'm surprised no one has mentioned 'vaya' and its similarity to 'venga'. While 'venga' as an interjection is mostly used in Spain, I think 'vaya' is universal.


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## Södertjej

Agreed, when you say "¡vaya!" you're not telling anyone to go anywhere, just like you're not telling anyone to come when you say "¡venga!" used as an interjection.


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## arwyln

"Venga" and "vale" are like the meat and veg of Peninsular Spanish interjections. Maybe for that reason they often come together "¡venga, vale!".


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## rorocker

Ven is used when you're talking to a person who is your friend for example:
I say to my friend Carlos:
Ven y ayudame!
Venga is used when you have to treat the another person respectful, for example
I say to my uncle Tomas
Venga y ayudeme!
Venga is used when you want to treat the another with affection
I say to my 5-year-old nephew
Venga para aca!
the colombians use Usted not only in the formal way but also in the informal way
they don't use the difference that the others do, for example:
I talk to my friend carlos:
ven y ayudame!, ven y escuchame! , ven a comer!
a colombian would say:
venga y ayudeme!  venga y escucheme! venga a comer!

I hope you can get the difference.


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## Fer BA

mhp said:


> I'm surprised no one has mentioned 'vaya' and its similarity to 'venga'. While 'venga' as an interjection is mostly used in Spain, I think 'vaya' is universal.


 
Actually 'vaya' is like 'venga' and 'vale', almost exclusively Peninsular. You'll hardly hear 'vaya' in Southamerica (as an intejection, of course).


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## mhp

I didn't know that. So if I say _¡vaya día!_ that sounds Peninsular, say, in Argentina?


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## Fer BA

Absolutely. _Vaya _is just used in its verbal forms. In Argentina you want to say _¡Qué día!_


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## ACQM

rorocker said:


> Ven is used when you're talking to a person who is your friend for example:
> I say to my friend Carlos:
> Ven y ayudame!
> Venga is used when you have to treat the another person respectful, for example
> I say to my uncle Tomas
> Venga y ayudeme!
> Venga is used when you want to treat the another with affection
> I say to my 5-year-old nephew
> Venga para aca!
> the colombians use Usted not only in the formal way but also in the informal way
> they don't use the difference that the others do, for example:
> I talk to my friend carlos:
> ven y ayudame!, ven y escuchame! , ven a comer!
> a colombian would say:
> venga y ayudeme!  venga y escucheme! venga a comer!
> 
> I hope you can get the difference.



Lee los demás posts, no estamos hablando de eso. "Venga" se usa como interjección en español peninsular y es de esa "interjección" de la que hablamos, no del imperativo del verbo venir cuando se usa "usted".


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## Mei

Hi, in Spain you can also hear "¡vaya!.... venga, vale va, vamos!"


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## flljob

_¡Vaya!_ sí se usa en México.
_¡Vaya día!_

Saludos


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## Fer BA

Flijob:

Sí, y creo que también en Colombia se puede escuchar. ¿Qué tan común es el uso de _¡Vaya día!_ en relación a otras interjecciones (p.ej. _¡Qué día!_)?


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## XiaoRoel

La especialización como interjecciones de ánimo de formas verbales ya se daba en latín: _age_!_, uale_!
En español (como en gallegoportugués) son comunes las formas de *ir*: ¡_vaya_!, ¡_vamos_! y modernamente de *venir*, ¡_venga_! que yo tengo por catalanismo. La conocida ¡_ea_! viene del verbo _*eo*_ ('ir' en latín, de una forma de subjuntivo _eat_!). Es común este uso exclamativo, impresivo de verbos de movimiento (muchos imperativos se usan como interjecciones: ¡corre!, ¡apura!, ¡para!, ¡anda!).


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## flljob

Fer BA said:


> Flijob:
> 
> Sí, y creo que también en Colombia se puede escuchar. ¿Qué tan común es el uso de _¡Vaya día!_ en relación a otras interjecciones (p.ej. _¡Qué día!_)?



Se usa mucho más ¡qué día! y todavía más común, el diminutivo ¡Qué diita!

Saludos


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## ACQM

XiaoRoel said:


> La especialización como interjecciones de ánimo de formas verbales ya se daba en latín: _age_!_, uale_!
> En español (como en gallegoportugués) son comunes las formas de *ir*: ¡_vaya_!, ¡_vamos_! y modernamente de *venir*, ¡_venga_! que yo tengo por catalanismo. La conocida ¡_ea_! viene del verbo _*eo*_ ('ir' en latín, de una forma de subjuntivo _eat_!). Es común este uso exclamativo, impresivo de verbos de movimiento (muchos imperativos se usan como interjecciones: ¡corre!, ¡apura!, ¡para!, ¡anda!).




Muchas gracias por la explicación. Me ha hecho especial gracia lo de "ea" que mis abuelos decían muy frecuentemente sin saber palabra de latín, ¡mira por donde!


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