vete, por favor
The English phrase "please go away" is translated into Spanish as vete, por favor.
These phrases are used to request that someone leave a location or increase the distance between themselves and another person. While vete, por favor and Váyase, por favor are requests for someone to leave, Por favor, aléjese is specifically used to ask someone to keep their distance or move away.
Which one should you use?
The choice of phrase depends on whom you are addressing and how many people are present. If you are telling more than one person to go away, use váyanse, por favor. For a polite and formal way to ask someone to move away or keep their distance, use Por favor, aléjese. Finally, if you want to say "please get lost" in an informal way, you can use Por favor, lárgate.
How does it change in a sentence?
The word vete is the imperative (command) form of the reflexive verb irse used for the informal tú pronoun.
Did you know?
- The informal lárgate comes from the verb largar, which means 'to release' or 'to let go'. Using it to say 'get lost' implies the speaker is tossing the person away like an unwanted object.
- If you are addressing a group of people in Spain, you would use vete for one person and id or irse derivatives for more, but in Latin America, the 'ustedes' form váyanse is the standard for any group.
- While vete is a command, adding por favor can sometimes feel ironically polite or even sarcastic in Spanish, much like 'please' can sound biting in English.
Examples in context
- Vete, por favor, necesito estar solo.Please go away, I need to be alone.
- Vete, por favor, no quiero hablar más.Go away, please, I don't want to talk anymore.
- Vete, por favor, me estás molestando.Go away, please, you are bothering me.
Example conversation
Mateo is trying to study and Lucía keeps interrupting him.
- MateoLucía, vete, por favor, estoy estudiando.Lucía, go away, please, I am studying.
- LucíaSolo quería hablar un poco contigo.I only wanted to talk to you a little.
- MateoNo es un buen momento.It is not a good time.
- LucíaEstá bien, lo siento.Okay, I'm sorry.
