maravilloso. creo que has captado un buen retrato

wonderful , i think you have captured a good likeness

In earlier lessions (the one about introducing a Chinese friend who speaks little Spanish), I have seen "Hablale" which means "Talk to him/her"...

So, shouldn't "pasarme" be "pasame"?

Or maybe, "hablale" should have been "hablarle"...

Appreciate anyone who can help shed light on this...

Gracias!

Aclchan

Does this help?

Pásame un poco de pan  - Pass me a little bit of bread.

le importa pasarme un poco de pan – Would it matter to you to pass me a little bit of bread? (of course this is a literal translation it really means is as the PDF says) “would you mind passing me a little bread?”

Actually, and of course I could be wrong, I think that there is a slight error in the PDF and that the second sentence should have question marks.

¿ le importa pasarme un poco de?

Thanks for the reply. I still don't get it though. Do you mean to say that Pasame should be used when you are commanding someone, and pasarme should be used if you want to be polite? Shouldn't it be "Me pasas" instead if I don't want it to sound too demanding?

Aclchan

Hi    “¿ le importa pasarme un poco de pan?” – “is it important to you it pass me a little bread” or “do you mind passing me a little bread”  can sound softer and at times more polite then “páseme un poco de pan” – “pass me a little bread” but that is not the point I was trying to make.  What I wanted to say is in “¿ le importa pasarme un poco de pan?” pasar is in the infinitive and not the command form of the verb because grammatically the phrase is not a command.

Elementary - Formal Dinner 3: Would you pass me...?

I just watched this,

Quiere un poco mas de vino?

it is said this is 2nd person, polite, it looks to

me to be 3rd person singular.

Can you explain?

you are not wrong, and this could be interpreted as "would s/ he like a little more wine" but in this case, "s/he" is not a real third person.

The speaker is adressing someone directly but they are using third person conjugations as this is considered more polite. It enables differing social classes, children and adults, strangers to speak to each other without causing offense.

This is the "usted" or "you formal" form of adress e.g. will sir be dining with us this evening? will the right honorable gentleman explain to the house why.....does his majesty require anything more.

The speaker is effectively referring to someone else which leaves the listener is under no obligation to respond.