How do you spell this Spanish word, and what's it mean?

I’ve heard this word all my life, but I can’t tell how it’s spelled, or what it really means. It’s used in a context of “Let’s go,” or “Come on.” It sounds like “own delay.”

I believe it’s “andale” which is basically a command saying “Go!”

from the verb Andar = “to go” and the reflexive adverb (IIRC) “le” meaning… I forget what it means. In the context of Speedy Gonzales, I think it would be “you all” (presumably talking to the audience, perhaps)

Well, I’m not sure about the word break down, but yeah, it’s “andale” and means “Go!”

Actually, it’s slang for “Let’s go!” :smiley:

“Andale” (with an accent mark over the “e”)

“Andar” means something to the effect of “to go” or “to move”.
“Anda” is the imperative form (the command “Move, dagnabit!”).
The suffix “-le” means that the command is directed to you (“Move your bloomin’ a**!”).

Thanks for the quick responses. So what’s the difference between andale and vamanos?

“Andale” is also used to mean, “Yeah, now you’ve got it!”. Such as when you are trying to explain something to someone, and then they say something which indicates that they finally understand you, you’ll say, “Andale!”, implying, “that’s what I was talking about!”.

“Vamos” and “vamanos” are much more common for “let’s go.” “Andale” in that context implies more, “move it!” – you’d say it to the horse you’re riding, or maybe shout it to your favorite soccer team if they’ve been playing rather lethargically.

Why don’t Andale, vamanos show a translation when I enter them into Alta Vista?

“Le” is not a reflexive pronoun. If it were reflexive, it would be either “ándate” or “ándese”.

Over the A. That’s why it’s AN-da-le. “Andar” conjugates to “anda” in the tú form, which carries its accent on the A. You add the -le to the verb (instead of having it float free) because it’s an imperative, and the accent mark over the A to maintain the stress pattern.

It literally translates to “Walk or move” + “third person singular indirect object”. I’ve asked the Mexicans I know and poked around on a forum dedicated to EN-ES questions, and the consensus is that the -le doesn’t refer to any specific third person or object, just that’s it’s a set phrase that means “move it!”

BTW, JKellyMap I’m sure you know this, but for those who don’t:

“Vamos” is correct, but it should be written “vámonos”. You can also use “Vayámonos”, but people will look at you funny.

Thank you, Bambi, for the correction.
Could the accents be why Jeffro couldn’t find these words in AltaVista?

Because AltaVista’s translation service is a piece of crap.

I can’t give you a link to vámonos, because it’s not a single word in the sense that it appears in English. It’s actually vamos + nos (first-person plural conjugation of ir + first person plural reflexive pronoun), which contracts to vámonos. Knowing that, you can look up irse, which is the infinitive form of this verb.

And here’s a dictionary definition for ándale. Ándale is composed of the infinitive andar + the object le (like vámonos, above), but it’s a set phrase, so it’s in the dictionary.

No, I tried it with the accents and without. I’m sticking with my theory that AltaVista’s (and Google’s) translation service is a piece of crap.

That hadn’t occurred to me before. Reading this thread, I remembered how a lot of native Spanish speakers (I don’t remember if it’s limited to the dialect of a specific country) drop the “s” on the end of certain words, particularly in the first person plural forms of verbs. Now I see how we get “vamonos” from “vamos.”

At any rate, can we really call its written form a contraction like “don’t” or is it more akin to just a shortcut to “gonna?”

In my Spanish classes, our professor told us that the -s on the imperatives is always dropped when “nos” or “se” is added. Similarly, the -d is dropped when you add “os”. Hence vámonos, sentémonos, démoselo, sentáos, levantáos, but busqémoslo and abridlo, etc.

Also, I don’t know that I’d call it a contraction exactly (like English don’t, we’ll, etc.), because AFAIK Spanish always requires that the objects be attached to the verb in positive commands. There’s just no other way to write it (unless you’re using the “vamos a” form of the first-person plural imperative, or the “que + subjunctive” form of indirect command). I just said it contracts to that because I’m not sure what other word I would use in the situation.

“Andale” as in the cartoon “Speedy Gonzales” mouse saying “Andale, andale , eee haw”. :cool:

Eee haw? Isn’t it “Andale, andale, arriba, arriba, andale!”