Quote:
Originally Posted by RickOShay
I am not sure what we are arguing about. My statement simply was that you cannot construct an imperative form （なさい） and put お at the beginning of the verb and sound natural. So if you wanted to use 休む in the imperative form （なさい） you would write it 休みなさい not おやすみなさい。just like you would not say お行きなさい お飲みなさい、お運びなさい。I mean, i can confirm this with japanese friends to be sure, and if I am wrong i am wrong, but my feeling is that polite お and imperative -なさい do not mix.
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I'm sure that 45 pages of google results would show that 「お食べなさい」 is likely to be a perfectly valid and natural-sounding construction. Just go ahead and read a couple of them.
Along with
「お行きなさい」, 「お飲みなさい」, and
「お運びなさい」.
And in case you'd missed chryuop's post, there's also
「お待ちなさい」
As well as this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by chryuop
...There are ways to use "imperative" also when you have to be polite, they just have a different "color".
Now, some of those are used into regular talk (the way I see it) just like お休み(ください not there, but might as well be).
EDIT: Let me get better what I meant. Honorific and humble verbs are made adding the お to the pre ます form and なさる is the honorific form of the verb to do. Basically what you do (I hope I am not wrong) is transform the verb into a noun and then add the verb "to do". Not much different from those many verbs made of a Chinese origin kanji noun+する like 勉強する.
As per お食べください, the verb to eat in humble and honorific changes completely, that's why the example you made wouldn't work.
I hope I am not too far off  |
Rick, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that imperative="not polite". This is completely wrong. 「-てください」 is also an imperative, for example.