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Questions & Answers about Friega las tazas, por favor.
Is “friega” a command or a present-tense form here?
It’s the affirmative tú imperative (a command): “Friega…”. It also matches the 3rd person singular present (“he/she scrubs”), but the context with “por favor” makes it clearly a request/command.
How do I give the same command to different people (tú/usted/vosotros/ustedes)?
What are the negative command forms?
Use the present subjunctive in negatives:
Why use “fregar” and not “lavar”?
- In Spain, fregar is the usual verb for washing dishes and scrubbing floors: “fregar los platos/el suelo.”
- Lavar is more general (clothes, car, hands, fruit) and is also understood for dishes, but “fregar los platos” sounds more native in Spain.
- In much of Latin America, people say lavar los platos; “fregar” often means “to scrub” (or colloquially “to annoy”).