Word
¡Cállate, por favor!
Meaning
Be quiet, please!
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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We have an entire course teaching Spanish (Latin America) grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about ¡Cállate, por favor!
Why is the te attached to the end of the verb instead of coming before it?
Because this is an affirmative command (telling someone to do something). In Spanish, object and reflexive pronouns like te must be attached directly to the end of affirmative commands. If it were a negative command (telling someone not to do something), the pronoun would go before the verb: no te calles.
Why is there an accent mark on the first 'a' in cállate?
Why do we use the pronoun te here instead of just saying calla?
We are using the reflexive verb callarse (to keep quiet or shut up). Since we are giving a command to someone we address as tú (the informal 'you'), we use the matching reflexive pronoun te. While calla is sometimes used, cállate is much more common in everyday Latin American Spanish.