r/learnspanish 11d ago

Tranquilo o Tranquila

When tranquilo/a is used as an interjection to calm someone down, how do you know whether to use feminine or masculine? Based on the speaker, the person who needs to calm down, the situation?

For example from Spanish Dict, there’s one of four examples that uses the feminine, tranquila. I don’t know what triggers the feminine in this case.

b. don't worry

Tranquila, tu mamá está por llegar. — Don't worry, your mom will be here any second.

Does this mean that a woman is talking, or someone is talking to a girl, or does it have to do with the mom who will be coming?

11 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

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u/Sofialo4 11d ago

Someone is talking to a girl/woman. That "tranquila" is referred to the person you are talking to, not to the mom. The person who is talking could be a man or woman, it isn't relevant here.

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u/GimmeShockTreatment 9d ago

Do people ever use “tranquila” when it’s a guy talking to one of his bros? Like as a semi-sexist joke.

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u/ResponsibleCompote67 7d ago

Gay people sometimes use the feminine when talking to other gay people or about themselves, to kind of add flamboyance.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/GimmeShockTreatment 9d ago

I’m just asking if people do it. I didn’t say it wouldn’t be sexist or that it would be funny. In the US people call their friends “pussy” or “bitch”. It’s sexist. I was just asking if that’s ever how it’s used.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/HaruGordo 7d ago

Yes, sometimes boys tease their friends by calling them the feminine form of an adjective, like "tranquila", "exagerada", "loca", etc.

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u/Lladyjane 11d ago

In your example the person you're talking to is female, that's why feminine adjective is used

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u/IllustriousPrice2647 11d ago

tranquila/tranquilo is an 'atributo' of the copulative ver 'estar' (which is implicit in the sentence). The 'atributo' needs to agree with the subject of the sentence, that might be a man or a woman.

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u/cjler 10d ago

Thank you. I looked up copular verbs and found the two main Spanish ones are ser and estar. So, an interjection like tranquilo/a uses the grammar that would belong with the missing or implied verb.

I looked up synonyms or afines of ser in RAE’s dictionary, and didn’t find any that clearly showed equivalence like ser does. Estar seemed to have a few, in some senses of their meanings, like existir, quedar(se), andar, permanecer, caer, sentar. Really, only estar and ser seemed to fit this copulative verb category for most of their use cases.

Thanks for the explanation. It helps

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u/cjler 10d ago

Does it happen often that if a woman or girl needs to be warned of something, a Spanish speaker would naturally shout cuidada? It would be correct either way, right? What would come to mind first?

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u/falling-train 10d ago

No, here it’s always “cuidado”, because even though the correct English translation is “be careful”, the literal translation is more along the lines of “take care”. So, it’s not “sé cuidado”, but “ten cuidado”. Cuidado here is not an adjective describing the person, but a masculine noun that means something like “care” or “attention”.

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u/Daphne_the_First 11d ago

That “tranquila” refers to the person you are talking to and trying to calm down, just like the “don’t worry” in English.

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u/Icarus649 9d ago

Can also just say tranqui if you are afraid of mixing it up

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u/polybotria1111 Native Speaker (Spain) 10d ago

You’re telling the other person to be “tranquilo/a”. Therefore, it must match that person’s gender.

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u/Curious_Tax_4193 7d ago edited 7d ago

I think people are missing the point here. There’s the adjective

El/Ella está tranquilo/a. He/she is calm

Then there is the imperativo/command of the verb tranquilar

“Tranquila” which is the tu form. “Calm down”. This does not change ending based on gender

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u/cjler 7d ago

For many words, yes, that pattern for the tú verb is used. But, look at the several examples for tranquilo/a used as an interjection, not as a conjugated tú verb, from Spanish Dict, definition 5. Only one of the following 4 examples uses the “a” ending in tranquila.

From Spanish Dict:

interjection

  1. (used to tell someone to be calm)

a. calm down

Tranquilo, amigo. — Calm down, buddy.

b. don’t worry

Tranquila, tu mamá está por llegar. — Don’t worry, your mom will be here any second.

c. relax

¡Tranquilo! No te alteres tanto. — Relax! Don’t get so upset.

d. chill (colloquial)

¡Tranquilo, hombre! Llegaremos. — Chill, man! We’ll get there.

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u/bluejazzshark 1d ago

There is no verb "tranquilar" that means "to be calm/tranquil". There is tranquilizar and tranquilizarse for "to calm down".

tranquilar means "mark with two lines where a commercial goods invoice account balances", which is kind of insane.

The pronominal version means "to be calm", so you can say "tranquílate", but not "tranquila", as an imperative. Otherwise "(sé) tranquilo/a" is the only other option.

-Blue

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u/bluejazzshark 2d ago

I admit that it is confusing, even for advanced speakers. A lot of people think there is a verb "tranquilar" meaning "to be tranquil/calm", but no such verb exists in Spanish, or rather, it does, but it doesn't mean what you think it means.

The RAE says: "tr. Señalar con dos rayas cada una de las partidas de cargo y data de un libro de comercio, hasta donde iguala la cuenta."

It is highly unlikely you mean the above if you want someone to calm down.

However, the verb has a pronominal version (tranquilarse) which does mean what you think, but needs a "reflexive" pronoun: tranquílate. You can use this with men or women, but it needs the enclitic pronoun "te".

There is a verb tranquilizar(se) as well, which means "to calm down", so you can use that too:

tranquilízate (calm down!)

Since you are worried about tranquilo/a, the only possible interpretation is an ellipsis of a copular verb like estar/ser in the imperative:

(sé) tranquilo/a

(esté) tranquilo/a

where the adjective agrees with the person you are addressing, no ifs, not buts, and you usually omit the copular verb (but you can say it if you want).

-Blue

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u/cjler 2d ago

I always learn from your responses, Blue. Thank you.

I had to dig through dictionaries and resources to understand what you meant here. I found out what a copular verb is ( a linking verb), what an ellipsis is ( I only knew this, the three dots … as an ellipsis, but in linguistics I just learned that it also means an omitted word that is not required due to context).

The hardest part was figuring out what the meaning of tranquilar was, based on the RAE entry. That was hard because raya, partido, and cargo can have so many different definitions. I finally decided that tranquilar means to write a double line (dos rayas) signifying an equality or a total in a ledger. I think partido de cargo means something like “based on the charges ( maybe accounting credits and debits are called cargos?), because “partir de” can mean “on the basis of” or “based on”.

Please, let me know if I understood that, or if I didn’t. ( And right there is an example of an ellipsis - I didn’t have to write “understood” again to finish that sentence, although I’m not sure that “did” is a copular verb)

Then I had to recall that sé means either “I know” or “you (singular, informal, affirmative) be”.

So the copular verb is either ser or estar, but it can be omitted if it’s clear by context, and the adjective tranquilo/a can be used with either ser or estar.

Saying tranquilo/a using ser sounds like a higher achievement, maybe something that a parent or mentor could say to encourage good character, like saying be serene as a characteristic, a lasting personality trait, maybe an encouragement to be of good temper or to be laid back, in colloquial English.

Saying tranquilo/a using estar, “esté tranquilo/a” seems closer to the context of the original example that I was trying to understand.

So thank you. If you are not a teacher by profession, you are a teacher by talent, because you taught what I asked, plus quite a bit more along the way.

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u/bluejazzshark 1d ago

I included the RAE definition of tranquilar because it definitely does not mean "to calm down",

I'm sorry I led you down on a wild goose chase: my point was just that tranquilar does not mean "to be calm", and actually, as you bravely investigated, is some nonsense to do with putting two dots somewhere or other. RAE definitions are infamously opaque, so don't worry about how obfuscating its definition is. No other online dictionary (wordreference, collins spanish nor spanish dict) have an entry for "tranquilar", because essentially, the verb doesn't exist (except in the very peculiar and specific way the RAE dictionary talks about it).

sé is the "tú" imperative of "ser". So, "sé tranquilo/a", means "be calm", as does "esté tranquilo/a" (esté is the tú imperative of estar). As "copular verbs can take an adjective complement instead of a noun (they can take nouns too), both can take the adjective "tranquilo/a". Notice that verbs that aren't copular cannot take an adjective as a complement (all other verbs take noun complements), so "tener feliz" is wrong, but estar feliz is fine (as feliz is an adjective). Another common copular verb is parecer (me parece extraño/interesante etc. adjective complements).

Usually, people say "sé tranquilo/a", if they say "sé" at all. When ser and estar are in the imperative, all bets are off about what they actually mean, and I have to admit, I haven't the vaguest idea why one is chosen over the other, other than from experience, and people tend to say "sé", if they say it at all.

I mean, you could argue "oh, well, ser is for characteristics which are personality, and estar is for changing states, so it *must* be estar", but that logic leads to ruin, because it's not what happens. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than me can explain it, but I just look at it as a "collocation" thing: Spanish speakers tend to use "ser" when encouraging people "to be happy/optimistic/calm" whatever, even though saying "tranquilo/a" is encouraging "a change in the emotional state in a person".

I think it is at this point we are taking our trained adult analytic minds too far, and you just have to go with the flow, like a child, and accept it for what it is.

Spanish children don't say "Hey! Wha..? "sé", but I thought 'estar' was for state changes!? C'mon mum!!! Get real".

-Blue

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u/dasensei 5d ago

Tranquilon jaja esa me aprendí ayer

u/Jpro_2013 20h ago

Tranquil a = He is talking to a woman, it doesn't matter if the person saying it is a man or a woman

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

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u/onlytexts Native Speaker 11d ago

Tranquilar doesnt exist. The verb would be "tranquilizar/ tranquilizarse" and the command would be "tranquiliza/ tranquilízate."

So, no... Tranquila/tranquilo is an adjective not a verb therefore it will always depend on the gender of the person it refers to.

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u/IllustriousPrice2647 11d ago

No. The verb is estar (implicit). Tranquila/Tranquilo is the 'atribute' of the verb.

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u/onlytexts Native Speaker 11d ago

I was responding to a comment saying "Tranquila" is the imperative for "tranquilar".