Una pregunta muy importante

November 15, 2007 6:35 PM

What is the appropriate way to ask one's future father-in-law for his blessing to propose to his daughter, in Spanish? (asking for blessing in Spanish, not proposing in Spanish). This is urgent.

Please help me help a good friend. Fast. Tonight.

A change in family travel plans for the holidays has my buddy accelerating his plans to propose by about a month. He wants to get his girlfriend's father's blessing before popping the question.

My friend speaks almost no Spanish, and Papa speaks almost no English. Mama speaks a tiny bit more English, but not much. I used to be near-fluent in Spanish when I studied in Spain, but that was a decade ago. I'm the go-between now, since Papa didn't seem to get the message from my buddy's short prepared speech. Despite our best attempts, I don't think we managed to break through the language barrier.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could tell us the appropriate way to ask for the dad's blessing. Is there a certain phrase or idiom used in Spanish other than "blessing" or "hand in marriage" etc.?

At the minimum, can someone provide accurate translation of "Mr. Smith, I would like your blessing/permission to ask your daughter to marry me"

If there's a better way to say it in Spanish, that would be great. Papa is from the Dominican Republic, if that affects dialect/local idiom at all.

Thanks.

posted by jewishbuddha to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

Best answer: "Me gustaría pedir la mano de su hija en matrimonio"

(I would like to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage)
posted by DrGirlfriend at 6:50 PM on November 15, 2007

(and there shouldn't be any local DR idioms that would apply, in my opinion. that's straightforward Spanish)
posted by DrGirlfriend at 6:51 PM on November 15, 2007

Best answer: Wow, here's a very explicit instructional page.

I don't know how much of that you can understand, so, the actual question from these instructions, after a lot of promises and thanks, is "pido a usted autorización para tomar a 'nombre de la novia' como esposa."

Before I googled for that page, I was thinking more like

"Senor Smith, yo amo a su hija mucho, y si me da su consentimiento, quisiera pedirla casarse conmigo."
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:08 PM on November 15, 2007

Best answer: Me gustaria pedir su bendigo a casar con su hija.
(I would like to ask your blessing to wed your daughter.)

Con su bendigo/permiso, quisiera casar con su hija.
(With your blessing/permission, I would like to marry your daughter.)
posted by thinkingwoman at 7:10 PM on November 15, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks all. I've passed on the info. Will report back.
posted by jewishbuddha at 7:15 PM on November 15, 2007

If I may.....

"pido a usted autorización para tomar a 'nombre de la novia' como esposa." sounds more like a business transaction, as you are asking for authorization to marry the girl (and authorization sounds as businesslike in spanish as it does in english)

Con su bendigo/permiso, quisiera casar con su hija. Bendigo should be conjugated as "bendición" in this context. And "casar" is conjugated as "casarme".
posted by DrGirlfriend at 7:18 PM on November 15, 2007

(One more thing: 'nombre de la novia' just means "girlfriend's name." So if her name's Maria, what you would actually say using Ambrosia Voyeur's first translation is "pido a usted autorización para tomar a Maria como esposa."

I'll leave the question of whether it sounds good up to those who speak the language better than I do. But that's how you'd say it.)
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:18 PM on November 15, 2007

I hope I'm not too late but you marked thinkingwoman's answer as a best answer and it has some errors.

"bendigo" is not the correct tense to use here.

I would suggest:

"Señor X, quisiera pedirle su bendición para casarme con x"
(Mister x, I'd like to ask your blessing to marry x."

Or

"Señor x, quisiera pedir la mano de x en matrimonio."
(mister x, I'd like to ask x's hand in marriage.) (Although in my opinion, "hand in marriage" seems too formal and traditional...but then again, some families are like that still.)

or, with a little more explanation:

"Señor x, quiero pedirle a x que se case conmigo, pero quisiera tener su bendición antes de hacerlo."
(mister x, I want to ask x to marry me, but I'd like to have your blessing first.)
posted by CrazyLemonade at 10:59 PM on November 15, 2007

Response by poster: engaged!

gracias
posted by jewishbuddha at 11:53 PM on November 15, 2007 [3 favorites]

Congrats!
posted by doorsfan at 6:18 AM on November 16, 2007

so how'd it go?
posted by canine epigram at 8:07 AM on November 16, 2007