Bosnian to Mexican Spanish: plural address need not sound formal
A group of friends still takes ustedes
A Bosnian source addressing several people can be familiar or formal. Mexican Spanish does not reproduce the familiar-plural distinction through the same choice used in much of Spain. RAE and ASALE explain that throughout the Americas, ustedes addresses multiple listeners in both formal and informal interaction.
A message to several close Bosnian-speaking friends should therefore not be made artificially ceremonial merely because its Mexican Spanish target uses ustedes. The surrounding vocabulary and request style can remain friendly. Nor should a translator switch to vosotros merely to imitate the source’s familiar relationship.
Number still matters: ustedes addresses a group, while formal singular usted addresses one listener. A respectful source directed to one person should not become a group invitation simply because its original grammatical pattern has plural associations. Identify the actual audience before selecting the target personal construction.
Third-person grammar can still address the listener directly
The RAE account requires third-person agreement with usted and ustedes. That grammatical person does not identify an additional third participant. A Bosnian question to the listener and a statement about an absent colleague must remain distinct even when some target forms resemble each other.
The corresponding possessive su adds another potential ambiguity because it can refer to the listener’s or another person’s belongings. If the Bosnian source asks friends to bring a colleague’s item, keeping a plural target predicate does not establish who owns it. The ownership reference needs its own clear context.
The Bosnian specification distinguishes case and number across personal and nominal forms. Use those source clues to separate the addressees, the owner and the transferred object. A target that addresses the correct group can still assign the possession to the wrong people if every source possessive is reduced to an unsupported su.
A regional time word is not an exact appointment
ASALE’s Dictionary of Americanisms includes Mexico among the regions where ahorita can mean in a moment or later. That entry does not license treating the word as an unambiguous precise time. A Bosnian source specifying an exact meeting time should not be weakened into a vague regional expression merely to make the translation sound local.
If the source instead makes a casual promise to act shortly, a regional target can be appropriate when it preserves the intended looseness. The decision turns on the source commitment: an exact appointment, an immediate instruction and a flexible near-future intention are different messages.
This is relevant when an invitation combines audience and timing. Several friends may be addressed informally with ustedes, but that does not make a stated time informal or optional. A respectful singular request may likewise contain a precise deadline. Keep those dimensions independent rather than use one general idea of politeness to control the whole translation.
For this direction, identify the actual number of listeners, preserve direct address through coherent third-person agreement, and retain the source’s degree of temporal precision. Mexican usage provides legitimate target choices; it should not obscure the Bosnian message’s participants, ownership or promised time.
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