Is "síguenos" a real Spanish word?

Question

The word "síguenos" does not appear in most of the major online English-Spanish dictionaries that I use such as Spanishdict.com. I only found one entry about it in a texting dictionary.

The word looks like a conjugation of the verb "seguir" but it doesn't appear to be so officially! Even Wiktionary.org does not have this word.

When googling it I only can find it used in the context of Facebook and Twitter in posts requesting that people "follow us". When I type "follow us" in English using google translate "síguenos" is the Spanish output.

I am very confused. Is "síguenos" a slang or a made up word? Where does the word "síguenos" come from? Finally, are there other Spanish words like this?

Answer 1

Síguenos is a standard Spanish word. The verb seguir means “to follow.” Sigue is the affirmative tú command (second-person singular informal imperative) of seguir. Nos is a direct object pronoun that means “us.” With affirmative commands, pronouns are compounded with the imperative verb (that is, with the command). Therefore, síguenos means “follow us!” This appears frequently in social media contexts—for example, an advertisement for a business might say “¡Síguenos en Facebook, Instagram y Twitter!” (“Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!”)—which is probably why you could find it in a texting dictionary.

So why the accent with síguenos? Well, because sigue ends in a vowel, the accent lies on the second-to-last syllable, which is the same as the first syllable in this case. However, the rule is that if the word ends in a vowel, n, or s, the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable. Because siguenos (notice the lack of an accent) ends in an s, the stress would fall on the syllable gue. This, however, is incorrect, because whenever pronouns are compounded (as enclitics) with commands, participles, or infinitives, the stress must remain where it was originally without any attached pronoun. Therefore, the accent mark over the i in síguenos indicates that the stress should not be on the second-to-last syllable, but rather on the first syllable, where the stress was originally before the pronoun became attached to the command.

In short, the accent is added to keep the stress on the first syllable of siguenos after the pronoun is compounded with sigue, because otherwise the accent would fall on gue.

I recommend that you read about accent rules with pronouns and commands in Spanish here.

Answer 2

These are called pronombres personales átonos enclíticos and you can find an example on RAE's online dictionary.

Sigue is the 2nd person singular imperative for follow.

On the other hand, object pronouns such as me, te, se, lo, la, le, nos, os, los, las, les are called átonos in Spanish because the accent goes somewhere else, more precisely on the verb before, which they join in this case because it's in imperative mode.

This phenomenon's called enclisis and it also happens in other Romance languages, as Italian and Galician.

To sum up, síguenos it is an actual word and means "follow us", physically or online.

Answer 3

Sure! The verb is seguir + nos which is a direct object pronoun.

Yo te sigo.

I am following you.

Here is another one

El me sigue

He is following me.

In this example, seguir is an irregular verb: sigo, sigues, sigue, seguimos, seguís, siguen. The imperative is sigue.

síguenos

Follow us!

This sounds like Facebook. "Follow our page!"