Fairly simple English to Spanish translation. I need something that fits a graduation ceremony. See details please.?

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Hola, Earthling

You need a very formal way to say, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. The graduation ceremony is about to begin. Please take your seats. Thank you."

• You can simply say, "Buenas noches, señoras y señores. La ceremonia de graduación está a punto de comenzar/empezar. Por favor, tomen asiento. Muchas gracias."

• A little more emphatic: "Muy buenas noches, señoras y señores. La ceremonia de graduación está a punto de comenzar/empezar. Por favor, tomen asiento. Muchas gracias."

• A little more formal: "Muy buenas noches, damas y caballeros. La ceremonia de graduación está a punto de comenzar/empezar. Por favor, tomen asiento. Muchas gracias."

• In all these sentences you could replace "a punto de" with "por" (without losing formality) and say, for instance, "Muy buenas noches, damas y caballeros. La ceremonia de graduación está POR comenzar/empezar. Por favor, tomen asiento. Muchas gracias."

• Also correct: "Muy buenas noches, damas y caballeros. La ceremonia de graduación está por comenzar/empezar. Tomen asiento, por favor. Muchas gracias."

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As regards the rest of your alternatives:

1- "Buenas noches mujeres y hombres. La graduacion, blank.........Muchisimo gracias."

• "Mujeres y hombres" is not correct in this context. Besides, when appropriate, this phrase would be "hombres y mujeres". This is the fixed order, different from the one used in "señoras y señores" and "damas y caballeros".

• The word "graduación" takes a written accent on the "o".

• "Gracias" is a feminine plurar noun, so it needs a feminine plural adjective. Remember that in Spanish adjectives have to agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify.

Then, the correct expression is: "MuchÍsimAS gracias".

2- "Senores y senors" ✘

You seem to have corrected yourself: "señoras y señores" ✔

3- "Buenas noches, señoras y señores. La ceremonia de graduación está a punto de comenzar. Por favor tomen sus asientos. Muchas gracias." Is this passable?

Yes, it is. You're almost there. The usual expression is "Tomen asiento", rather than "Tomen sus asientos"

4- "Buenas noches, damas y caballeros. La ceremonia de graduación está a punto de comenzar. Por favor TOMAR ✘ sus asientos. Gracias." This doesn't sound very formal to me.

What makes a piece of discourse formal is the use of the formal 2nd person singular pronoun ("usted" instead of "tú"), with the consequent conjugated verb forms, and the choice of certain words.

In a graduation ceremony, you will be addressing many people, so the pronoun you'll use is fixed (I mean, there is no distinction between an informal and a formal 2nd person plural pronoun): "ustedes" (in Latin America) or "vosotros/as" (in Spain).

In your last sentence the problem is not informality, but the fact that the verb "tomar" is an infinitive, i.e., it isn't conjugated. This does not render the sentence less formal, but incorrect.

If you have any queries, please feel free to ask.

Saludos. ㋡

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