Volitional decoupled from 1st person

[TheNikus]

Without much of an introduction, let me ask if I'm using the volitional correctly here.

俺がその気を逸らす間お前ら二人は家の内を探そう。
You two search the house while I distract them.

 

[gengo]

俺がその気を逸らす間お前ら二人は家の内を探そう。
You two search the house while I distract them.

That sounds odd to me. The English is the imperative form, and I think it should be the same in Japanese (or the dictionary form, which implies a command here).

俺が彼らの気をそらしている間、お前ら(二人)は家の内を探せ。
俺が彼らの気をそらしている間、お前ら(二人)は家の内を探して。
俺が彼らの気をそらしている間、お前ら(二人)は家の内を探す。
俺が彼らの気をそらしている間、お前ら(二人)は家の内を探すんだ。
etc.

The first one seems to me to be the best fit because of the pronouns you chose.　Also, I don't think the "二人" is necessary, since the two listeners know how many they are. It sounds very natural in English, but isn't really required in Japanese.

 

[TheNikus]

That sounds odd to me. The English is the imperative form, and I think it should be the same in Japanese (or the dictionary form, which implies a command here).

俺が彼らの気をそらしている間、お前ら(二人)は家の内を探せ。

Thank you for your answer. I thought that I might end up using the imperative. Also, I included the 二人 because the context requires specifying two people.

I see that you switched out my その for 彼らの. I noticed that その is sometimes used to mean his/her/its/their, if I understood correctly. I tried using it here to avoid an excess of pronouns, but I also have a feeling that this use of その is somewhat archaic?

 

[SoLaTiDoberman]

俺がやつらの気をそらしておくから、お前ら二人で家の中を探してくれ。

 

[Joschl]

As Gengo-san said, the so-called dictionary form "V-(r)u" can also be used to express imperative mood in some situations. But "俺が彼らの気をそらしている間、お前ら(二人)は家の内を探す。" doesn't sound as natural as a German sentence like "Ihr beide durchsucht die Wohnung/das Haus, während ich sie ablenke". that can be used to give instructions (eine Anweisung). If you want to use the dictionary form "V-(r)u" to give instructions, for whatever reason, you can also use constructions, such as "V-(r)u koto" or "V-(r)u yō ni".
"[…], お前ら(二人)は家の内を探すこと。"
"[…], お前ら(二人)は家の内を探すように。"

 

[TheNikus]

Thank you all.