Formal and Informal Commands
Recall that in Spanish there are two ways to address people: formal and informal ways. The informal and singular form of you is tú and the informal and plural form of you is vosotros. The formal and singular form of you is usted and the formal and the plural form of you is ustedes, while there are some differences in use between Latin America and Spain. You may find further information about this topic in lesson subject pronouns.
Because of these formal and informal formulations, there are also two ways to construct imperatives. To be able to understand and use them you will need the knowledge of subjunctive mood. So, please review the related lessons before reading on.
Giving informal commands
Informal commands are used for tú (you, singular) and vosotros (you, plural). That means, they should be used to address people who you are familiar with.
As there are regular and irregular verbs, the way to form the imperative depends on whether the verb is regular or irregular.
Regular verbs
To be able to construct commands with regular verbs, all you need to know is how the present indicative tense functions. Because the “tú form” of the informal commands with the regular verbs are formed using the third person singular form of the present indicative. Remember, for example the conjugation of hablar in the present tense:
Yo hablo
Tú hablas
él/ella/usted habla
nosotros/nosotras hablamos
vosotros/vosotras habláis
ellos/ellas/ustedes hablan
Since the third person singular is “habla”, when giving command to a single person who you are familiar with, you use
habla (tú) ... speak
If you want to make a negative command, simply put the word “no” in front of the verb and use the present subjunctive of the verb:
No hables (tú) ... do not speak
In order to form the familiar imperative for the “vosotros” form, take the infinitive of the verb and change the final “r” to “d”:
hablad (vosotros) ... speak
Again, the negative is formed using the present subjunctive:
No habléis (vosotros) ... do not speak
The imperative forms for the “-er” and “-ir” verbs follow the same logic:
For comer
Come (tú) ...eat
Comed (vosotros) ... eat
No comas (tú) ... do not eat
No comáis (vosotros) ... do not eat
For vivir
vive (tú) ...live
vivid (vosotros) ... live
No vivas (tú) ... do not live
No viváis (vosotros) ... do not live
As you from the above examples, the subject pronoun is placed after the verb.
Irregular commands
A list of the essential verbs which have irregular imperatives is provided in the vocabulary section below.
Giving formal commands
Formal commands are used for usted (you, singular) and ustedes (you, plural). That means, they should be used to address people who you are not familiar with.
The formal commands are formed by using the present subjunctive. For the usted form, use the present subjunctive conjugation of the verb in the third person singular. For the ustedes form, use the present subjunctive formulation of the third person plural.
Hable (usted) speak
Hablen (ustedes) speak
The negative formal commands are formed by simply putting the word “no” in front of the verb:
No hable (usted) do not speak
No hablen (ustedes) do not speak
The imperative forms for the “-er” and “-ir” verbs follow the same logic:
For comer
coma (usted) ...eat
coman (ustedes) ... eat
No coma (usted) ... do not eat
No coman (ustedes) ... do not eat
For vivir
viva (usted) ...live
vivan (ustedes) ... live
No viva (usted) ... do not live
No vivan (ustedes) ... do not live
Vocabulary
Learn the verbs which have irregular familiar imperatives.
ser / sé / sed (to be)
tener / ten / tened (to have)
hacer / haz / haced (to make, to do)
poner / pon / poned (to put)
ir / ve / id (to go)
decir / di / decid (to say)
salir / sal / salid (to leave)
venir /ven /venid (to come)