The Imperative Mood

'Sit up straight and learn this!' Am I too strict? We have commands in Spanish, too. Spanish has three main groups of verbs:

1.  Indicative

2.  Subjunctive

3.  Imperative

The imperative mood refers to commands, used to order someone around or to tell them what to do. In Spanish, there are two forms to talk to you (singular): tú (familiar) and usted (polite). We also use ustedes (plural). In this lesson, we will talk about a specific conjugation for commands: the informal commands.

Conjugation of Affirmative Commands

To conjugate affirmative informal commands in Spanish we need to use the third person singular form of verbs in the present tense, as in lee, come, baila:

Verb / Stem / Endings
trabajar / trabaj- / -a
comer / com- / -e
vivir / viv- / -e

Note: irregular or stem-changing verbs carry their irregularity when they are conjugated as informal or formal commands. Also, keep in mind that although the subject pronoun for the informal commands is tú, it is not necessary when constructing a sentence, as in (tú) come, baila, juega, explora, busca, etc. Let's look at some examples of informal commands:

1. Hablar = habla

2. Leer = lee

3. Servir = sirve

4. Tomar = toma

5. Escoger = escoge

6. Mentir = miente

Some irregular verbs in formal commands that are commonly used are:

·  Decir = di

·  Hacer = haz

·  Ir = ve (same as in ver)

·  Poner = pon

·  Salir = sal

·  Ser = sé

·  Tener = ten

·  Venir = ven

Negative Informal Commands

For the negative informal commands we follow these steps:

1. Start with the word no.

2. For the command form, use the yo form of the present tense, drop the 'o' and add these endings:

Verb / Ending / Example
-ar / -es / no bailes
-er / -as / no comas
-ir / -as / no salgas