A2 · Elementary

The affirmative imperative

Giving orders and requests: separate forms for tú, vosotros and usted/ustedes.

Tú: use the he/she form of the present

For regular verbs, you form the tú affirmative imperative by taking the él/ella/usted form of the present tense — without the -s you'd normally expect for tú in the present.

  • hablar → él habla → ¡Habla!
  • comer → él come → ¡Come!
  • escribir → él escribe → ¡Escribe!
InfinitivoTú (presente, él)Imperativo tú
hablarhabla¡Habla!
comercome¡Come!
escribirescribe¡Escribe!
cerrarcierra¡Cierra!

Examples

¡Habla más despacio, por favor!Speak more slowly, please!
¡Come todas las verduras!Eat all your vegetables!
¡Cierra la puerta, hace frío!Close the door, it's cold!

Vosotros: infinitive minus -r plus -d

For vosotros (used only in Spain) you replace the final -r of the infinitive with a -d. This form is always regular, even for verbs that are otherwise irregular.

  • hablar → hablad
  • comer → comed
  • venir → venid

Examples

¡Hablad más bajo, por favor!Speak more quietly, please!
¡Comed antes de que se enfríe!Eat before it gets cold!
¡Venid a mi casa esta tarde!Come to my place this afternoon!

Usted/ustedes: the subjunctive form

For usted and ustedes (the polite/formal form of address) you use the present subjunctive form: -ar verbs get an ending in -e, -er/-ir verbs get an ending in -a — exactly the reverse of the normal present tense endings.

InfinitivoUstedUstedes
hablarhablehablen
comercomacoman
escribirescribaescriban
venirvengavengan

Examples

Por favor, hable más despacio.Please speak more slowly.
Coman con confianza, hay mucha comida.Go ahead and eat, there's plenty of food.
Vengan por aquí, por favor.Come this way, please.

Irregular tú forms

A small group of common verbs has a fully irregular, short tú form that you simply need to memorize:

  • decir → di
  • hacer → haz
  • ir → ve
  • poner → pon
  • salir → sal
  • ser → sé
  • tener → ten
  • venir → ven

Examples

¡Di la verdad!Tell the truth!
¡Haz la cama antes de salir!Make your bed before you leave!
¡Ve a la tienda y compra pan!Go to the shop and buy bread!
¡Ten cuidado con el escalón!Watch out for the step!

Attaching pronouns

In the affirmative imperative, pronouns (reflexive, indirect, direct) are always attached after the verb, forming one word. With two pronouns, the indirect object comes before the direct object (as always): di-me-lo → dímelo.

Adding syllables often shifts the stress — that's why the form almost always gets a written accent to keep the original stress in place.

Examples

¡Levántate, es tarde!Get up, it's late!
Cuéntame el secreto.Tell me the secret.
¡Dímelo ahora mismo!Tell it to me right now!
Cómpraselo a tu hermana.Buy it for your sister.

💡 Tips

💡
Mnemonic for the eight irregular tú forms: 'Di, haz, ve, pon, sal, sé, ten, ven' — say it like a short chant, it almost rhymes on its own.
💡
Don't confuse *ve* (from ir, go) with *ve* (from ver, he/she sees) — in the imperative it always means 'go!'.
💡
Reflexive verbs in vosotros drop the -d before -os: levantad + os → **levantaos** (not levantados).

🎯 Practise this topic with 10 interactive exercises (10)

🔧 Verbs: Imperative

Related grammar

The regular preterite (pretérito indefinido)
The past tense for completed events: regular -ar, -er and -ir forms.
The irregular preterite (pretérito indefinido)
The most common verbs are irregular in the indefinido: ser/ir, tener, hacer, decir and more.
The imperfect past (pretérito imperfecto)
The past tense for habits, descriptions and background — almost always regular.
Indefinido versus imperfecto
Two past tenses, one choice: what happened (indefinido) versus what the situation was (imperfecto)?

← The simple conditional (condicional simple)The negative imperative →

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