The Spanish Imperative: How to Form Commands, with Examples
The imperative is how you tell someone to do something in Spanish: close the door, turn left, call me tonight. What makes it feel tricky is that the form changes with two things at once, who you are talking to (informal tú, formal usted, a group, or a "let's") and whether the command is positive or negative. This guide lays out every form with clear tables, shows the eight irregular verbs you have to memorize, explains exactly where the pronouns go, and gives you real sentences to say out loud.
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What the imperative is for
The imperative is the mood you use to tell someone to do something: give an instruction, make a request, offer advice, or give an order. Spanish builds these commands differently depending on two choices, and once you see how those two choices drive the forms, the whole system falls into place. The first choice is who you are addressing: informal tú, formal usted, a group with ustedes, informal plural vosotros in Spain, or the "let's" nosotros. The second choice is whether the command is affirmative ("do it") or negative ("do not do it").
Learn tú, usted, and ustedes first, since they cover the vast majority of real situations, then add nosotros and vosotros. In most of Latin America vosotros is not used at all, and ustedes serves as the plural you whether the setting is formal or casual. In most of Spain, vosotros is the everyday informal plural. Whichever region you are aiming for, the singular forms are the same, so nothing below is wasted effort.
Informal commands: tú
The tú command is the one you reach for most with friends, family, children, and anyone you are on casual terms with. Affirmative and negative are built two different ways, which trips up a lot of learners, so keep them separate in your head from the start.
Affirmative tú is the easy half: take the ordinary present tense and use the él/ella form. Whatever "he speaks" is, that is also "speak (you)". So hablar gives habla, comer gives come, escribir gives escribe.
Negative tú does not use that form at all. It uses the present subjunctive ending: an -ar verb flips to -es, and an -er or -ir verb flips to -as, always after no. So habla becomes no hables, come becomes no comas, escribe becomes no escribas.
The eight irregular affirmative tú commands
Eight very common verbs have short, irregular affirmative tú commands that you simply memorize. The good news is that they are all one syllable and belong to verbs you use constantly, so they stick fast.
| Verb | Command (tú) | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| decir | di | Di la verdad. | Tell the truth. |
| hacer | haz | Haz tu tarea. | Do your homework. |
| ir | ve | Ve a casa. | Go home. |
| poner | pon | Pon la mesa. | Set the table. |
| salir | sal | Sal de aquí. | Get out of here. |
| ser | sé | Sé bueno. | Be good. |
| tener | ten | Ten cuidado. | Be careful. |
| venir | ven | Ven aquí. | Come here. |
These irregular shapes are affirmative only. As soon as you make the command negative, the verb returns to a regular subjunctive form: no digas, no hagas, no vayas, no pongas, no salgas, no seas, no tengas, no vengas. So the shortcut is worth memorizing precisely because it does not carry over, and the negatives behave predictably.
Formal commands: usted and ustedes
For formal address, both the affirmative and the negative use the present subjunctive, which makes usted and ustedes the most consistent commands of all. There is no separate positive form to learn: hable is both "speak" and, with no in front, "do not speak".
| Verb | Usted + | Usted − | Ustedes + | Ustedes − |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hablar | hable | no hable | hablen | no hablen |
| comer | coma | no coma | coman | no coman |
| vivir | viva | no viva | vivan | no vivan |
To get the stem reliably, even for irregular verbs, start from the yo form of the present tense, drop the -o, and add the opposite-vowel ending. Hago gives haga and hagan, digo gives diga and digan, tengo gives tenga and tengan, vengo gives venga and vengan. This one trick carries most irregular verbs into their command forms automatically, so you do not need a separate list of irregular formal commands.
Let's commands: nosotros
To say "let's do something", Spanish uses the nosotros form of the present subjunctive for both affirmative and negative.
| Verb | Affirmative | Negative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| hablar | hablemos | no hablemos | let's (not) speak |
| comer | comamos | no comamos | let's (not) eat |
| vivir | vivamos | no vivamos | let's (not) live |
Two things to note. First, "let's go" is the odd one out: the affirmative is vamos, not the expected vayamos, though the negative goes back to the regular no vayamos. Second, you can also express "let's" with vamos a plus an infinitive, so vamos a comer means the same as comamos and is more common in casual speech.
Informal plural commands: vosotros
In Spain, the informal plural you is vosotros, and it has its own commands. The affirmative is the simplest form in the whole system: take the infinitive and change the final -r to -d.
| Verb | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| hablar | hablad | no habléis |
| comer | comed | no comáis |
| vivir | vivid | no viváis |
The negative uses the vosotros present subjunctive: no habléis, no comáis, no viváis. One quirk is worth knowing: when you attach the reflexive os to an affirmative vosotros command, the -d drops out. Sentad plus os becomes sentaos (sit down), levantad plus os becomes levantaos (get up). If you are learning Latin American Spanish, you can skip vosotros entirely and use ustedes for every plural.
Where object and reflexive pronouns go
This is the detail that most often marks a command as fluent or clumsy, and the rule is clean once you learn it.
- Affirmative commands: the pronoun attaches to the end of the verb, written as a single word. Dime (tell me), dímelo (tell it to me), levántate (get up), siéntese (sit down, formal), cómelo (eat it).
- Negative commands: the pronoun goes in front of the verb, as a separate word. No me digas (do not tell me), no me lo digas (do not tell it to me), no te levantes (do not get up), no se siente (do not sit down, formal), no lo comas (do not eat it).
When you attach a pronoun to an affirmative command, the stress does not move, so you usually add a written accent to keep it on the original syllable. Come is stressed on co, and tacking on -lo would pull the ear toward the new ending, so you write cómelo. Say the verb first, then bolt the pronoun on without shifting where you push: dí-me-lo, siénte-se, levánta-te.
When there are two pronouns, the indirect object comes before the direct one, the same order as in a normal sentence: me lo, te lo, se lo. In an affirmative command they stack onto the verb in that order (dámelo, give it to me), and in a negative command they sit in front in that order (no me lo des, do not give it to me).
Spelling changes to watch
Because negative tú, all usted and ustedes forms, and nosotros commands come from the subjunctive, verbs ending in -car, -gar, and -zar change their spelling to keep the same sound before the new -e vowel.
| Ending | Change | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -car | c to qu | buscar → busque, no busques |
| -gar | g to gu | llegar → llegue, no llegues |
| -zar | z to c | empezar → empiece, no empieces |
Stem-changing verbs keep their stem change in commands wherever the stress lands on it. Pensar gives piensa (tú) and piense (usted); dormir gives duerme and duerma; pedir gives pide and pida. Say them out loud and the change sounds natural, which is really the point of these spelling rules: the written form is only chasing the sound your mouth already wants to make.
All the forms at a glance
Here are the three model verbs, one for each ending, laid out across every person. Read the negative column next to the affirmative and the pattern is obvious: everything except the affirmative tú and affirmative vosotros comes straight from the subjunctive.
| Person | hablar + | hablar − | comer + | comer − | vivir + | vivir − |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tú | habla | no hables | come | no comas | vive | no vivas |
| usted | hable | no hable | coma | no coma | viva | no viva |
| nosotros | hablemos | no hablemos | comamos | no comamos | vivamos | no vivamos |
| vosotros | hablad | no habléis | comed | no comáis | vivid | no viváis |
| ustedes | hablen | no hablen | coman | no coman | vivan | no vivan |
Examples you can say out loud
A few more across the different persons and with pronouns attached, so you can hear how the pieces fit together:
- Using the infinitive as a command. "Cerrar la puerta" is not a command to a person; the tú command is Cierra la puerta. (Infinitives do appear on impersonal signs, as in No fumar, no smoking.)
- Reusing the affirmative form when the command turns negative. It is no hables, not "no habla", and no comas, not "no come".
- Forgetting the accent when a pronoun is attached. Come plus lo is cómelo, and di plus me plus lo is dímelo, not "dimelo".
- Putting the pronoun in the wrong place. It attaches after an affirmative command (levántate) but goes before a negative one (no te levantes).
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Frequently asked questions
How do you form affirmative tú commands in Spanish?
For most verbs, the affirmative tú command is the same as the él/ella present indicative form. Hablar gives habla, comer gives come, escribir gives escribe. Eight common verbs are irregular and must be memorized: di (decir), haz (hacer), ve (ir), pon (poner), sal (salir), sé (ser), ten (tener), and ven (venir). These irregulars are affirmative only; their negatives are regular subjunctive forms like no digas and no hagas.
How do you form negative commands in Spanish?
Negative commands use no plus the present subjunctive. For tú, an -ar verb takes -es and an -er or -ir verb takes -as, so habla becomes no hables and come becomes no comas. Usted, nosotros, and vosotros all use their matching subjunctive forms: no hable, no hablemos, no habléis. The key point is that affirmative and negative tú commands are built two different ways.
Where do object and reflexive pronouns go in Spanish commands?
In affirmative commands, pronouns attach to the end of the verb as one word, usually with an added written accent to keep the stress: dime, dímelo, levántate, cómelo. In negative commands, the pronouns go in front of the verb as separate words: no me digas, no me lo digas, no te levantes, no lo comas. When there are two pronouns, the indirect object comes before the direct object in both positions.
What are the 8 irregular tú commands in Spanish?
The eight irregular affirmative tú commands are di (decir, say), haz (hacer, do or make), ve (ir, go), pon (poner, put), sal (salir, leave), sé (ser, be), ten (tener, have), and ven (venir, come). They are all one syllable and belong to very common verbs. Their negative forms are regular subjunctives: no digas, no hagas, no vayas, no pongas, no salgas, no seas, no tengas, no vengas.
How do I form a command for 'vosotros'?
For the affirmative vosotros command, take the infinitive and change the final -r to -d: hablar becomes hablad, comer becomes comed, escribir becomes escribid. The negative uses the vosotros present subjunctive: no habléis, no comáis, no escribáis. When you add the reflexive os to an affirmative form, the -d drops: sentaos, levantaos. In Latin America vosotros is not used, so ustedes covers every plural you.
What is the difference between tú and usted commands?
Tú commands are informal, for friends, family, and children. The affirmative tú comes from the él/ella present form (habla) and the negative from the subjunctive (no hables), so the two are built differently. Usted commands are formal, for strangers, elders, and professional settings, and both the affirmative and negative use the present subjunctive, so there is only one form to learn: hable and no hable.