Hey guys, did you know that in Spanish, there are two ways to give direct commands to a friend you have in front of you (tú)?
You can tell someone to do something using the affirmative form, like “do this,” or the negative form, like “don’t do that.”
It’s called the imperative mood.
THE AFFIRMATIVE
To form the affirmative imperative for tú in Spanish, you need to follow these steps:
1. Go to él in the simple present:
Él habla / Él come / Él vive
He speaks / He eats / He lives
2. Drop él:
Habla / Come / Vive
3. And that’s all! We usually add exclamation marks:
¡Habla! (Speak!)
¡Come! (Eat!)
¡Vive! (Live!)
4. We usually don’t add the subject pronoun (tú) for the imperative, but we do sometimes add the name of the person we are talking to and more info:
¡Habla español, Pepe! (Speak Spanish, Pepe!)
¡Come más verduras, Pepe! (Eat more vegetables, Pepe!)
¡Vive tu vida, Pepe! (Live your life, Pepe!)
THE NEGATIVE
To form the negative imperative for tú in Spanish, you must do the following:
Verbs Ending in “Ar”
1. Go to tú in the simple present:
tú hablas
2. Drop tú and the ending:
habl
3. Add no and es:
¡No hables! (Don’t talk!)
4. As with the affirmative, we usually don’t add the subject pronoun (tú), but we do sometimes add the name of the person we are talking to and more info:
¡No hables inglés conmigo, Pepe! (Don’t speak English with me, Pepe!)
Verbs Ending in “Er” and “Ir”
1. Go to tú in the simple present:
tú comes
2. Drop tú and the ending:
com
3. Add no and as:
¡No comas! (Don’t eat!)
4. As with the affirmative, we usually don’t add the subject pronoun, but we do sometimes add the name of the person we are talking to and more info:
¡No comas más pizza, Pepe! (Don’t eat more pizza, Pepe!)
And now, let’s play!
GAME 1
GAME 2
To learn how it works with non-regular verbs, check these links:
1. The Imperative with Tú (Stem-Changing Verbs) (COMING SOON)
2. The Imperative with Tú (Special Irregular Verbs) (COMING SOON)
