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 or ella in the simple present (indicative):
Él habla / Él come / Él vive
He speaks / He eats / He lives
2. Drop él or ella:
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. We do sometimes add the name of the person we are talking to:
¡Habla, Pepe! (Speak, Pepe!)
¡Come, Pepe! (Eat, Pepe!)
¡Vive, Pepe! (Live, 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 (indicative):
tú hablas
2. Drop the subject pronoun 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) for the imperative, but we do sometimes add the name of the person we are talking to:
¡No hables, Pepe! (Don’t talk, Pepe!)
Verbs Ending in “Er” and “Ir”
1. Go to tú in the simple present (indicative):
tú comes
2. Drop the subject pronoun 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 for the imperative, but we do sometimes add the name of the person we are talking to:
¡No comas, Pepe! (Don’t eat, 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)
