El imperativo

When we give orders or tell people what to do, we use the IMPERATIVO, also known as commands. As always, the imperative in English is very easy: eat your vegetables, don't eat your vegetables. That works for singular and plural, formal and informal. In Spanish, of course, we have a different story.

The imperativo in Spanish can be:

singular = talking to one individual

informal = or tú commands

formal = usted commands

plural = talking to more than one individual

positivo = or affirmative commands, when the word "no" is not included in the phrase

negativo = or negative commands, when the word "no" is included in the phrase

 

On chapter 11, we have the familiar imperative (tú), affirmative and negative.

First, you have to remember what a raíz (root, actually) or stem is. When you have a verb in the infinitive form, take the ending (-ar, -er, -ir) away and what is left is the stem. Examples:

 

English	Spanish -infinitivo (infinitive)	Spanish- raíz (stem)
to talk	hablar	habl
to eat	comer	com
to write	escribir	escrib
to love	amar	am

 

To form the affirmative or positive tú imperative: take the stem (or raíz) of the verb and add -a to the -ar verbs and -e to the -er and -ir verbs.

English	Infinitive	Imperative	Example
Talk to her.	hablar	habla	Habla con ella.
Eat your food.	comer	come	Come tu comida.
Write in Spanish.	escribir	escribe	Escribe en español.
Love your family.	amar	ama	Ama a tu familia.

 

To form the negative tú imperative: take the stem of the verb and add -es to the -ar verbs and -as to the -er and -ir verbs.

 

English	Infinitive	Imperative	Example
Don't talk to her.	hablar	hables	No hables con ella.
Don't eat too much.	comer	comas	No comas mucho.
Don't write your name.	escribir	escribas	No escribas tu nombre.
Don't hate anybody.	odiar	odies	No odies a nadie.

 

 

The reflexive pronouns as well as the direct and indirect object pronouns are always attached at the end of the possitive commands, but they in front of the negative commands. Examples:

 

English	Infinitive	Imperative (+)	Imperative (-)
Take a shower	ducharse	Dúchate.	No te duches.
Wash your hands	lavarse	Lávate las manos.	No te laves las manos.
Wash them. (your hands)	lavarse	Lávatelas.	No te las laves.

 

Most irregular verbs in the present tense, keep their irregularity in the imperative. Take the yo form and then erase the -o. Next, add the corresponding ending.

 

English	Infinitive	yo (present)	Imperative (+)	Imperative (-)
to ask for	pedir	pido	pide	no pidas
to return	volver	vuelvo	vuelve	no vuelvas
to sleep	dormir	duermo	duerme	no duermas
to get dress	vestirse	me visto	vístete	no te vistas

 

There are a few irregular ones that don't follow this rule. They are some of the most used verbs. Note: estar is used more in the negative imperative than the affirmative, but when we need to use it in the affirmative we change it to the reflexive estar (estarse). Saber is in a similar situation, but "sabe" is not as rare as "está."

 

English	Infinitive	yo (present)	Imperative (+)	Imperative (-)
to give	dar	doy	da	no des
to tell, to say	decir	digo	di	no digas
to be	estar	estoy	está / estáte	no estés
to do, to make	hacer	hago	haz	no hagas
to go	ir	voy	ve	no vayas
to hear	oír	oigo	oye	no oigas
to put	poner	pongo	pon	no pongas
to know	saber	sé	sabe /sábete	no sepas
to go out	salir	salgo	sal	no salgas
to be	ser	soy	sé	no seas
to have	tener	tengo	ten	no tengas
to carry, to bring	traer	traigo	trae	no traigas
to come	venir	vengo	ven	no vengas
to see	ver	veo	ve	no veas

 

 

Verbs that end with -car, -cir, -gar, and -zar have to keep the soud of c as /k/ or /s/, the soft sound of g, and the /s/ sound of z. Therefore we have a few spelling changes in the negative imperative:

 

English	Infinitive	Imperative (+)	Imperative (-)
to translate	traducir	traduce	no traduzcas
to drive, conduct	conducir	conduce	no conduzcas
to know	conocer	conoce	no conozcas
to take, take out	sacar	saca	no saques
to upload, to lift	cargar	carga	no cargues
to download	descargar	descarga	no descargues
to have lunch	almorzar	almuerza	no almuerces
to arrive	llegar	llega	no llegues
to pay for	pagar	paga	no pagues

 

There are some -ir verbs in which the letter i is in between two vowels in the negative imperative. In those cases, the i changes to y. Note: this is a rule in Spanish, when "i" in between two vowels, it has to change to y.

Examples: construír (to build) = construye, no construyas; destruír (to destroy) = destruye, no destruyas.

 

Try to solve the puzzle by writing the affirmative (or positive) imperative of each verb.

  

 

These are flash cards with the infinitive and the imperative of some of the verbs from chapter 11.

  

 

Sort the words by categories --infinitive, imperative, etc.

  

 

Match the positive imperative with the infinitive.

  

 

Practice the positive imperative. 

 

Check if you know the negative forms.

 

Write the negative: duérmete

 

Write the negative: cómpramelos

 

The following is just for future reference. You don't have to know it now.

The usted and ustedes forms of the imperative are easier that the tú form. The most difficult one --even for Latin American Spanish native speakers-- is vosotros.

 

Usted = take the negative imperative and erase the s.

Infinitivo	Imperativo (+) -usted	Imperativo (-) -usted
caminar	camine	no camine
comer	coma	no coma
hacer	haga	no haga
ser	sea	no sea
salir	salga	no salga

 

Ustedes = take the usted form and add an n.

Infinitivo	Imperativo (+) -ustedes	Imperativo (-) -ustedes
caminar	caminen	no caminen
comer	coman	no coman
hacer	hagan	no hagan
ser	sean	no sean
salir	salgan	no salgan

 

Nosotros = let us do something. Take the stem of the verb and add -amos.

Infinitivo	Imperativo (+) -nosotros	Imperativo (-) -nosotros
caminar	caminemos	no caminemos
comer	comamos	no comamos
hacer	hagamos	no hagamos
ser	seamos	no seamos
salir	salgamos	no salgamos

 

Vosotros = you don't have to know it, but out curiosity here it is. Take the stem of the verb and -ad to -ar verbs, -ed to -er verbs, and -id to -ir verbs for the positive form. Take the stem and add -éis to -ar verbs and -áis to -er and -ir verbs.

Infinitivo	Imperativo (+) -vosotros	Imperativo (-) -vosotros
caminar	caminad	no caminéis
comer	comed	no comáis
hacer	haced	no hagáis
ser	sed	no seáis
salir	salid	no salgáis

 

Nota: the Bible and the traditional mass in Spanish use vosotros. So you will read: amaos los unos a los otros (love each other), comed y bebed (eat and drink), tomad (take), etc.

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