Spanish Commands: The

Imperative Mood Made

Simple
Adrian in Basic Grammar
The Imperative (imperativo) is used in Spanish to give suggestions,
commands or orders in a direct way. The imperative is known as a mood
(rather than tense) because it is used to express a want or desire, and always
refers to the exact moment in which it is used.
If you ever visit a Spanish speaking country, then will notice the imperative
being used from the moment you arrive.

For example:

¡Alto! / ¡Detengase! / ¡Pare!-  Stop!

¡Empuje! – Push!
¡No corra! – Do not run!
¡No fume! – Do not smoke!
¡No estacione aquí! – Do not park here!

In addition to commands, it can also be used to offer an invitation, give

permission, or make an apology.

¡Ven a mi casa! – Come to my house!

¡Entra! – Come in!
¡Perdoname! – Forgive me!

Recommended: How to Learn Spanish Fast in 2023

In certain scenarios (e.g. speaking to a stranger.), the imperative may seem

overly direct, and sometimes the speaker will opt to use a polite alternative
such as the conditional tense, or “can you + infinitive verb?” (present tense
question), or simply by preceding the imperative with “please”.

For example, here are four different ways to ask someone to close to the
door:

1. ¡Cierra la puerta! – Close the door! (Imperative)

2. Por favor, ¡cierra la puerta! – Please, close the door! (Polite imperative)
3. ¿Podrías por favor cerrar la puerta? – Would you please close the door?
(Conditional question)
4. ¿Puedes cerrar la puerta? – Can you close the door? (Present tense
question)

Below are common examples of the imperative being replaced with more
polite alternatives.

(As you will see, some sentences are perfectly fine in the imperative, and
don’t need to be changed.)
 Commands in Spanish: The Imperative Mood Explained

Imperative Polite Alternative

Puedes dejarme pagar? – Can you

let me pay?
Déjame pagar – Let me pay
(Indicative is used here)

Vayamos a comer algo – Let’s ¿Podríamos ir a comer algo? – Could

eat something we go to eat something?
 (Conditional is used here)

Por favor, come tus vegetales –

Please, eat your greens
Come tus vegetales – Eat your
greens
(please + imperative)

¿Podrían hablar de sus planes? –

Could you talk about your plans?
Hablen sobre sus planes – Talk
about your plans
(Conditional is used here)

¿Podemos tomar un café? – Can we

have a coffee
Tomemos un café – Let’s have
a coffee
(Indicative is used here)

Ten algo de paciencia – Have Por favor, ten algo de paciencia –

some patience Please, have some patience
 (please + imperative)

¿Podrías hacer el esfuerzo? – Could

you make the effort
Haz el esfuerzo – Make the
effort
(Conditional is used here)

¡Por favor, no digas nada! – Please,

don’t say anything
¡No digas nada! – Don’t say
anything!
(please + imperative)

Por favor, no escuchen música con

tanto volumen – Please, don’t listen
No escuchen música con tanto
to music so loud
volumen – Don’t listen to
music so loud
(please + imperative)

Compra algo para cenar – Buy Por favor, compra algo para cenar –
something for dinner Please, buy something for dinner
 (please + imperative)

While it’s handy to know that you can use polite alternatives, right now, we
are going to concentrate on learning how to use the imperative mood.

Forming Commands In Spanish

The imperative can be used both in single and plural forms.

You’ll notice that are four forms of the imperative.

Tú You

Usted You (formal)

Nosotros We

Ustedes You (plural)

The imperative is not used to give commands in the 3rd person, which is
why we don’t conjugate in él, ella, ellos or ellas. In other words, you can only
use this mood to give direct orders.

The nosotros (we) form is used when the speaker suggests completing an
action by a group of people that he or she belongs to. Rather than being a
direct command, the nosotros form can be interpreted as the equivalent of
how we use “let’s” in English.

For example:

Vayamos al cine – Let’s go to the cinema

Vayamos a comer – Let’s go to eat

For more on using this Spanish “let’s + infinitive” form, check out our
detailed post on nosotros commands.
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How To Conjugate The Imperative
Before explaining how to conjugate the imperative mood for regular and
irregular verbs, it is important to understand how to treat the personal
pronoun tú.

The imperative tú form will change its grammatical structure depending on

whether the command is affirmative (go!), or negative (don’t go!).

The conjugation for affirmative tú commands uses the same structure that
you would use for the third person (él/ella) in the simple present, which
makes it a little easier to remember if you’ve already covered that tense.

Affirmative imperative: ¡Entra! (Enter!)

But if we use it as a negative, it will take the form: No + present subjunctive.

Negative imperative: ¡No entres! (Don’t enter!)

Don’t worry, there’s no need to learn the subjunctive in order to use the
imperative.

Remember this tip when conjugating the tú pronoun.

Tip: The vowels between -AR and -ER/-IR verbs will swap when switching
from affirmative to negative.

Verb Affirmative Negative

Verb Example Examp
type (tú) (tú)

Llamar
(Tú) (Tú) no
-AR (to a es
Llama llames
call)

- Comer
(Tú) (Tú) no
ER/- (to e as
Come comas
IR eat)

Now that you know how to conjugate the tú pronoun, you can easily
memorize endings for the other pronouns when dealing with regular and
irregular verbs in the imperative.

Regular -AR Verbs

Verb Tú Usted Ustedes Nosotros

Trabajar
Trabaja/No
Trabaje Trabajen Trabajemos
(to work) trabajes

Viajar

Viaja/No
 (to Viaje Viajen Viajemos
viajes
travel)

Pintar
Pinta/No
Pinte Pinten Pintemos
(to paint) pintes

Preguntar

(to Pregunta/No
Pregunte Pregunten Preguntemo
question preguntes
/ to ask)
 

Regular -ER and -IR Verbs

Verb
Tú Usted Ustedes Nosotros

Beber
Bebe/No
Beba Beban Bebamos
(to drink) bebas

Responder

(to Responde/No
Responda Respondan Respondam
respond / Respondas
to answer)

Permitir
Permite/No
Tenga Permitan Permitamo
(to permit) permitas
 Recibir

Recibe/No
(to Salga Reciban Recibamos
recibas
receive)

Irregular Verbs In The Imperative Mood

As always, there are some irregular verbs which don’t follow the regular
rules.

Here is a list of the most commonly used irregular verbs, and their
conjugations in the imperative.

Tú

Verb Tú Usted Ustedes Nosotros

(negative)

Ser (to Se No seas Sea Sean Seamos

be)

Poner (to No
Pon Ponga Pongan Pongamos
put) pongas

Tener (to No
Ten Tenga Tengan Tengamos
have) tengas

Salir (to
Sal No salgas Salga Salgan Salgamos
leave)

Venir (to No
Ven Venga Vengan Vengamos
come) vengas

Ir (to go) Ve No vayas Vaya Vayan Vayamos

Decir (to
Di No digas Diga Digan Digamos
say)

Hacer
Haz No hagas Haga Hagan Hagamos
(do/make)
Tip: Easily memorize the affirmative tú conjugations (which are the most
common) by thinking of “Vin Diesel Has Ten Weapons”:

ven, di, sal, haz, ten, ve, pon, se

venir, decir, salir, hacer, tener, ir, poner, ser

(I learned this from someone a long time ago, and it tends to work incredibly
well for students.)

Earlier we covered how the negative tú conjugation uses “no + present

subjunctive”, and this also applies to irregular verbs – but it’s probably easier
to memorize the conjugations if you don’t know the subjunctive.

Here are some examples of the irregular verbs in action:

Pon eso por acá. (Put that over here.)

Sal por ahí, la puerta está abierta. (Go out over there, the door is open.)
Ven a visitarnos un día de estos. (Come over and visit us one of these
days.)
Ve a buscar lo que necesitas. (Go get what you need.)
Solo di la verdad. (Just tell the truth.)
Haz lo que quieras. (Do what you want.)
Siempre se una buena persona. (Always be a good person.)
Spanish Imperative And Objects Pronouns
Just as we do in English, object pronouns and imperatives are frequently
used together in order avoid repetition.

Imperative Imperative With Object Pronoun

Bring Food Bring it

Close the door Close it

That’s a pretty basic example – but in simple terms, the imperative is

combined with object pronouns to indicate who or what will be at
the receiving end of an action being requested by you or someone else.

Using object pronouns helps shorten your sentence, indicate urgency, and
in general, avoids you sounding like a robot and repeating unnecessary
information.

Friend: I have spare beers

Robot: Bring the spare beers
Human: Bring them!
In order to use object pronouns, you need to know how to use direct
object and indirect objects.

Here is a quick reminder:

Personal Pronoun Direct Object Indirect Object

Yo Me Me

Tú Te Te

Él Lo Le

Ella La Le

Nosotros Nos Nos

Ustedes Los/Las Les

Ellos Los Les

Ellas Las Les

Object pronouns work with the imperative as a “suffix”, which, in simple
terms means that they hook onto the end of a word (imperative conjugation
in this case) to change the meaning of the original word.

Trae la cuenta, por favor – bring the bill, please

Tráenos la cuenta, por favor – bring us the bill, please

How do you determine when to use the direct vs indirect object?

Direct object pronouns address the subject of the sentence:

¡Haz tu tarea! – Do your homework! / ¡Hazla! – Do it!

¡Compra algunas bebidas! – Buy some drinks! / ¡Compralas! – Buy them!

Indirect object pronouns address who/what is receiving the action:

¡Trae caramelos para nosotros!  – Bring candies for us!

¡Traenos caramelos! – Bring us candies!

¡Escribe una carta para ella! – Write a letter for her!

¡Escríbele una carta! – Write her a letter!
How To Use The Imperative With Single Object Pronouns

If the command is affirmative, the object pronouns acts as a suffix and

simply hooks onto the end of the imperative conjugation.

Escúchalo – Listen to it
Espérame – Wait for me
Dime – Tell me

If the command is negative, the object pronoun will not act as a suffix –

instead, it will be placed right before the verb.

¡No nos grite! – Don’t yell at us!

¡No lo escuches! – Don’t listen to him!

¡No me esperes! – Don’t wait for me!

¡No le digas nada! – Don’t tell her anything!

¡No nos lo quite! – Don’t take it from us!

How To Use The Imperative With Double Object Pronouns

You may have noticed that the last example in the previous section is a
command that includes both direct and indirect object pronouns (ie. double
object pronouns).

Double object pronouns are structured by adding 1) the indirect object

(indicating who it’s for/to), followed by 2) the direct object (the object of the
sentence itself) to the conjugation.

Below is an example of a simple sentence which is shortened by a single

object pronoun, and then double object pronouns

¡Compra un oso de peluche para ella! – Buy a teddy bear for her!
¡Comprale un oso de peluche! – Buy her a teddy bear!
¡Compraselo! – Buy it for her!

Rule: Remember, if both pronouns begin with an “l”, the indirect pronoun
changes to “se”, which why it’s not “¡Compralelo!” in the above example.

The same object pronoun rule order applies to negative commands, but as
saw before,

As we saw earlier, if the command is negative, the pronouns are

placed before the verb:
 No se lo entregues – Entrégaselo
No me lo recuerdes  Recuérdamelo

Knowing how to use object pronouns with the imperative will allow you to
make requests or commands in a more immediate and direct manner, when
the context is already known.

Tip: Memorize a couple of common phrases that use the imperative +

double object pronouns in order to use the mood in situations that require
urgency.

¡Entregamelo! – Hand it over to me!

¡Quitatelo/a! – Take it off!
¡Póntelo/a! – Put it on!
¡Dámelo! – Give it to me!
¡Explícamelo! – Explain it to me!

Now you know how to give commands in Spanish.

So practice NOW!

Spanish Commands: Exercises To Complete

Fill the blanks with the correct conjugation of the imperative.
1.-  ________ (Venir) con nosotros el año que viene.
Come with us next year.

2.- ¡________ (Ir) a dormir!

Go to sleep!

3.- _________ (Intentar) mas tarde, o tal vez mañana.

Try it later, or maybe tomorrow.

4.- _________ (Acompañar) a tu madre a hacer compras.

Join your mom to go shopping.

5.- No _________ (Recordar) sobre eso

Don’t remind me about that.

6.-  ________ (Eat) toda tu comida antes de que se enfríe.

Eat all your food before it gets cold.

7.- ___________ (Wait), ya falta poco.

Wait for us, it won’t be long.

8.- No _________ (Alimentar) a los animales. Reglas del zoológico.

Don’t feed the animals. Zoo rules.

9.- Muchachos, _______ (Recordar) regresar temprano a casa.

Guys, remember to come back home early.

10.- ¡_______ (Estudiar) suficiente para el examen final!

Remember to study enough for the final exam!

11.- _________  (Traer) algo de tomar.

Bring me something to drink

12.- ________ (Comprar) algo para comer.

Let’s buy something to eat.

Answers:

1.- Ven con nosotros el año que viene.

2.- ¡Ve a dormir!

3.- Intenta mas tarde, o tal vez mañana.

4.- Acompaña a tu madre a hacer compras.

5.- No me recuerdes sobre eso.

6.- Come toda tu comida antes de que se enfríe.

7.- Esperanos, ya falta poco.

8.-  No alimenten a los animales. Reglas del zoológico.

9.- Muchachos, recuerden regresar temprano a casa.

10.- ¡Estudia suficiente para el examen final!

11.- Traeme algo de tomar.

12.- Compremos algo para comer.

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