Bisbee
UPCS
El imperativo: Informal Tú Commands
1) First of all, what the heck is “el imperativo”?
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It’s a fancy grammar term for the Imperative Tense which is the tense that we use to tell people what to do
Commands (mandatos) are like giving orders
Example:
Would you be able to close the door?
¿Podrías cerrar la puerta?
versus
or
Close the door please.
Cierra la puerta por favor.
2) Now, what do I mean by informal? What’s the difference between formal and informal Spanish and when do I
use formal and when should I use informal?
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Informal Spanish: Tú and vosotros are informal conjugations. You use these with friends, some family, or
people that are the same age as you mostly.
Formal Spanish: Usted is a formal conjugation. You use it with people that are older, that you don’t know, or
with people that you want to show respect
Tú Commands: Giving orders to people that you know well and are of similar age
3) How do I conjugate verbs so they are in the informal tú commands?
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Take the infinitive of the verb.
Take off the ending (ir, er, or ar).
Conjugate the verb into the present tense 3rd person singular (the él ella usted box on the verb chart)
Now you have an affirmative tú command!
Example: Talk!
Infinitive
Hablar
Take off Endings
Habl
Conjugate to 3 rd person singular in present tense
Habla
4) But what about when you want to tell someone your familiar with NOT to do something? Here comes the
NEGATIVE tú commands!
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Take the infinitive.
Take off the ending (ar, er, ir).
Add the 2nd person singular endings from the subjunctive tense. (So if you have an AR verb, you will be using
ER/IR endings!)
Add the word “no” before the verb.
Example: Don’t talk!
Hablar
Habl
hables
¡No hables!
Bisbee
UPCS
Irregular Affirmative Tú Commands
The following verbs are irreguar as affirmative tú commands:
Decir
Hacer
Poner
Ir
Salir
Ser
Tener
Venir
They look like this as commands:
decir - di
salir - sal
hacer - haz
ser - sé
ir - ve
tener - ten
poner - pon
venir – ven
ANY CHANGES A VERB MAY HAVE IN THE SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE WILL APPEAR IN NEGATIVE COMMANDS!
Example: Tener
Don’t have a cookie.
Tener
Teng
Tengas
No tengas
No tengas una galleta.