The Imperative  is one of the moods you might find hard to use when learning Spanish as it doesn’t always have the same  used as in English. I would advice you not to try to translate literally the sentences where you might find it as the meaning might sound a “bite” rude to you as an English speaker but, believe me, its meaning is not as hard as it may sound, it is softener.

The imperative mood is used to give orders, commands and makes requests.

To conjugate it you will need to know some other tenses such as the Simple Present of Indicative and Subjunctive, and it conjugates on the following persons only: tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, vosotros, ellos, ellas, ustedes.

I´m going to write the reference to these two tenses so that you can check the information that will follow in this post.

Simple Present-Indicative

Simple Present-Subjunctive 

TÚ

Affirmative form: You’ll need to use the 3er person singular – Simple Present Indicative

Example: habla, come, parte.

Negative form:You’ll need to use the 2er person singular – Simple Present Subjunctive.

Example: no hables, no comas, no partas.

ÉL, ELLA, USTED

Afirmative / Negative  form: You’ll need to use the 3er person singular – Simple Present Subjunctive

Examples: hable, , coma, parta / no hable, no coma, no parte.  

NOSOTROS

Affirmative / Negative  form: You’ll need to use the 3er person plural – Simple Present Subjunctive.

Examples: Hablemos, comamos, partamos / no hablemos, no comamos, no partamos.

VOSOTROS

Affirmative form: You’ll need to use the infinitive of the verb this time and change the -r for a -d.

Example: hablar-hablad, comer-comed, partir-partid.

Negative form:You’ll need to use the 2er person plural – Simple Present Subjunctive.

Examples: no hablés, no comáis, no partáis.

ELLOS, ELLAS, USTEDES

Affirmative / Negative  form: You’ll need to use the 3er person plural – Simple Present Subjunctive.

Example: Hablen-no hable, coman-no coman, partan-no partan.

All sentences intended to give orders to a third person (él, ella, ellos, ellas) will be introduce by “que”.

Exemples: Que no hablen con nadie. Que los niños coman antes de las 2. Que tu madre no parta la tarta de cumpleaños.

IRREGULAR VERBS

These is a list of the most common irregular verbs and their irregularities apply only for some of their forms:

Tú

Decir-Di

Hacer-Haz

Ir-Ves

Poner-Pon

Salir-Sal

Ser – Sé

Tener- Ten

Venir – Ven

These irregular verbs on the “Tú” form are only irregular in its affirmative form, they become regular for its negative form:

di – no digas, haz – no hagas, ves – no vayas, pon – no pongas, sal – no salgas, sé – no seas, ten – no tengas, ven – no vengas

Usted

Dar- dé

Estar- esté

Saber – sepa

Ser – sea

Ir – vaya

 Ustedes

Dar- dén

Estar- estén

Saber – sepan

Ser – sean

Ir – vayan