Chapter 5

Topic 2 Informal Commands

In Spanish, speakers use informal, (tú), commands when addressing people, they know very well to:

A table that displays the affirmative and negative endings for the informal tú command
Subject pronoun -ar -er -ir
Tú (Affirmative) a e e
Tú (Negative) es as as
  • do, or not to do, and to give advice. Do not forget to add please.
  • Affirmative tú commands have the same form as the 3rd PS (ud./él/ella) form of the present indicative.

 

Affirmative tú commands have different forms than negative tú commands.

A table that displays the affirmative and negative forms of a formal command.
Command AFFIRMATIVE NEGATIVE
Hablar Por favor, habla más despacio. Hablar
Por favor, no hables más despacio.
Please, do not speak slower.
Comer Por favor, come temprano. Comer
Por favor, no comas temprano.
Please, do not eat early.
Escribir Por favor, escribe en español. Escribir
Por favor, no escribas en español.
Please, do not write in Spanish.
  • To form negative formal commands, add no before the verb.
  • There are ONLY eight irregular affirmative tú commands.
A table displaying the eight irregular affirmative commands.
decir    Di tu nobre. salir     Sal a caminar.
hacer   Haz la cama. ser       Sé generoso
ir         Ve a la tienda. tener    Ten paciencia.
Poner  Pon la mesa. Venir   Ven conmigo.

 

Verbs with irregular yo form conjugations, in the present tense, have the same irregular stems fin in the negative tú informal commands.

A table that displays verbs with irregular yo form conjugations, and negative tú commands
infinitive yo form negative tú command
tener tengo no tengas
hacer hago no hagas
dormir duermo no duermas
decir digo no digas

 

Some commonly used irregular commands are:

A table that displays commonly used irregular commands
infinitive negative tú command
dar no des
ir no vayas
ser no seas

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