Who doesn’t love giving instructions to people?
In this free Spanish Grammar class we’re going to take a look at the imperative tense. That’s the tense we use for giving orders and instructions. In English, it corresponds to phrases like:
- Stop talking so loudly.
- Take the first road on the right.
- Go away!
- Don’t ask me to make breakfast again.
And thousands of other phrases which you use all the time. Ready to dive in?
How to form the Imperative tense in Spanish.
This tense* (*In reality, the imperative is not strictly a tense, but rather a mood. But, heck, who cares?!) is slightly unusual because there are separate forms for the positive and negative imperatives. So if you tell someone to do something you’ll use one form, but if you tell them not to do something, you’ll use another form.
For example:
- Llama a la policía – Call the police!
- No llames a la policía – Don’t call the police!
As we’ll see, the imperative tense is closely related to the Spanish subjunctive tense.
Lets take a look at this baby…
The positive imperative…
This is when you tell people to do stuff. I hear this a lot from my girlfriend. So, how do our three regular verb groups form the positive imperative?
| Person /Verb | Llamar – Call | Vivir – Live | Comer – Eat | Corresponding tense |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | – | – | – | – |
| tú | llama | vive | come | Presente de indicativo (third person) |
| él / ella/Ud. | llame | viva | coma | Subjunctive |
| nosotros | llamemos | vivamos | comamos | Subjunctive |
| vosotros | llamad | vivid | comed | – |
| ellos/ellas/Uds. | llamen | vivan | coman | Subjunctive |
Now, you’ll have noticed that we don’t have a form for the first person, which is a shame as I love telling myself what to do. If this is going to cause a big void in your life, just use the ‘tú’ form. You’ll also have noticed that the imperative borrows a lot from other tenses. In fact, the only form which is truly unique to the imperative is the informal second person plural (llamad….) and sometimes the informal second person singular. Finally, it’s also worth noting that in Spanish the imperative exists for the third person. So you can say:
- ¡Viva España! – (Long) live Spain!
- ¡Viva el rey! – (Long) live the king!
However, the main reason the imperative exists in the third person is because that form of the verb also corresponds to ‘usted’, the polite version of the second person. Confused? Well, here’s a big thing you need to remember:
The imperative has polite and informal forms which both have singular and plural versions!
Examples of the imperative
Some examples of positive sentences using the imperative:
Informal – tú (singular)
Firstly, informal phrases using the form that corresponds to ‘tú’:
- En el semáforo, gira a la derecha.
Turn right at the traffic lights. - Bebe té antes de dormir.
Drink tea before going to bed.
Formal – usted (singular)
If we are addressing someone as ‘usted’, these phrases will change:
- En el semáforo, gire a la derecha.
- Beba té antes de dormir.
And if you’re talking to more than one person, you’ll need to change the forms again!
Informal – vosotros (plural)
- En el semáforo, girad a la derecha.
- Bebed té antes de ir a dormir.
Formal – ustedes (plural)
- En el semáforo, giren a la derecha.
- Beban té antes de ir a dormir.
The negative imperative
For the negative imperative we just need to employ the subjunctive mode:
| Person /Verb | Llamar – Call | Vivir – Live | Comer – Eat | Corresponding tense |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| yo | – | – | – | – |
| tú | No llames | No vivas | No comas | Subjunctive |
| él / ella/Ud. | No llame | No viva | No coma | Subjunctive |
| nosotros | No llamemos | No vivamos | No comamos | Subjunctive |
| vosotros | No llaméis | No viváis | No comáis | Subjunctive |
| ellos/ellas/Uds. | No llamen | No vivan | No coman | Subjunctive |
Study more Spanish grammar…
In our Spanish grammar section you’ll find all of the most common (and most useful!) Spanish tenses. If you’re tired of grammar, then take a look at our section on Spanish phrases, with video and audio of native speakers from Spain and Latin America.
Some examples of the imperative tense
You’ll often find the imperative tense in inspirational quotes and phrases.
We have more Inspirational Spanish phrases here and here.
Irregular forms
Unfortunately a lot of the most common Spanish verbs are irregular in the imperative. The verb ‘tener’ (have) is one of those. However, you’ll mainly notice the differences in the ‘tú’ form:
decir di hacer haz ir ve poner pon salir sal ser sé tener ten venir ven
Uses of the imperative tense
Now, if you’ve spent any time in a Spanish-speaking country or if you’ve ever been in a Spanish or Mexican restaurant you’ll have heard the imperative already:
- Siéntase por favor – Please sit down
- Dígame* – Tell me
- Deme dos segundos – Give me two minutes
*Often barmen will use this phrase when they are ready to take your order.
That’s because the imperative is used much more frequently in Spanish than in English. In virtually all English-speaking countries, the imperative is considered impolite in many situations and native English speakers will look for alternative, indirect forms like ‘could you…’ / ‘would you…’. That’s not the case in Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America.
Giving instructions
The imperative is used a lot for giving instructions:
- Tome la segunda calle a la derecha.
Take the second street on the right. - Apague las luces para ahorrar energía.
Turn off the lights in order to save energy.
