Imperative mood

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 11 March 2025 20:19

Published: Sunday, 10 March 2024 17:00

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Imperative Mood of Verbs used to give commands: We use verbs to command someone to do something. These are called Imperative mood of the verb (mandatos in spanish means commands which is like "to mandate something"). ex: open the letter. Here "you" is implied, as we always give command to someone else "you open the letter". So, we use 2nd/3rd person form of the verb in this context (2nd person is used if commanding someone younger, friend, etc. 3rd person is used if commanding someone elder, stranger, etc to give respect to the person). Depending on whether it's affirmative cmd (you do this) vs negative cmd (you do NOT do this), we change the verb ending in a different way than what we do for present tense transformation of these verbs.

Video by Spanish Tuor (lesson 54) => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2UnO5khpi4

RULES: We flip the verbs in most cases to indicate it's a cmd.

• For Affirmative commands (i.e Do this), there are 2 types => flipped form and unflipped form:
  • tú form (informal): For giving cmds to children, other people who are below you, we use "tú" form. You would expect to use 2nd person singular/plural, but instead we use the "3rd person singular/plural form". This is the only case where we don't flip the -ar and -er/-ir verb. In all the other case below, transformations are flipped. Think of it this way => When we give affirmative cmd, we want to be polite, so use 3rd person usted form (instead of 2nd person). 2nd person form (with -s at the end) is gone for affirmative cmds.
  • usted form (formal): For giving cmds to your friend, seniors, etc, we use the more respectable "usted form". We use the "3rd person singular/plural form" which is same as above. So, to distinguish b/w above case and this case, we flip the -ar and -er verbs. -ar verbs pretend as if they are -er/-ir verb, while -er/-ir verb pretend to be -ar verb. So, the 3rd person form for hablar will be hable (even though it should be habla, but we treat hablar as -er verb for transformation purpose). 
  • We (1st person plural): This is for cases when we order ourselves, ex: Let's eat. We are strictly not commanding, but it's similar to a cmd. Here, we flip -ar and -er verb for transformation purpose (similar to usted form above).
• For Negative commands (i.e. Do NOT do this). There is only 1 type => flipped form
  • For all persons (1st/2nd/3rd), we use only one form => the flipped form for all table entries (we flip -ar and -er verbs). So, the 2nd person form for hablar will be hables (even though it should be hablas, but we treat hablar as -er verb for tranformation purpose). Similarly for 3rd person (usted/ustedes) and 1st person plural (we), we flip -ar and -er verb.
• Irregular verbs: There are 8 irregular verbs which have don't follow the rule above. These are "ven di sal haz ten ve pon se", which you can remember by thinking, "Vin DieSel Has Ten WeaPonS, eh?"  => Ven DiSal Haz Ten VePonS eh.

Table form for Affirmative/Negative cmds:

Remember: All verbs are flipped b/w ar and er/ir except 2nd person Affirmative (see green colored entry in table below). Basically it's all subjunctive form of verb, except for 2nd person Affirmative, which is indicative form. It'll be easier once you learn subjunctive forms of verbs. If you want to keep it simple, don't use the 2nd person for giving cmds to someone else (instead use 3rd person). Then all verbs are flipped and you don't have to worry about flipping or not flipping.

NOTE: When using 2nd/3rd person, it's hard to say which person form is being used. From the context, it's not clear whether tu or usted form is being used. I've seen a lot of conflicting info on how the 2nd/3rd form singular form is changed/not changed. Not sure which one is correct. Spanish translators give both kind of translations. However, in practice, tu form is more commonly used, since cmds are usually not given with respect (they are cmds, so be disrespectful :)

Ex:

• open the letter => 2 ways you can translate this => depending on whether you are saying this formally or informally.
  
  • 2nd person (tu form) => abre la carta (3rd person unflipped form of abrir is used for tu form, which is abre). It's is used when we want to be informal.
  • 3rd person (usted form) => abra la carta (3rd person flipped form of abrir is used for usted form, which is abra). It's used formally to give respect to someone.
• buy the car => compra el carro (again, this is for informal order)
• Eat => Come (informal tú form for children), Coma (formal usted form for seniors). Coman (formal, but to a group of people). "Let's eat" => comamos (instead of comemos)
• Close the door => cierra la puerta (cerrar is stem changing verb since it has "e", which changes to ie => cierr as modified stem => 3rd person changes to cierra). Here we are using tu form to give cmd.
• Speak => habla (for informal, 2nd person. unflipped), hable (for formal, 3rd person. flipped). When saying this to group of people, we use hablan (informal) or hablen (formal)
  
  • Don't speak => No hables (Since it's negative cmd, we use 2nd person singular (flipped), which should be hablas, but it's treated as er verb, so hables)
• Write => Escribe (for informal, 2nd person unflipped), escriba (for formal, 3rd person flipped).
  • Don't write => No escribas (for informal, 2nd person flipped), escriba (for formal, 3rd person flipped). Let's write => escribamos (instead of escribemos)
• Don't learn German => No aprendas aléman (for informal, 2nd person. instead of aprendes we do aprendas, as we treat it as ar verb)