Chapter 36 · B1

Commands: Affirmative & Negative (Formal & Informal)

Might help first: Ch. 12 — Direct Object Pronouns, Ch. 14 — Double Object Pronouns & the Se Substitution, Ch. 15 — Reflexive Pronouns & Reflexive Verbs, Ch. 23 — Present Tense: Stem-Changing & Irregular Verbs (a suggestion, never a requirement)

A command tells someone to do something directly — sit down, wait here, don’t touch that. English gets by with a single command form no matter who’s listening: the bare verb, “Eat!” or “Don’t wait!” Spanish can’t be that economical, because a command still carries the same tú/usted/vosotros/ustedes information every other verb form does (Chapter 11) — so before you can give a single instruction, Spanish makes you decide who you’re talking to and how formally. That’s why this chapter has five separate command sets instead of one, each both affirmative and negative: a command to a close friend (tú) is built differently from one to a stranger (usted), a group of friends in Spain (vosotros), a formal or plural audience (ustedes), or a “let’s” suggestion that includes the speaker (nosotros). The good news is that most of the machinery is already familiar — how object pronouns attach (Chapter 12, Chapter 14), which verb stems go irregular (Chapter 23) — so what’s genuinely new here is the command endings themselves, a short closed list of true irregulars, and one honest explanation of why negative commands look so different from affirmative ones.

Core Pattern: Affirmative Tú Commands

The regular pattern: identical to the él/ella/usted present-tense form

For any regular verb, the affirmative tú command is exactly the él/ella/usted form of the present tense you already know from Chapter 22 — no separate ending to learn at all:

Infinitive	Affirmative tú command
hablar	habla
comer	come
escribir	escribe

Habla más despacio, por favor.

Speak more slowly, please.

Come algo antes de salir.

Eat something before you leave.

The irregular affirmative tú commands: a closed list of eight

Eight high-frequency verbs break the pattern above completely. This list doesn’t grow — memorize it as a fixed set:

Infinitive	Irregular tú command	Meaning
decir	di	tell, say
hacer	haz	do, make
ir	ve	go
poner	pon	put
salir	sal	leave
tener	ten	have
venir	ven	come
ser	sé	be

Ten paciencia, ya casi llegamos.

Have patience, we're almost there.

Sé tú mismo.

Be yourself.

Sé needs its accent to stay distinct from se, the reflexive/se-substitution pronoun (Chapters 14 and 15).

Building Out: Affirmative Commands for Usted, Ustedes, Nosotros & Vosotros

Tú’s affirmative command was its own special system. The other four affirmative persons all extend from one shared mechanism instead — a mechanism worth understanding now, because it resurfaces for every negative command in the next section too.

Usted and ustedes: built from the yo-form, not the él/ella form

To form an affirmative usted command, take the verb’s yo-form of the present tense (the irregular ones from Chapter 23 included), drop the final -o, and add the “opposite” vowel ending: -ar verbs take -e (-en for ustedes); -er/-ir verbs take -a (-an for ustedes):

Infinitive	yo-form	Usted command	Ustedes command
hablar	hablo	hable	hablen
comer	como	coma	coman
escribir	escribo	escriba	escriban

Because the stem comes from the yo-form, every irregular yo-form you already know carries straight over:

Infinitive	yo-form	Usted command
tener	tengo	tenga
poner	pongo	ponga
hacer	hago	haga
salir	salgo	salga
venir	vengo	venga
decir	digo	diga

Diga la verdad, por favor.

Tell the truth, please.

This is exactly the diga Chapter 14 built its double-pronoun command example, dígamelo, around — this is where that form comes from.

A small handful of verbs don’t follow even the yo-form-minus-o rule and have to be memorized as outright irregular: ser → sea, estar → esté, ir → vaya, dar → dé, saber → sepa. These same five reappear as the classic irregular subjunctive stems in Chapter 37.

Nosotros: “let’s” commands, and the vamos a shortcut

Nosotros commands use the identical yo-form-minus-o-plus-opposite-vowel logic, with -emos/-amos: hablemos, comamos, escribamos (“let’s talk,” “let’s eat,” “let’s write”). In everyday speech, though, vamos a + infinitive is a far more common, more casual substitute for the same meaning:

¡Comamos ya!

Let's eat already!

Grammatically correct and used, especially in writing.

¡Vamos a comer ya!

Let's eat already!

The far more common everyday version — the same ir a + infinitive pattern that also gives the future tense (Chapter 33) and periphrases in general (Chapter 45) a casual alternative.

Ir itself has a special case here: the affirmative nosotros command “let’s go” is almost always vamos, not the technically-correct vayamos (which sounds stiff or literary). The negative, though, only ever uses vayamos — no vamos isn’t used as a command.

Vosotros: drop the -r, add -d

The vosotros affirmative command is the most mechanically regular of the five: take the infinitive, drop the final -r, add -d. This works even for verbs that are irregular in tú:

Infinitive	Vosotros command
hablar	hablad
comer	comed
escribir	escribid
tener	tened
hacer	haced
decir	decid
ir	id

Escuchad con atención.

Listen carefully.

Spain classroom/group register — vosotros commands like this are heard constantly among friends, family, and students in Spain.

Tened cuidado en la calle.

Be careful in the street.

Tener's tú command is irregular (ten), but its vosotros command is perfectly regular (tened).

The full affirmative paradigm at a glance

	hablar	comer	escribir
tú	habla	come	escribe
usted	hable	coma	escriba
nosotros	hablemos	comamos	escribamos
vosotros	hablad	comed	escribid
ustedes	hablen	coman	escriban

Nuance, Exceptions & Contrast: Negative Commands

Why negative commands switch forms: the subjunctive connection

You’ve already seen the yo-form-minus-o-plus-opposite-vowel stem in action, for usted, ustedes, and nosotros affirmative commands above. Here’s the piece worth pausing on: every negative command, for every one of the five persons, uses that exact same stem — including tú and vosotros, whose affirmative forms don’t.

The honest reason is that Spanish doesn’t really have a dedicated grammatical form just for “don’t do this.” Telling someone to do something is direct enough that Castellano built special, dedicated forms for it (affirmative tú’s irregulars, vosotros’s -d). Telling someone not to do something shifts the meaning into “I want it to be the case that you don’t…” — and that hypothetical, not-yet-real territory is exactly what the subjunctive mood is for elsewhere in Spanish. Negative commands simply reuse the subjunctive’s own verb form rather than inventing a separate one. Chapter 37 covers exactly how that subjunctive stem is built (it’s the same yo-form-minus-o-plus-opposite-vowel rule you just learned here), and Chapter 38 covers the full range of situations — including indirect commands like this one — where Spanish reaches for subjunctive over indicative.

Negative tú: don’t reuse the affirmative irregulars

Because affirmative tú has its own special forms — including all eight irregulars — its negative twin can look completely unrelated:

Infinitive	Affirmative tú	Negative tú
hablar	habla	no hables
comer	come	no comas
decir	di	no digas
hacer	haz	no hagas
ir	ve	no vayas
poner	pon	no pongas
salir	sal	no salgas
tener	ten	no tengas
venir	ven	no vengas
ser	sé	no seas

No hables tan alto en la biblioteca.

Don't speak so loudly in the library.

No vayas solo por esa calle.

Don't go down that street alone.

Ve and no vayas share no resemblance at all — the single biggest trap in this whole chapter.

Spelling changes that keep the consonant sound intact

Verbs ending in -car, -gar, and -zar need the same orthographic adjustment here that they need in the preterite yo-form (Chapter 26), for the same reason: keeping the hard consonant sound before a vowel that would otherwise soften it.

Ending	Change	Infinitive	Usted command	Negative tú
-car	c → qu	buscar	busque	no busques
-gar	g → gu	llegar	llegue	no llegues
-zar	z → c	cruzar	cruce	no cruces

Busque la salida más cercana.

Look for the nearest exit.

No cruces la calle sin mirar.

Don't cross the street without looking.

The full negative paradigm at a glance

	hablar	comer	escribir
tú	no hables	no comas	no escribas
usted	no hable	no coma	no escriba
nosotros	no hablemos	no comamos	no escribamos
vosotros	no habléis	no comáis	no escribáis
ustedes	no hablen	no coman	no escriban

Pronoun Placement with Commands

Chapter 12 and Chapter 14 already established the placement rule that governs every verb form a pronoun can attach to: mandatory attachment on an affirmative command, mandatory return to the normal pre-verb position on a negative one, with a written accent added whenever attachment shifts the verb’s natural stress. None of that changes here — what’s worth working through carefully is how it plays out across all five command persons, and especially what happens with reflexive and double-pronoun commands.

Affirmative commands: mandatory attachment, same accent rule

Comeverblo.pronoun

Sientaverbte.pronoun

Digaverbmepronounlo.pronoun

Cómelo antes de que se enfríe.

Eat it before it gets cold.

The same accent-preservation rule Chapter 12 introduced: cómelo needs the written accent to keep the stress on cóme-.

Siéntate, por favor.

Sit down, please.

The reflexive te attaches exactly like a direct object pronoun does — same accent rule, same mandatory attachment.

Dígamelo, por favor.

Tell it to me, please.

The exact dígamelo Chapter 14 built its double-pronoun-command example around: diga is this chapter's usted command of decir, with me and lo attached in the fixed indirect-before-direct order Chapter 14 taught.

Negative commands: pronouns return to the pre-verb position

Noconnectorlopronouncomas.verb

Noconnectortepronounsientes.verb

Noconnectormepronounlopronoundiga.verb

No lo comas todavía.

Don't eat it yet.

No te sientes ahí, está roto.

Don't sit there, it's broken.

No me lo diga, déjeme adivinar.

Don't tell me, let me guess.

Both pronouns stay together, in indirect-before-direct order, right where they'd sit in front of any other conjugated verb.

Reflexive commands for nosotros and vosotros: a letter drops before the pronoun attaches

Two more mechanical wrinkles, both purely about attachment. When a nosotros command ends in -mos and a reflexive nos attaches, the final -s of -mos drops before nos goes on — and a written accent is added to keep the original stress:

Sentémonos aquí.

Let's sit here.

Sentemos (nosotros command) + nos → drop the final -s → sentémonos, with an accent to preserve the original stress.

¡Vámonos ya, que llegamos tarde!

Let's go now, we're running late!

Even the vamos shortcut follows the same -s-dropping rule: vamos + nos → vámonos.

The vosotros equivalent drops the -d instead, before os attaches — with one well-known exception:

Levantaos temprano mañana.

Get up early tomorrow.

Levantad (vosotros command) + os → drop the -d → levantaos, no accent needed here since the stress already falls in the right place.

Idos ya.

Go now (all of you).

Irse is the one true exception: id keeps its -d before os, giving idos instead of the expected ios.

Bringing It Together

The same instruction changes shape depending only on who’s listening — everything else about the message stays constant:

Niño, cómete la verdura.

Sweetie, eat your vegetables.

Informal tú, spoken to a child — cómete adds the reflexive te for emphasis (an emphatic use of comerse, previewed in Chapter 15), with the same mandatory attachment and accent rule as any other tú command.

Señor, no se preocupe; cierre la puerta cuando salga.

Sir, don't worry; close the door when you leave.

Formal usted — no se preocupe negates preocuparse's command form, and cierre is the usted command of the stem-changing cerrar (cierro → cierre).

¡Vámonos ya, que llegamos tarde!

Let's go now, we're running late!

Nosotros, casual register — the vamos shortcut, reflexive-shaped attachment and all.

Faced with any command, work through it in order: first, who’s being addressed — tú, usted, nosotros, vosotros, or ustedes? Second, affirmative or negative? If it’s affirmative tú, check the closed irregular list first, since eight common verbs won’t follow the regular pattern. Every other form — every negative, plus affirmative usted, ustedes, and nosotros — comes from the same yo-form-minus-o-plus-opposite-vowel stem, the one Chapter 37 will show you is really the subjunctive. Finally, if a pronoun is involved: attach it only if the command is affirmative, watch for the accent, and remember that reflexive nosotros and vosotros forms shed a letter first.

Where to Go Next

Chapter 11, Subject Pronouns & Pro-Drop — the tú/usted/vosotros/ustedes formality system commands inherit directly.
Chapter 12, Direct Object Pronouns — the placement and accent rule this chapter applied specifically to commands.
Chapter 14, Double Object Pronouns & the Se Substitution — home of dígamelo; this chapter supplies the diga it depends on.
Chapter 15, Reflexive Pronouns & Reflexive Verbs — the pronoun set behind siéntate, vámonos, and every other reflexive command here.
Chapter 23, Present Tense: Stem-Changing & Irregular Verbs — the yo-form irregulars (tengo, pongo, salgo…) that carry straight into usted/ustedes and negative command stems.
Chapter 26, El Pretérito Indefinido: Regular Verbs — the same -car/-gar/-zar spelling changes, first learned there for the preterite yo-form.
Chapter 34, El Condicional Simple — a softer, more polite alternative (¿podrías cerrar la puerta?) for moments when a direct command feels too blunt.
Chapter 37, El Presente de Subjuntivo: Formation — the full mechanics behind the stem this chapter uses without deriving it from scratch.
Chapter 38, El Presente de Subjuntivo: When to Use It — why indirect commands are one of subjunctive’s core trigger categories.
Chapter 55, Formality & Register: Tú, Usted, Vosotros & Beyond — the deeper social logic behind choosing a command set, including voseo commands, which this chapter doesn’t cover.

Ready to practice?

12 exercises · multiple-choice, fill-blank, sentence-transformation…