Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to form basic affirmative commands for “tú” (informal) and “usted” (formal).

Lesson Explanation

Spanish commands (the imperative mood) genuinely have different forms depending on formality — a distinction rooted in the tú/usted split from Part 1, Lesson 5, and revisited in full in Part 6, Lesson 5.

Affirmative tú commands, for regular verbs, use the same form as the present-tense él/ella conjugation:

¡Habla!(hablar) — Speak! (tú)
¡Come!(comer) — Eat! (tú)
¡Escribe!(escribir) — Write! (tú)

Affirmative usted commands borrow from the present subjunctive form (previewed here, covered fully next lesson) — genuinely “flipped” endings, where -ar verbs take an -e ending and -er/-ir verbs take an -a ending:

¡Hable!(hablar) — Speak! (usted)
¡Coma!(comer) — Eat! (usted)
¡Escriba!(escribir) — Write! (usted)

A genuinely important set of irregular affirmative tú commands must be memorized: di (say, from decir), haz (do, from hacer), ve (go, from ir), pon (put, from poner), sal (leave, from salir), sé (be, from ser), ten (have, from tener), ven (come, from venir).

Object and reflexive pronouns attach directly to the end of affirmative commands: ¡Hazlo!(hacer + lo) — Do it! ¡Levántate!(levantarse) — Get up! Note the added written accent to preserve the original stress.

Practice Questions