Familiar Commands

Commands are used to give orders or to give advice about something.

Familiar (tú) commands are those used to give advice or orders to a friend, family member, classmate, child, somebody with the same age as you or younger.

They are divided into affirmative and negative tú commands. Both are formed differently.

Affirmative Commands Tú form.

You form affirmative commands by using the same form of the third person in the singular (él, ella, and used)

YO NOSOTROS/AS
VOSOTROS/AS
ÉL/ELLA/USTED ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES

Example:

Comprar:
ÉL/ELLA/USTED: Compra
Jorge, por favor compra pan en la panadería- Jorge, please buy bread in the bakery shop.

As you can see, to form the tú commands you are using the third person in singular form, but you are addressing it to the second person in the singular person(tú).

The following are irregular verbs:

ser- to be
ir- to go
ve
tener- to have
ten
venir- to come
ven
hacer-to do
haz
decir- to say
di
poner- to put
pon
salir- to go out
sal

Negative commands in the TÚ form

Negative commands are formed by using the YO form and dropping the final -o. For AR verbs you add -es and for ER and IR verbs you add -as.

bailar Yo- bailo + es No bailes

You keep all the irregularities you have in the YO forms.

Tener Yo- tengoo + as No tengas

 

 


Use of pronouns in commands.

The placement of the pronouns is different if the command is affirmative or if it is negative.

In affirmative commands, the pronouns are attached to the command adding an accent mark on the second to last syllable.

Lavarse lávate

In negative commands, you place the pronoun between the “no” and the command.

Lavarse No te laves

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El Español por el Mundo Copyright © by Gemma Morawski and Ani Alcocer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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