Imperative Mood Conjugations

Spanish imperativeConjugaciones del imperativo

The Spanish imperative exists for 5 different grammatical people: tú, Ud., nosotros, vosotros, and Uds. For two of these, affirmative and negative imperatives have different conjugations.

Regular -AR verbs

The imperative for all commands for Ud., Uds., and nosotros are formed by taking the present tense of the verb and changing the A at the beginning of the suffix to E.

Present tense Imperative
    affirmative negative
Ud. estudia estudie no estudie
nosotros estudiamos estudiemos no estudiemos
Uds. estudian estudien no estudien

This is also how negative commands for tú and vosotros are formed:

tú estudias   no estudies
vosotros estudiáis no estudiéis

For affirmative commands for tú, take the present tense and drop the final S:

tú estudias estudia

For affirmative commands for vosotros, take the infinitive and replace the final R with a D:

estudiar estudiad

Regular -ER verbs

For all Ud., Uds., and nosotros commands, change the E at the beginning of the suffix to A.

Ud. bebe beba no beba
nosotros bebemos bebamos no bebamos
Uds. beben beban no beban

Ditto for negative commands for tú and vosotros:

tú bebes   no bebas
vosotros bebéis no bebáis

Tú affirmative: take the present tense and drop the final S:

tú bebes bebe

Vosotros affirmative: take the infinitive and replace the final R with a D:

beber bebed

Regular -IR verbs

These are a little more complicated, but still based on the present tense.

For tú negative,* Ud., and Uds., change the E at the beginning of the suffix to A.

tú abres   * no abras
Ud. abre abra no abra
Uds. abren abran no abran

For nosotros: change the I at the beginning of the suffix to A.

nosotros abrimos abramos no abramos

For vosotros negative:** change Í to ÁI.

vosotros abrís no abráis

* Tú affirmative: take the present tense and drop the final S:

tú abres abre

** Vosotros affirmative: take the infinitive and replace the final R with D:

abrir abrid

Notes

  • The imperative endings for -ER and -IR verbs are identical.
  • The vast majority of Spanish imperative conjugations are the same as subjunctive conjugations.
  • The tú and vosotros affirmative commands follow the same pattern for all three types of regular verbs.
     

Spanish quizzes Imperative Quizzes

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