How to Successfully Use the Imperative Mood in Spanish

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Whether you know it or not, you already use the imperative mood. It’s how you suggest or command certain actions from family, coworkers, friends, and strangers. The imperative is versatile and can be used in the affirmative or the negative form. Discover how and when to use the imperative mood in Spanish not only to fully express yourself but also to understand warnings and requests from other people.

As an added bonus, learning how the imperative works in Spanish helps you to learn the subjunctive mood because of grammatical similarities. Spanish is not hard to learn if you find different methods for practicing it. One way to immerse yourself is through the Rosetta Stone app that has stories from native speakers to help you hear more language in context as you learn how to use different grammatical moods.

What is a grammatical mood?

When speaking about Spanish grammar, referring to a verb tense as a “mood” might sound a bit strange, but “mood” is a linguistic term used to describe our intention when using verbs. Just as you can break down parts of speech when it comes to sentence structure, you can categorize verbs by their moods.

In Spanish, the three basic moods are: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative, all of which can then be conjugated into different tenses. This is also true of English. The indicativo (indicative) is used for affirmations, facts, narrative, and actual actions. The subjuntivo (subjunctive) is used for wishes or desires, and the imperativo (imperative) is used for commands. 

What is the imperative mood in Spanish?

The imperative mood in Spanish is used for asking, requesting, ordering, suggesting, or demanding something from others. It only has conjugations for the second person, the person to whom you direct the order in singular and plural forms along with formal and informal forms. The conjugations will always depend on who you’re speaking to.

• ¡No toques el arte! = Don’t touch the art! (singular, informal)
• No pisen el pasto. = Do not walk on the grass. (plural, formal or informal)
• Tome su medicamento cada seis horas. = Take your medication every six hours. (singular, formal)

Although some resources will only list the second person for the imperative, this mood is also used in the first person plural, the nosotros/nosotras (we) form, with the sense of a suggestion.

• Hablemos con él ahora. = Let’s talk to him now.

How the imperative is used 

The imperative functions on several levels, and a lot of it depends on tone and context. You’ll often use it for a basic request:

• Pásame la sal. = Pass me the salt.

You often use the imperative to warn someone, to demand something, or to give instructions. It’s also what you’ll hear by any commanding officer directing people under their command.

• ¡Abandone la misión! = Abort the mission!

But you can also make gentler suggestions too.

• Bate la mezcla por dos minutos antes de hornear. = Beat the mixture for two minutes before baking.

Finally, the imperative can function to protect yourself:

• Deje de molestarme. = Stop bothering me.

Note that sometimes with the imperative, the difference between a polite request and a harsh demand depends on the person’s tone of voice or accompanying words such as por favor (please).

The important thing to remember is that the imperative is a form of direct speech. It’s always in dialogue form, and as such, the imperative is only spoken in the present tense.

Conjugating the imperative mood in Spanish

Conjugations for the imperative can be a little challenging, but you can get a sense of it with the charts included below. And remember: there are fewer forms to learn. The imperative is not a full conjugation, and the subject of the sentence is often omitted.

Regular verbs in the affirmative

There are formulas for forming these conjugations, but it is easier to simply remove the final -AR, -ER, or -IR from the infinitive form of the verb and add the highlighted endings bolded in the tables below. You may want to review the Spanish pronouns before checking these charts.

Note the absence of vos (you), used by some of the population in Latin America. The use of this subject pronoun is known as voseo in Spanish. Since it’s the equivalent of tú, you can conjugate vos in the affirmative imperative by omitting the “r” from the infinitive as in hablar (to speak) and adding an accent to the last vowel as in hablá.

–AR verbs with hablar (to speak)

*used in most of Spain

–ER verbs with comer (to eat)

–IR verbs with vivir (to live)

Regular verbs in the negative

The negative forms of the imperative add the word no before the verb, and only the tú and vosotros forms differ in conjugation from the affirmative. For convenience, all of the pertinent conjugations have been included. As a reminder, vosotros in Spanish means “you” in the plural, informal form. And similar to the affirmative, the negative form for vos in the imperative is the same as it is for tú.

Take note that you can add a complement (also called “direct object”) after your command. For example, you can say No vivas la vida con miedo (Don’t live life in fear).

–AR verbs with hablar (to speak)

–ER verbs with comer (to eat)

–IR verbs with vivir (to live)

Irregular verbs in the imperative mood in Spanish

There are eight irregular verbs in the imperative mood in Spanish, and they’re used with people we know. These verbs are provided below with their meaning and conjugation in the second person informal tense (the tú singular informal form, which means “you”). The Spanish Dictionary details many more conjugations for the imperative mood.

Many of these commands will be accompanied by additional information such as:

• ¡Sal de aquí de inmediato! = Leave here immediately!

The imperative with direct object and indirect object pronouns 

Also known as object complements, direct objects are things or people upon which the subject of the sentence takes action. When the Spanish direct object pronouns are used with the imperative, they go at the end of the verb. In the example below, -me (me) is the direct object.

• Házme un favor. = Do me a favor.

But the imperative can be used with indirect object pronouns in Spanish. In the previous example, un favor is the indirect object—the thing being exchanged between subject and direct object. You add that pronoun at the very end. (The “for” is not included in the Spanish but implied if you’re thinking in an English sort of way.)

• Házmelo. = Do it for me.

However, the addition of the second pronoun may give the imperative a less polite sense, depending on how you say it.

When you use the third person direct and indirect object pronouns with the imperative, the le or les changes to se. The se represents the person receiving the indirect object.

• Mándale el paquete. = Send him/her the package.
• Mándaselo. = Send it to him/her.

Remember that using the imperative in the negative form with a direct object pronoun means you put the pronoun before the verb:

• No lo tomes. = Don’t drink it.

If the negative form uses a direct and indirect object pronoun, it looks like this:

• No se lo mandes. = Don’t send it to him/her.

Reflexive pronouns with the imperative mood in Spanish

Used in conjunction with verbs, reflexive pronouns in Spanish indicate an action that the subject of the sentence generally performs on itself. Notice this example:

• Tú te bañas cada día. = You bathe (yourself) every day.

However, when using the imperative, the reflexive pronoun goes at the end of the sentence in the affirmative:

• Báñate cada día. = Bathe (yourself) every day.

Using the infinitive for instructions and warnings

While it’s most common to use the imperative for instructions and warning in dialogues, it is possible to see signs written with the infinitive (the full, unconjugated form of the verb) that have the sense of the imperative, for instance:

• No tocar el video. = Do not touch the glass.
• Subir las escaleras con cuidado. = Go up the stairs carefully.
• Zona de hospital. No tocar el claxon. = Hospital zone. Do not honk your horn.

Ace the Spanish imperative mood and so much more

Now that you have learned the basics, ¿se te antoja aprender más? (do you feel like learning more?). We’re guessing you might! You can learn Spanish to become confident with the imperative and other Spanish grammar rules while having innumerable opportunities to practice and receive instant feedback on your pronunciation.