The Spanish imperative: commands, and how to soften them

Course · Unit: Commands CEFR A2 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-11

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

Four forms, two stems

The confusing part is that affirmative and negative commands are built differently. Learn the table, not a rule.

Two things to read off it:

The affirmative tú command is just the él form. Él habla → ¡Habla! That is the whole rule, and it covers most regular verbs.

Everything else is the subjunctive. Usted, ustedes, and every negative command. So if you know the present subjunctive you already have three quarters of this — and if you do not, this is a painless way in, because the endings simply swap: -ar verbs take e, and -er/-ir verbs take a.

No vosotros row, because Latin America does not use it.

The eight irregular tú commands

Only the affirmative tú form is irregular. The negatives are all regular subjunctives.

Di, haz, ve, pon, sal, sé, ten, ven — eight syllables, worth memorising as a chant. They are among the most-used commands in the language.

Where the pronouns go

Attached to the end of an affirmative command; in front of a negative one.

• Dímelo. → No me lo digas.
• Pásame la sal. → No me pases la sal.
• Levántate. → No te levantes.
• Cóbrame. → No me cobres.

Watch the accents appearing: dímelo, pásame, levántate, cóbrame. Attaching syllables moves the stress, and the accent is what holds it in place — the rule is in syllables and stress.

One spelling note: a nosotros command loses its final -s before nos — vámonos, not vamosnos.

Let’s — the nosotros command

• Hablemos. — let’s talk.
• Vamos. — let’s go. Irregular, and vayamos is the formal-sounding version nobody uses in speech.
• No hablemos de eso.

Vamos and vámonos are the two you will actually say.

In Peru, the bare command is usually too blunt

Here is the part that matters more than the conjugation. Peruvian Spanish softens heavily, and a correctly formed bare command can land as brusque. Native speakers reach for something gentler most of the time.

Softer than a command, in rough order:

Pase nomás — come in, go ahead — is heard constantly in shops and doorways, and it is a command with the edge taken off.

The conditional versions come from the conditional tense, and the tú/usted decision underneath all of this is in Tú or usted in Peru.

Where bare commands are completely normal: with close friends and family, with children, in a taxi (déjame acá, pare acá nomás), and in recipes and instructions.

The ones you will hear most

Dime. — tell me / go ahead. Answering a phone or being approached. Oye. — hey, listen. Informal. Mira. — look. Often just a discourse opener. Espera / espérame. Ven. · Pásame… · Déjame acá. · Cóbrame. Disculpe and permiso — technically commands, functionally politeness. See greetings and survival phrases.

Practise

1. ___ (hablar, tú +)
2. No ___ (hablar, tú −)
3. ___ (comer, usted +)
4. ___ (hacer, tú +) — irregular
5. ___ (decir, tú +) me la verdad — with the pronoun attached
6. No ___ ___ (decir, tú −) nada — with the pronoun

→ 1 Habla · 2 hables · 3 Coma · 4 Haz · 5 Dime · 6 me digas.

Next

→ The words Peruvians actually connect sentences with

Topics Register and politenessSubjunctive