Formal Commands

In this
presentation, you
will learn how to
form and state
formal commands
in Spanish.

Commands in English
are pretty easy. You
just use a base verb
form (without a
subject, since its
always you) to tell
people what they
should do:
Stand up!
Sit down!
Do your homework!
Take out the
garbage!
Be quiet!

Commands in English
and what they
shouldnt do:
Dont write in your
books!
Dont speak English
in Spanish class!
Dont be silly!

Commands in Spanish
are little more complicated
because we have so many
ways of saying you:

T: informal, singular
Vosotros: informal, plural
Ud.: formal, singular
Uds.: formal, plural

However, we will
concentrate on the formal
commands only.

Lets look at a few examples!

Hable despacio, por
favor.
Repita, por favor.!
Sintese Ud. aqu.
Entreguen Uds. la
tarea.
Hagan el ejercicio B.
No hagan el ejercicio A.
No se levante Ud.!
No corran en la clase!

Hable despacio, por favor.

The speaker is talking to one
person.
Can you figure out how we got
the form hable?
Take the yo form of the present:
HABLO
Drop the o: HABL Hablar is an AR verb, so add
E to form the command: HABLE

Repita, por favor.

The speaker is talking to one
person.
Can you figure out how we got
the form repita?
Take the yo form of the
present: REPITO
Drop the o: REPIT Repetir is an IR verb, so add
A to form the command:
REPITA

Opposite vowels
Think of the verb adding
the opposite vowel:
AR verbs add an E.
ER & IR verbs add an
A.

Lets try a couple!

Comer: ______ Ud.!

Coma Ud.!
Escribir: _____ Ud.!
Escriba Ud.!
Tomar: _____ Ud.!
Tome Ud.!
Entregar: _____ la tarea!
Entregue la tarea!
Note the spelling change
because of the final g
sound.

Uds
Entreguen Uds. la
tarea.
Right! Just add an N
to the command form
when you are talking to
more than one person.

Lets try a couple more!

Comer: ______ Uds.!

Coman Uds.!
Escribir: _____ Uds.!
Escriban Uds.!
Tomar: _____ Uds.!
Tomen Uds.!
Comenzar: _____ el
examen!
Comiencen el examen!
Note the spelling change
because of the final z.

Levntese!
What about reflexive
verbs?
Levntese! / Sintese!
In affirmative
commands, all objects
are attached to the end
of the verb.
Levante + se
Levanten + se

No!
How do we make
negative commands in
Spanish?
No fume!
No tome caf!
No coma tanto!

Right simply put the

word NO in front of the
command form.

No se levante!
What about reflexive verbs?
No se levante! No se
sinte!
In negative commands, all
objects precede the verb.

No
No
No
No

se
se
se
se

levante.
levanten.
siente.
sienten.

Some irregulars
What would a lesson be
without a few irregulars to
make it interesting?? Can
you guess where these forms
come from?

Haga la tarea.
Tenga paciencia.
Salga ahora.
Vuelva a casa.
Piense bien.
S bueno!
Est tranquila!

Qu pasa?
Haga la tarea.
Hacer > yo hago > -o + -a

Tenga paciencia.
Tener > yo tengo > -o + -a

Salga ahora.
Salir > yo salgo > - o + -a

Vuelva a casa.
Volver > yo vuelvo > -o + -a

Piense bien.
Pensar > yo pienso > -o + -e

These verbs follow the same formula: start with the

yo form, drop the o, and add the opposite vowel.

S, est, d, sepa, vaya

These five verbs are very
irregular for a good reason:

Ser > yo soy

Estar > yo estoy
Dar > yo doy
Saber > yo s
Ir > yo voy

The yo form does not end in

an o, so there is no o to
drop when forming the
command form.

Terminemos por ahora!

Thats all for now, but
learn this concept well
the command form
will be very important
when we learn about
our last verb form this
year the
subjunctive.