Informal Commands in Spanish: How and when to use tú commands (2024)

As you probably know by now, you often need to choose between using formal vs informal languagein Spanish, depending on who you’re speaking with. This applies whether you’re addressing someone directly, asking them a question, or giving informal commands in Spanish.

Your first introduction to this concept was probably early on in your Spanish lessons when you studied the differences between usted vs tú. Today we’re going to revisit this concept, specifically with respect to giving informal Spanish commandsin the tú form.

We’ll look at how to conjugate tú commandsin Spanish in both the affirmativeand the negative, we’ll touch on sentence structurefor both, and then we’ll review the contexts where it’s suitableto give these informal commands in Spanish. We’ll finish up with some exercisesso you can practice what you’ve learned.

What is an informal command in Spanish?

A command in Spanish is used to directly address another person, and give them an order or instruction. The command form uses the imperative mood, so we can also refer to it as the imperative formin Spanish.

In today’s post on informal commands, we’re looking at orders being given to a single person using informal language. In other words, we’re considering conjugations in the second-person singular: the túform of youin Spanish. For this reason, these are often referred to as informal tú commands.

What is the difference between formal and informal commands?

In Spanish, informal commandsare used among friends, coworkers, relatives, or when addressing a child, whereas formal commandsare often used for elders, employees, authority figures, and people you don’t know.

If in doubt, you can always err on the side of caution and choose the formal approach. As you engage with Spanish speakers over time, you’ll understand these little nuances better.

In this article, you will find the most common informal commands in Spanish, but if you need a more comprehensive guide to formal vs informal commands in Spanish, you can always check out our in-depth post on the Spanish imperative mood. We also have several specific posts for using the imperative mood, including nosotros commands, useful commands for teachers and babysitters, and Spanish dog commands.

How do you make an informal command in Spanish?

When making informal commands, Spanish has two different formsdepending on whether we’re making them in affirmative or negative. We’ll start with affirmative commands. Spanish negative commandswill follow.

Since we’re giving orders here, Spanish exclamation pointsare very common around the conjugated verb: Remember this!– ¡Recuerda esto!

Imperative conjugation: Affirmative informal commands

When we think of Spanish imperative conjugation, we’re usually considering the affirmative form. In this section we’ll take a look at the conjugations specifically for these informal tú commands.

For almost all Spanish verbs (we’ll see the 8 exceptions in a moment), the affirmative tú imperativeconjugation is identical to the present tensethird-person singularconjugation.

This is good news for Spanish learners, because once you’ve learned a verb’s present tense conjugation you automatically know its affirmative imperative tú conjugation! This means that even for irregular verbs, you just use the exact same conjugationthat you would use in present tense for él, ella, and usted.

Let’s review these regular endings for regular Spanish verbs. We’ll use estudiar(to study), leer(to read), and vivir(to live) to demonstrate the regular -ar, -er, and -irconjugations.

• Studyfor your final test! – ¡Estudiapara tu prueba final!

• Readcarefully, that book is a little bit confusing – Leeminuciosamente, ese libro es un poquito confuso.

• You livewherever you want, it is your life! – ¡Viveadonde quieras, es tu vida!

Remember that even most irregular Spanish verbs follow this same rule, so as long as you know the irregular present él/ella/usted conjugation, you know the affirmative imperative tú conjugation. Here are some of the conjugations for important irregular verbs.

Important exceptions to the rule: There are only 8Spanish verbs that have irregular affirmative tú imperative forms, whose conjugations differ from their third-person singular present forms. We present these Spanish irregular imperative verbshere.

Imperative conjugation: Negative informal commands

So far we’ve just seen the imperative forms for telling someone to do something. In Spanish, the imperative form is different if we tell someone notto do something. These are negative commandsin Spanish.

To make negative commands in Spanish, we use the conjugation of the present simple subjunctive. For the negation, we just precede this second-person singular tú conjugation with no.

Let’s review these second-person tú conjugations of regular verbs. We’ll use saltar(to jump), beber(to drink), and abrir(to open) to demonstrate the regular -ar, -er, and -irconjugations.

• Do not jumpon the bed, it is dangerous! – ¡No saltesen la cama, es peligroso!

• Do not drinkrum on an empty stomach! – ¡No bebasron con el estómago vacío!

• Do not openthe window yet! – ¡No abrasla ventana todavía!

For negative informal commands in Spanish, there are no exceptionsto this rule about using the tú conjugation of the simple present subjunctive. For verbs with irregular subjunctive conjugations, these same irregular forms are used to give negative commands.

Object pronoun placement with informal commands

Before we move on to our section on when to use informal commands in Spanish, we need to mention some particularities about using Spanish object pronouns with the imperative. We have full posts on directand indirect object pronounsso we won’t go too deep here, but we’ll at least cover the essentials and demonstrate them with some examples.

When we use object pronouns with affirmative commandsin Spanish, they are attached directly to the end of the conjugated verb. If the command takes both, they are attached in the following order: [affirmative command] + [indirect object pronoun] + [direct object pronoun].

In addition, some commands need an accent markwhen they have these additional syllables added to them. This rule goes beyond the scope of today’s lesson, but we cover it in more detail in our post on Spanish accent marks, while also mentioning it in our post on Spanish syllabication rules. We spend more time on it in our post on nosotros commands.

For now, let’s just see how we use object pronouns with affirmative commands. In these examples of informal commands in Spanish we’ll continue to put the command in bold, while putting the object pronouns in italics. Note the added accent mark on the imperative conjugation of the verb.

• I brought you your lunch. Takeit. – Te traje tu almuerzo. Tómalo.

• These flowers are for your mom. Please givethem to her. – Estas flores son para tu mamá. Por favor dáselos.

• Deb has a crush on Pedro. Tellit to him! – Deb está enamorada de Pedro. ¡Díselo!

• Do you know this song? Singit to me! – ¿Conoces esta canción? ¡Cántamelo!

• What’s your boyfriend like? Describehim to me. – ¿Cómo es tu novio? Descríbemelo.

• Your room is a mess. Cleanit! – Tu cuarto es un desastre. ¡Límpialo!

The rules are different when we use object pronouns with negative commandsin Spanish. In this case, we just place the object pronouns betweenthe noand the conjugated verb. The sentence structure takes the following order: no + [indirect object pronoun] + [direct object pronoun] + [negative command].

We’ll use the same examples as above to demonstrate this word order and conjugation.

• Don’t takeit. – Nolotomes.

• Don’t givethem to her. – Nose losdes.

• Please don’t tellit to him! – ¡Por favor nose lodigas!

• Don’t singit to me. – Nome lacantes.

• Don’t describehim to me. – Nome lodescribas.

• Don’t cleanit. – Nololimpies.

For a more in-depth lesson on using object pronouns with the imperative, check our post on nosotros commands.

When to use informal commands in Spanish?

Now that we’ve covered the conjugations and the sentence structure, we can review three common scenarios that require you to use informal commands.

Scenario #1: Talking about manners

• Do not talkwith your mouth full, it is rude! – ¡No hablescon la boca llena! es de mala educación!

• Learnto be on time because it is vital! – ¡Aprendea ser puntual porque es fundamental!

• Treatpeople with respect, kindness, and friendliness! – ¡Trataa las personas con respeto, amabilidad y cordialidad!

• Listento the person who speaks to you without interrupting them! – ¡Escuchaa la persona que habla contigo sin interrumpirla!

Scenario #2: Asking for information

• Tellmethe time, please. – Dimela hora, por favor.

• I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name. Repeatitagain. – Lo siento, no escuché tu nombre. Repítelode nuevo.

• Tellmeabout your job, it sounds interesting – Cuéntamede tu trabajo, suena interesante.

• Please, showmewhere the pharmacy is. – Indícamedónde está la farmacia, por favor.

Scenario #3: Giving directions

• Turnright when you get to the intersection. – Doblaa la derecha cuando llegues al cruce.

• Walkfive blocks and crossthe street. – Caminacinco cuadras y cruzala calle.

• Askfor help if you really need it. – Pideayuda si la necesitas realmente.

• Takethe train to the next stop. – Tomael tren hasta la siguiente estación.

Conclusion: Informal commands in Spanish

In today’s lesson, we covered everything you need to know about making informal commands in Spanish.

We started off by defining what we mean by informal vs formal commands in Spanish: the focus of the post has been on the Spanish tú imperativeform. Then we got into our lessons on imperative conjugation, with the important distinction between affirmativevs negativecommands. We wrapped up with an overview of imperative sentence structureusing object pronounsbefore reviewing the common scenarios where we commonly use informal commandsin Spanish.

We also included plenty of links to our other detailed postsin case you want to dig deeper on those topics. With today’s lesson, you should have a strong grasp of informal Spanish commands!

Informal commands: Exercises

Now it’s time for some practice! Choose the correct conjugation to complete each sentence. Keep in mind the differences between negative and affirmative forms! The answers and translations are below.

1. No ___ (haces, haz, hagas) ejercicio, necesitas descansar.

2. ¡___ (Dices, Digas, Di) la verdad ahora!

3. ¡No ___ (vas, ve, vayas) a esa fiesta, creo que será aburrida.

4. ___ (Eres, Sé, Seas) una buena persona con los mayores.

5. El día está muy lluvioso. No ___ (sales, sal, salgas) hoy.

6. Verónica me dijo: «___ (Vienes, Ven, Vengas) a mi fiesta de cumpleaños, es esta noche».

7. ___ (Hablas, Habla, Hables) más despacio, por favor, no puedo entenderte.

8. No tengo tu número de teléfono, pero ___ (dices, dime, digas) tu correo electrónico.

9. ¡ ___ (Haces, Haz, Hagas) silencio, no puedo escuchar la canción!

10. No te ___ (metes, mete, metas) en problemas de nuevo, por favor.

Answers

1. No hagas ejercicio, necesitas descansar. – Don’t exercise, you need to rest.

2. ¡Dila verdad ahora! – Tellthe truthnow!

3. No vayasa esa fiesta, creo que será aburrida. – Don’t goto that party, I think it will be boring.

4. Séuna buena persona con los mayores. – Bea good person to the elderly.

5. El día está muy lluvioso. No salgas hoy. – The day is very rainy. Do not go outtoday.

6. Verónica me dijo: «Ven a mi fiesta de cumpleaños, es esta noche». – Verónica told me: “Cometo my birthday party, it’s tonight.”

7. Hablamás despacio, por favor, no puedo entenderte. – Speakmore slowly, please, I can’t understand you.

8. No tengo tu número de teléfono, pero dime tu correo electrónico. – I don’t have your phone number, but tellme your email.

9. ¡Haz silencio, no puedo escuchar la canción! – Be quiet, I can’t hear the song!

10. Note metasen problemas de nuevo, por favor. – Don’t getin trouble again, please.