Informal Commands

In this lesson, you will learn about how to say an informal command in Spanish. A command is when you are telling someone to do something. For example, "Jessica, please go shut the door," or, "You go take out the trash." Usually, there are two types of commands: affirmative and negative. You can also have a formal command or an informal command - in this lesson, we'll just be focusing on informal commands. 

An informal command is used when you are speaking to someone who is seen as your friend, or someone you are familiar with.

When commanding, there is a certain way you should conjugate your verbs. Below, you will find information on how to form your commands both affirmatively and negatively.

Affirmative Commands

• An affirmative command is used when you are telling someone to do something. 
  
• When you issue a command, you are almost always directing it towards others, so the only subject in an informal command will be 'tu'. In this lesson, we will not be using any other subjects. 'Usted' and 'ustedes' are not used, because they are formal.
  
• The type of verbs you conjugate can be -ar, -er, or -ir verbs. The rules for conjugating each type of verb are as follows:
  

-ar Verbs

tu  =  -a

• Example: In the command, "Sing a song," the subject is 'you', even though it is not specifically stated, and the verb is 'sing'. Because this is a command, we will conjugate according to the chart above and the subject of the sentence. The verb 'sing' in Spanish is 'cantar', so to conjugate 'cantar', we will drop the -ar off of the end, making the verb 'cant'. The subject is 'you', which fits the 'tu' subject, so we will now add the 'tu' ending, '-a', to 'cant', making 'canta'. Therefore, the command, "Sing a song," in Spanish is, "Canta una canción."
  

-er/-ir Verbs

tu  =  -e

• Example: In the command, "Eat your food," the subject is 'your' and the verb is 'eat'. Because this is a command, we will conjugate according to the chart above and the subject of the sentence. The verb 'eat' in Spanish is 'comer', so to conjugate 'comer', we will drop the -er off of the end, making the verb 'com'. The subject is 'your', which fits the 'tu' subject, so we will now add the 'tu' ending, '-e', to 'com', making 'come'. Therefore, the command, "Eat your food," in Spanish is, "Come tu comida."
  

Negative Commands

• A negative command is used when you are telling someone not to do something.
  
• When you issue a command, you are almost always directing it towards others, so the only subject in an informal command will be 'tu'. In this lesson, we will not be using any other subjects. 'Usted' and 'ustedes' are not used, because they are formal.
  
• When conjugating a negative command, you will add a 'no' in front of the verb that you conjugate. The rules for conjugating a verb in a negative informal command are as follows:
  

-ar Verbs

tu  =  -as

• Example: In the command, "Don't sing a song," the subject, 'you' are being told to not sing. That makes this a negative command. To conjugate the verb 'cantar', you will drop the -ar and add the 'tu' ending from the chart above. That makes the verb 'cantar' into 'cantas'. But to make this command negative, we will add 'no' in front, making the new sentence in Spanish, "No cantas una canción."
  

-er and -ir Verbs

tu  =  -es

• Example: In the command, "Don't eat your food," the subject, 'your' are being told to not eat. That makes this a negative command. To conjugate the verb 'comer', you will drop the -er and add the 'tu' ending from the chart above. That makes the verb 'comer' into 'comes'. But to make this command negative, we will add 'no' in front, making the new sentence in Spanish, "No comes tu comida."
  

That's all you need to know about making informal commands! If you have questions that you want to ask, feel free to click here, make a post, and ask!