Formal Commands

In this lesson, you will learn about how to say a formal 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 formal commands. 

A formal command is used when you are speaking to someone who is seen as your superior, or someone you respect. You are being formal with them. 

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 subjects in a formal command will be 'usted', or 'ustedes'. In this lesson, we will not be using any other subjects. 'Tu' is not used, because it is informal.
  
• When conjugating an affirmative command, your verb is conjugated in the exact same way as in the subjunctive. 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

usted = e

ustedes = en

• Example: In the command, "Ladies, sing a song," the subject is 'ladies' 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 'ladies', which fits the 'ustedes' subject, so we will now add the 'ustedes' ending, '-en', to 'cant', making 'canten'. Therefore, the command, "Ladies, sing a song," in Spanish is, "Señoras, canten una canción."
  

-er/-ir Verbs

usted = a

ustedes = an

• 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 'usted' subject, so we will now add the 'usted' ending, '-a', to 'com', making 'coma'. Therefore, the command, "Eat your food," in Spanish is, "Coma 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 subjects in a command will be 'usted', or 'ustedes'. In this lesson, we will not be using any other subjects. 'Tu' is not used, because it is informal.
  
• When conjugating a negative command, you will be doing the exact same thing as with an affirmative command, but you will add a 'no' in front of the verb that you conjugate. 
  
• Example: In the command, "Ladies, don't sing a song," the subject, 'ladies' are being told to not sing. That makes this a negative command. The verb, 'cantar', will be conjugated in the same way that it would be in the affirmative: drop the -ar, add the subjunctive 'ustedes' ending. That makes the verb 'cantar' into 'canten'. But to make this command negative, we will add 'no' in front, making the new sentence in Spanish, "Señoras, no canten una canción."
  

That's all you need to know about making formal commands! If you have questions about conjugating in the subjunctive, click here to read more about it! If you have other questions that you want to ask, feel free to click here, make a post, and ask!