Spanish Commands and the Imperative

Spanish commands tell someone to do or not to do something. The form changes depending on who you are speaking to and whether the command is affirmative or negative.

Affirmative commands

Using hablar (“to speak”) as an example:

Singular	Plural
—	nosotros: hablemos
tú: habla	vosotros: hablad
usted: hable	ustedes: hablen

There is no first-person singular command because you do not normally give a command to yourself.

Negative commands

To tell someone not to do something:

Singular	Plural
—	nosotros: no hablemos
tú: no hables	vosotros: no habléis
usted: no hable	ustedes: no hablen

Notice that most negative commands use forms of the present subjunctive.

Which command should you use?

• tú — informal, one person → Affirmative Tú Commands / Negative Tú Commands
• usted — formal or polite, one person → Usted and Ustedes Commands
• ustedes — multiple people; used for both formal and informal situations in most of Latin America → Usted and Ustedes Commands
• nosotros — “let’s …”: Hablemos. — Let’s talk.
• vosotros — informal plural, used mainly in Spain: Hablad. — Speak.

Pronouns with commands

With affirmative commands, object and reflexive pronouns attach to the end of the verb:

Dime.

Tell me.

Siéntate.

Sit down.

Hazlo.

Do it.

With negative commands, pronouns come before the verb:

No me digas.

Don’t tell me.

No te sientes.

Don’t sit down.

No lo hagas.

Don’t do it.

When both an indirect and a direct object pronoun are used, they stay together in the usual order: indirect + direct + verb with negative commands, or verb + indirect + direct with affirmative commands.

Dímelo.

Tell it to me.

No me lo digas.

Don’t tell me.

Dáselo.

Give it to him/her.

No se lo des.

Don’t give it to him/her.

Remember that le / les → se before lo, la, los, or las. See Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns Together for the full rule.

Quick rule: affirmative → pronouns attach to the verb; negative → pronouns come before the verb.