Affirmative Commands

​An affirmative command is a command that tells someone to do something.

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​Do this!

​Sit down!

​Eat your vegetables!

​Come here!

​Go away

​If you want to get technical, this is NOT another verb tense.

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​This is a verb MOOD and it's called the IMPERATIVE mood.

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​Everything you have learned thus far has been the indicative mood- present, preterite, imperfect, present perfect, present progressive

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​For that reason, you won't see any conjugations for 'yo' on the chart. If you are speaking to yourself, you'd use the "tú" form.

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​You also won't see any conjugations for él, ella, ellos or ellas because you wouldn't command someone in 3rd person. You have to be speaking directly to them.

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​Also- FYI- the "nosotros"command is best translated as "Let's..." as in "Let's eat!" It's a command to a group and you are including yourself.

Did you notice that the endings are flipped from what they normally are on the usted, ustedes and nosotros conjugations?

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In the chart, you'll see how -ar verbs which usually use -a endings have -e endings for usted, ustedes and nosotros.

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​Similarly, -er and -ir verbs that normally have -e endings, use -a endings.

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​Flipped endings

A to E -ar verbs

E to A. -er and -ir verbs

Let's review the rules​

Let's practice​

Harder practice​

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​In the following questions:

assume that a person is your friend unless they have a title in front of their name.

Since "tú" commands look the same as 3rd person singular present tense, you might be wondering how to tell them apart.

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The two hints that will tell you if it's a command or statement are:

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​1. Punctuation

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​2. Context

​Ana, ¡come! - command - Ana, eat!

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Ana come. -statement- Ana eats.

​We have learned that you can place reflexive, direct object and indirect object pronouns in 3 places so far.

1. ​Before the conjugated verb

2. ​Attached to the infinitive

3. ​Attached to the progressive participle

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​Now there is ONE MORE place that they can go, can you guess what it is?

​Dame el libro- Give me the book

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​Abrela- Open it (the door)

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​Ciérramela- Close it for me (the door)

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​Pásamelo- Pass it to me (the pencil)

1. ​​Reflexive

2. ​Indirect

3. ​Direct

​Oh yes, there are irregulars.

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​Sadly, we aren't going to learn those today. I know you're upset.

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​Otro día. Te prometo.