Learn the imperative mood in Spanish

The imperative is a verb mood used to give orders, commands, instructions or advice in Spanish. It is used to directly address a person or a group of people and express actions to be performed or avoided. There are three main forms of the imperative in Spanish: the affirmative, the negative and the pronominal.

On this page you will find:

»Affirmative Imperative
»Negative Imperative
»Pronominal Imperative

The Spanish imperative mood at a glance

The imperative is a verb form used in Spanish to express orders, commands, instructions, suggestions and advice. It is a direct form of communication that allows us to indicate actions to be carried out or to be avoided. In essence, the imperative is used when we want to influence someone's behavior, either to tell them what to do, how to do it or what not to do. It is fundamental in everyday communication and awakens the need to take into account various aspects, such as context, tone and the relationship between the people involved in the conversation.

It should be clarified that the use of the imperative is influenced by the context, the relationship between people, the formality and the tone of the conversation. In formal situations, it is important to use appropriate forms of address. In addition, some irregular verbs have special forms in the imperative. You will find all the types, contexts and situations in which the imperative is used below.

Spanish affirmative imperative

The imperative affirmative is an essential verb form in the Spanish language, which allows us to communicate orders, instructions and commands in a direct and emphatic way. This grammatical form belongs to the imperative mood, one of the five verbal modes in Spanish that is mainly used to express actions in an imperative way, that is, to indicate actions that must be carried out by the receiver of the message.

Affirmative Imperative

Learn here how to use the affirmative imperative correctly in Spanish.

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Imperative negative

Learn here how to correctly use the negative imperative in Spanish.

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Spanish negative imperative

The negative imperative, an extremely important verb form in the Spanish language, is a fundamental linguistic tool for conveying prohibitions, warnings and restrictions in a clear and firm manner. This grammatical component, belonging to the imperative mood, one of the five verbal modes in Spanish, is used to communicate actions that should be avoided or should not be carried out.

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Pronominal Imperative in Spanish

The pronominal imperative, a fundamental grammatical form in the Spanish language, stands as a linguistic tool of great versatility that makes it possible to communicate instructions and orders when the subject of the action is at the same time the receiver of the action. This particularity distinguishes it from the non-pronominal imperative, since it implies that the person who executes the action is also the one who receives it.