what exacly is the imperative tense?

Question

Can someone help? I'm having difficulty understanding what the 'imperative' tense is???

Answer 1

The imperative is not a tense, it's a 'mood'.

The less technical term for the imperative mood is the "command" form of verbs.

Such as.

"Speak!" "Habla!"

"Eat!" "Come!"

"Write!" "Escribe".

So essentially, for most normally conjugated verbs you simply go to the 3rd person singular form for a command form of the verb. There are many exceptions as would be expected. I'll list a couple.

Ten = Have (Ex: ¡Ten cuidado! Be careful) Sal = Leave (Ex: Sal con tus amigos. Go out with your friends) Se = Be(Ex: ¡Se amable! Be nice.) Ve = Go(Ve a la piscina. Go to the pool.) Di = Say(Dime un secreto. Tell me a secret.) Pon = Put(Pon la mesa. Set the table) Ven = Come(Ven aca, por favor. Come here, please.) Haz = Do / Make (Haz la tarea. Do your homework.)

You've missed a few ¡ in Spanish, but the explanation is really good. - lazarus1907, Dec 12, 2010

Thanks. :) - RommpinCrab, Dec 12, 2010