Imperative Tense Question

Question

Can you say that, generally, if you want to give a command, that you can do the following:

For -AR verbs:

-a ending for informal singular, -e ending for formal singular, -en ending for plural.

Camina, por favor. Camine, por favor. Caminen, por favor.

For -ER/-IR verbs:

-e ending for informal singular, -a ending for formal singular, -an ending for plural.

Come, por favor. Coma, por favor. Coman, por favor.

I tested this with many, many verbs on the conjugator, and I can't find one that doesn't follow this pattern.

Answer 1

There are many. These are some examples:

Oír:

Oye- Oiga- Oigamos-Oigan.

Detener:

Detén - Detenga -Detengamos- Detengan.

Ir:

Ve- Vaya- Vayamos- Vayan.

Ver:

Ve-vea-veamos-vean.

Oler:

Huele-huelan-olamos-huelan

Reconocer:

Reconoce- reconozca-reconozcamos-reconozcan

Answer 2

It's a mood rather than a tense.

Answer 3

Generally, yes, but here are some irregular ones.

hacer - haz

tener - ten

salir - sal

poner - pon

Also, if you're already familiar with these conjugations this would probably be easier to remember.

Tú imperative is the same as 3rd person present indicative (hablar -> habla)

Usted imperative is the same as 3rd person present subjunctive (mentir -> mienta)

Ustedes imperative is the same as...the ustedes present subjunctive (don't know what it's called) (empezar - empiecen)

Ustedes; I think that would be 2nd person plural.... I love how we don't really have that in English. - blazinbilly252, May 28, 2011

Here we go again omitting the poor vos and vosotros commands. (I'm sure that they are lonely) - 0074b507, May 29, 2011

(the nosotros commands I can live with omitting as well as indirect commands, etc.) - 0074b507, May 29, 2011

blazinbilly2 ustedes is the 2nd person plural "formal" command in Spain. Vosotros would be the 2nd person plural "informal" command. - 0074b507, May 29, 2011

Vosotros ? in Spain only Q, 10% of the spanish speaking world - pacofinkler, May 29, 2011

Answer 4

It also gets sort of tricky when you are making it negative. The "tú" and "vosotros" forms are altered. I think it would sound really funny if you commanded someone not to do something and you said "no haz eso" when it should be "no hagas eso". (Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I've always taken it.)

Answer 5

I tested this with many, many verbs on the conjugator, and I can't find one that doesn't follow this pattern.

There are 800 verbs that do not follow this pattern of yours. For example:

oler: huele (tú), huelan (ustedes)

salir: sal (tú), salgan (ustedes)

The real pattern is that these two imperative forms are identical to the present tenses. For the "tú" form, use the third person singular of the present indicative (e.g. [él] huele) and for the "usted" and "ustedes", take the third person of the subjunctive ones ([él] huela, [ellos] huelan). This works with most verbs both for regular and irregular verbs.

There are only a few completely irregular forms that do not match the "tú" ones of the present: decir, hacer, ir, poner, salir, tener, venir, ser...

Thanks! I tested a lot, but apparently not the right ones. :) - Tosh, May 28, 2011

Answer 6

Mover:

Muévelo, por favor. Por favor muévalo. Muévanlo, por favor.

The conjugator show, Mueve/Mueva/Muevan for the imperative. - Tosh, May 28, 2011

Mueve, Mueva,Muevan... - 002067fe, May 28, 2011