Questions about learning the subjunctive and Imperative moods

Question

First off,

I am wondering what is the recommended order for doing the different lessons on the subjunctive mood. Second off, about the imperative, I am confused because in the spanishdict lesson about the whole imperative mood, it says that there are nosotros commands, tú commands, usted commands, and indirect commands. However, I am confused because I have seen supposed vosotros commands ending in d in other spanish books and such. What's the story with those?

Answer 1

You're quite right that there is a vosotros command form - ending with d in the positive commands (the present subjunctive form is used in negative commands)

You might find this lesson useful as a reference - it's from Study.com and below is an excerpt.

The imperative form of verbs is fairly easy to learn. For regular verbs, the familiar affirmative imperative (the one that goes with tú and vosotros) is formed simply by dropping the final letter (the r) of the infinitive, except for verbs ending in -ir, in which case the ending is changed to -e; in the plural, the final letter of the infinitive is changed to a d. (See examples below.) That's all there is to it. For formal and negative commands, the subjunctive conjugation is used.

The imperative form is equivalent to the use of the unconjugated verb in English without a subject.

For example, if you're telling someone in English to look, the command is simply "look." The Spanish equivalent can be mira, mire, mirad or miren, depending on whom you are speaking to.

The chart below shows the imperative forms; .....

Direct commands for -ar verbs (using hablar, to speak, as an example):

singular familiar: habla tú, no hables tú (speak, don't speak)

singular formal: hable Ud., no hable Ud. (speak, don't speak) plural

familiar: hablad vosotros, no habléis vosotros (speak, don't speak)

plural formal: hablen Uds., no hablen Uds. (speak, don't speak)

As far as learning how to use the subjunctive my recommendation would be:

1) read a few lessons to get a basic understanding or at least an idea of the concept

Here's one to get you started.

2) learn how to conjugate verbs in the subjunctive mood so that you can recognize it when you hear or read it.

3) memorise this:

Use the 'indicative' mood to declare and the 'subjunctive' for pretty much everything else.

4) just start to look for the subjunctive and make a point of trying to figure out why it's being used in each particular case.

Before long you'll be using it like a native.