Tu commands

Question

Hola,

I have my Spanish final and I am practicing for it. My notes are unclear on the Tu command form. My specific question is if you are giving a command to multiple friends (not including yourself). Do I use the Udtedes (plural) subjunctive for this? Or do I still use the he/she/Ud. present indicative form. I guess also with the Tu form I have to know it it is the same in affirmative and negative for the plural Tu commands.

Answer 1

it depends on where you are. in spain you might see a vosotros command form, whereas in the rest of latin america you would fall into ustedes commands:

tell me
positive tú - dime
negative tú - no me digas
positive ud. - dígame
negative ud. - no me diga
positive vosotros - decidme
negative vosotros - no me digáis (? not sure on this one)
positive uds. - díganme
negative uds. - no me digan

All perfect. - lazarus1907, Jan 23, 2011

Answer 2

I see. I always think that's rather weird. As the second plural does exist!

Well, just to point out that the negative commands take the subjunctive:

No hagas esto. No hagan esto.
No comas pan. No coman pan.

Some imperative mood commands use the subjunctive verb endings. Don't confuse beginners into thinking negative commands are subjunctive mood rather than imperative mood. - 0074b507, Jan 23, 2011

Answer 3

Affirmative commands: drop the -s ending of the tú form. Irregulars: Venir: ven Decir: di salir: sal hacer: haz Tener: ten Ir: ve Poner: pon Ser: sé

Negative commands: drop the -o off the yo form, add -er for ar verbs, and add -ar for er verbs. (opposite endings) Irregulars: Decir Ir estar saber ser

-car, -gar, and -zar verbs have spelling changes. c changes to qu g changes to gu z changes to c

Answer 4

Ok. Sometimes with an example is easier. Let's take the verb "correr" run

"¡Corre!" (tú) o "¡No corras!" (negative imperative)
"¡Corra!" (él o ella)
"¡Corramos!" (nosostros)
"¡Corran!" (ustedes) o "¡No Corran!" (negative imperative)
"¡Corran!" (ellos)

Hope it helps!

Answer 5

that explains what my notes were trying to tell me. I just need to make sure. My teacher is teaching latin american spanish so we are not learning the vosotros forms.

Answer 6

If you are using 'tú' commans (more common in Spain than in America), you use 'vosotros' for the plural; otherwise you use 'usted' and 'ustedes'.

¡Mira (tú)! ¡Mirad (vosotros)!
¡Entra (tú)! ¡Entrad (vosotros)!

This plural form is often replaced by the infinitive -even though it is not considered grammatically correct-: ¡Mirar! ¡Entrar!