Students quickly grasp the imperative concept once asked to picture their parent or guardian ordering them around: “Study.” “Eat your vegetables.” “Take out the trash.” From there, the teacher can explain the difference between an affirmative, “Take out the trash”, and a negative command, “Don’t take out the trash.” In the following storyboard series, students will only employ affirmative tú commands to conjugate Spanish verbs. Thus, the following cannot be used for Ud. or Uds. or vosotros. Neither can they be used in order to say “Don’t…”.
Affirmative tú commands are fairly straightforward. There are a handful of irregulars that need to be memorized, but otherwise, the imperative form is identical to the 3rd person, singular of present tense. The following chart clearly demonstrates the formation of regular, affirmative tú commands.
| Infinitive | Ud./Él/Ella | Affirmative tú commands |
|---|---|---|
| hablar | habla | habla |
| leer | lee | lee |
| escribir | escribe | escribe |
| jugar (boot verb) | juega | juega |
Here is what needs to be memorized because they are irregular command forms.
| Infinitive | Command |
|---|---|
| poner | pon |
| tener | ten |
| venir | ven |
| salir | sal |
| ser | sé |
| decir | di |
| ir | ve |
| hacer | haz |
