SPA 202.

Los mandatos

LOS MANDATOS
This is a one-page summary/easier explanation than the longer one in the textbook. Still, read the textbook as detailed reference.

In order to give a command (mandato), you need someone to listen to the

command and act accordingly. Therefore, you need a YOU person, either in
singular or plural. In Spanish, we would have four:
TÚ (singular informal) USTED (singular, formal)
VOSOTROS (plural, informal) USTEDES (plural, formal)

Because VOSOTROS is only used in Spain, we will focus on TÚ vs. USTED and USTEDES for plural1

LOS MANDATOS: FORMAS

Commands can be either positive (do this!) or negative (don´t do that!).
If you think about it, commands are very similar to the recommendations, although more DIRECT. Therefore,
most command forms are EXACTLY similar to the subjunctive forms used with recommendations, eliminating
the recommendation part: Quiero que usted estudie > ¡Estudie!
Es necesario que ustedes vengan aquí > ¡Vengan aquí!
Sugiero que (tú) no hables en la biblioteca > ¡No hables en la biblioteca!

The only exception to this is the POSITIVE TÚ COMMAND, which instead of being similar to the
subjunctive is similar to the 3rd person (él, ella) form of the PRESENT INDICATIVE, and has a few irregular
forms. You can see the forms below:

TÚ USTED USTEDES
Similar to ESTUDIA ESTUDIE ESTUDIEN
él/ella in the COME COMA COMAN
present ESCRIBE ESCRIBA ESCRIBAN
** HAZ / SÉ ** HAGA / SEA... HAGAN / SEAN…
Similar to
present
NO ESTUDIES NO ESTUDIE NO ESTUDIEN
subjunctive
NO COMAS NO COMA NO COMAN
NO ESCRIBAS NO ESCRIBA NO ESCRIBAN
NO HAGAS / SEAS NO HAGA / SEA NO HAGAN / SEAN

List of irregular commands, “tú” positive

tener: ten poner: pon decir: di
venir: ven ir: ve
salir: sal hacer: haz ser: sé

PRONOUNS tú usted
Study it! ESTÚDIALO ESTÚDIELO Attached to positive
Don’t shower! NO TE DUCHES NO SE DUCHE Before negative

1
There is also a NOSOTROS command form (i.e. Let´s…!). I recommend READING about it in the textbook, but in class we will
focus exclusively on three forms; tú, usted, and ustedes.