LQH: Gramática Lesson - Tú (Informal) Commands

Tú (Informal) Commands

Let's begin the studies of informal commands by watching this video lesson. Be prepared to take notes. You can pause this video lesson at any time.

Tú form commands are commands which you would use when telling a friend or equal to do something. They are considerably more difficult than usted and ustedes commands for three reasons:

1. They use a form that seems unnatural for a tú conjugation
2. They have a number of irregular conjugations
3. The negative form is completely different from the regular (affirmative) form.

Affirmative Tú Form Commands

It seems very strange, but to conjugate an affirmative tú command, we're actually going to use the indicative él/ella/usted form (not the tú form) of the verb:

Conjugation Review - él/ella/usted Form

hablar		correr		repetir
hablo	hablamos	corro	corremos	repito	repetimos
hablas	habláis	corres	corréis	repites	repetís
HABLA	hablan	CORRE	corren	REPITE	repiten

So how is this different form an usted command? Remember, the usted command uses the subjunctive form, the tú form command uses the indicative. Here's a chart of both for comparison purposes:

Usted vs. Tú Command Forms

Command Form	hablar	correr	repetir
Tú	habla	corre	repite
Usted	hable	corra	repita

As you can see, there is usually only a difference of one letter between an usted command and a tú command. The difference between a polite apology and an insult is the difference between perdóneme and perdóname.

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