The most useful Catalan commands include several irregular tu forms: digues, fes, ves, vine, tingues, sigues, estigues, and duu. Their vosaltres partners do not all copy the same stem: digueu, feu, aneu, veniu, tingueu, sigueu, estigueu, dueu. These forms are frequent enough to learn as complete pairs.
There is no single rule that predicts every pair. Some commands preserve a special imperative stem, some borrow a subjunctive stem, and some use the ordinary plural stem. Honest memorization is required—but the patterns and contrasts below reduce the burden.
The core pairs
| Infinitive | tu | vosaltres | Negative tu |
|---|---|---|---|
| dir | digues | digueu | no diguis |
| fer | fes | feu | no facis |
| anar | ves | aneu | no vagis |
| venir | vine | veniu | no vinguis |
| tenir | tingues | tingueu | no tinguis |
| ser | sigues | sigueu | no siguis |
| estar | estigues | estigueu | no estiguis |
| dur | duu or du | dueu | no duguis |
The negative column is included to prevent a common error: negative commands use the present subjunctive, not no plus the affirmative form. The affirmative pair itself may also switch stems: ves/aneu, vine/veniu, fes/feu.
Digues la veritat, encara que et faci vergonya.
Tell the truth, even if you're embarrassed.
Feu una còpia del document abans de modificar-lo.
Make a copy of the document before editing it.
Ves a buscar l'abric; avui refrescarà.
Go and get your coat; it'll turn cooler today.
Veniu a sopar dissabte i porteu els nens.
Come for dinner on Saturday and bring the children.
Dir and pronoun attachment
Digues and digueu are the ordinary commands of dir. Weak pronouns follow an affirmative command: digues-ho, digues-me, digueu-nos-ho. In everyday speech, an unstressed final -s before a pronoun is often dropped: digue'm, digue-li (informal) instead of the more transparent digues-me, digues-li. These reduced forms are established in speech, but learners should recognize the full paradigm behind them.
Digues-me on has deixat les claus.
Tell me where you left the keys.
Digueu-nos-ho avui, que demà serà massa tard.
Tell us today; tomorrow will be too late.
The negative reverses pronoun position and changes the vowel: No m'ho diguis. Do not create no digues-m'ho. (regional: Valencian and Northwestern) dis also occurs, especially in pronominal uses, but digues is the general baseline taught here.
Fer: fes but feu
The singular fes is highly irregular; the plural returns to feu. Polite commands use the subjunctive stem: faci/facin in Central Catalan. The negative is no facis/no feu for tu/vosaltres.
Fes-ho ara i després podràs descansar.
Do it now, and then you'll be able to rest.
English “make” and “do” both often map to fer, so the same command appears in fes el llit “make the bed,” fes una foto “take a photo,” and fes-ho “do it.” Spanish haz must not enter the Catalan paradigm.
Anar: ves and plural aneu
Under current IEC orthography, the movement command ves has no accent. It is therefore written like ves from veure in expressions such as Ves per on! “Well, imagine that!”; context distinguishes the two verbs.
Ves-hi tu primer i avisa'm quan sigui segur.
You go there first and let me know when it's safe.
With a pronoun, write ves-hi and ves-te'n. Plural aneu gives aneu-hi and aneu-vos-en. The negative uses vagis/aneu: no hi vagis; no us n'aneu with pronominal anar-se'n. In the plural, affirmative and negative forms happen to share aneu, but the pronouns change position.
Do not confuse ves with the periphrastic past. Va comprar pa means “he/she bought bread”; va anar a comprar pa means “he/she went to buy bread.” Imperative ves a comprar pa addresses someone directly.
Venir: vine but veniu
Singular vine and plural veniu use different-looking stems. Central negative commands show the velar stem: no vinguis, no vingueu. The choice is about polarity and mood, not about whether the movement is currently in progress.
Vine quan acabis; no cal que corris.
Come when you finish; there's no need to rush.
The simple command is normally enough for English “come over” or “be coming.” A progressive such as estigues venint is not a routine substitute.
Tenir: possession, holding, and “here you are”
Tingues/tingueu are general commands: tingues paciència, tingueu-ho preparat. Catalan also has té and teniu when handing or offering something—roughly “here you are, take it.” Ten is another accepted singular command in appropriate varieties and constructions; (regional: Valencian and Northwestern) tin also occurs.
Tingues el mòbil carregat per si ens hem de trucar.
Keep your phone charged in case we have to call one another.
Té, agafa el meu paraigua; jo no el necessito.
Here, take my umbrella; I don't need it.
The forms are not freely interchangeable in every context. When a clitic follows, tingues-lo or ten-lo is natural for “keep/hold it,” whereas deictic té! presents an object to the hearer.
Ser and estar: commands about qualities and states
Use sigues/sigueu from ser and estigues/estigueu from estar. Their negative singulars are no siguis and no estiguis. Adjective agreement still follows the person addressed.
Sigues sincer amb ella, encara que la conversa sigui incòmoda.
Be honest with her, even if the conversation is uncomfortable.
Estigueu atents a la pantalla quan surti el vostre número.
Pay attention to the screen when your number appears.
The plural of estar is not esteu in this command: esteu is present indicative, while command estigueu uses the velar subjunctive-shaped stem. (regional: Balearic) sigau is an established plural command of ser.
Dur: two singular forms
The singular command of dur is duu or du; both are normative. The plural is dueu. Before a destination or recipient, dur means “take/carry,” not simply “bring” in every English context.
Duu aquesta capsa al magatzem i deixa-la al prestatge de dalt.
Take this box to the storeroom and leave it on the top shelf.
(regional: Valencian) singular duus or dus occurs; (regional: Balearic) plural duis is established. These alternatives belong to regional paradigms and should be labeled rather than mixed randomly with the Central set.
Mini-dialogue: getting ready to leave
—Vine, que ja és tard. —Un moment: digues-me on són les claus del cotxe.
—Come on, it's already late. —One moment: tell me where the car keys are.
—Té, són aquí. Duu tu les bosses i jo tanco la porta. —D'acord; ves baixant.
—Here, they're here. You carry the bags and I'll lock the door. —All right; start heading downstairs.
The dialogue uses vine to summon, digues-me to request information, deictic té while handing something over, duu for carrying, and ves for directed movement. Each form contributes a different lexical meaning; none is chosen by translating English “go” mechanically.
Common Mistakes
1. Building every plural from the singular stem.
❌ Feseu una còpia abans de continuar.
Incorrect—the plural command of fer is feu.
✅ Feu una còpia abans de continuar.
Make a copy before continuing.
2. Keeping the obsolete diacritical accent on movement command ves.
⚠️ Vés a casa i descansa.
This spelling is obsolete under current IEC orthography.
✅ Ves a casa i descansa.
Go home and rest.
3. Using the affirmative irregular form after no.
⚠️ No digues res fins que arribem.
Valid in the Valencian paradigm, but not in the Central paradigm taught here; Central uses diguis.
✅ No diguis res fins que arribem.
Don't say anything until we arrive.
4. Copying Spanish commands.
❌ Ven aquí i haz-me cas.
Incorrect—the commands ven and haz are Spanish.
✅ Vine aquí i fes-me cas.
Come here and listen to me.
5. Using indicative esteu as a plural command.
⚠️ Esteu quiets mentre faig la foto.
This is interpretable as indicative 'you are still'; the standard plural command intended here is estigueu.
✅ Estigueu quiets mentre faig la foto.
Keep still while I take the photo.
Key Takeaways
- Memorize the high-frequency tu–vosaltres pairs; no single stem rule covers them all.
- Current IEC spelling writes both the movement command and the form of veure as ves; context distinguishes them.
- Affirmative pronouns follow the verb; negative commands use proclitics plus present subjunctive.
- Recognize normative regional variants, but keep one production paradigm coherent.
Continue with imperatives and pronouns for the spelling changes that occur when these irregular commands take enclitic forms.
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
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- Velar and Irregular Subjunctive StemsB1 — Build Catalan present-subjunctive forms such as digui, tingui, vingui, pugui, and conegui from their irregular velar stems.