Most imperatives are predictable, but a small group of extremely common verbs — ser, ir, estar, ter, dar, and vir — have irregular command forms you simply have to memorize. The good news is that these are the same irregular present-subjunctive forms you'll use again and again, so learning them here pays off across the whole language. The bad news is there's no clean shortcut: ser becomes seja, ir becomes vá, and you can't derive those from the infinitive.
The core table (você / vocês)
The standard (você-based) imperative for these verbs is identical to the present subjunctive, and the negative just adds não.
| Verb | Affirmative (você) | Affirmative (vocês) | Negative (você) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ser | seja | sejam | não seja | be |
| ir | vá | vão | não vá | go |
| estar | esteja | estejam | não esteja | be (state) |
| ter | tenha | tenham | não tenha | have |
| dar | dê | deem | não dê | give |
| vir | venha | venham | não venha | come |
Seja paciente, a fila anda rápido.
Be patient, the line moves fast.
Vá embora e não volte mais.
Go away and don't come back.
Tenha cuidado com o degrau, é alto.
Be careful with the step, it's tall.
Dê uma chance pra ele, por favor.
Give him a chance, please.
The colloquial tu/informal forms
In casual speech, several of these have shorter, friendlier alternatives borrowed from the tu-imperative — used even by speakers who never say tu as a subject. The headline case is vai for ir.
| Verb | Standard (você) | Colloquial (tu-form) |
|---|---|---|
| ir | vá | vai |
| vir | venha | vem |
| dar | dê | dá |
| estar | esteja | (rare — usually rephrased) |
Vai lá e fala com o gerente, vai.
Go over there and talk to the manager, go on.
Vem aqui um instante, preciso te mostrar uma coisa.
Come here for a moment, I need to show you something.
Dá um abraço na vovó antes de sair.
Give grandma a hug before you leave.
Note that ser essentially has no colloquial short form — there's no everyday "tu-imperative" of ser in Brazil. For "be patient / be careful / be calm" the standard seja paciente / tenha calma is what you use across registers.
Why these are irregular
These verbs are irregular in the present subjunctive itself, and the imperative inherits that irregularity wholesale. Seja comes from an old subjunctive stem unrelated to the infinitive ser; vá comes from the suppletive subjunctive of ir; dê and esteja are likewise idiosyncratic. There is no logical pattern that lets you generate them — this is one of those honest moments where the answer is "memorize the six." The payoff is real, though: these same forms drive every quero que você seja..., espero que vá..., tomara que dê certo you'll ever say. Learn them once as commands and you've front-loaded a chunk of the subjunctive.
Frequent fixed expressions
Several of these irregular imperatives live inside set phrases you'll hear constantly:
Tomara que dê certo!
Hopefully it works out! — dê inside a fixed wish.
Vá com Deus.
Go with God / take care. — a warm farewell.
Tenha um bom dia!
Have a good day!
Não seja por isso.
Don't let that be a problem / no worries about that. — idiom.
English-speaker perspective
English handles all of these with its single bare-verb imperative: be patient, go away, have a good day, give him a chance. There is no special "be" command and no person marking. The challenges for English speakers are:
- "Be" splits into two verbs — ser (seja) and estar (esteja) — so "be careful" (tenha cuidado, lit. "have care") and "be patient" (seja paciente) don't even both use a "be" verb.
- The forms are unpredictable, so the usual "drop the ending" instinct fails.
- The colloquial/standard split (vai vs vá) means you must pick a register, something English never asks of you here.
A common English-speaker slip is calquing "be careful" as something with ser/estar directly; Portuguese prefers tenha cuidado with ter. Likewise "have a good trip" is faça boa viagem or tenha uma boa viagem, not a literal "be."
Common Mistakes
❌ Sê paciente. (BR everyday)
Archaic/literary tu-form; not used in modern Brazilian speech.
✅ Seja paciente.
Be patient.
❌ Va embora!
Incorrect — missing the acute accent; the form is vá.
✅ Vá embora!
Go away!
❌ De uma chance pra ele.
Incorrect — without the circumflex, 'de' is the preposition 'of'.
✅ Dê uma chance pra ele.
Give him a chance.
❌ Seja cuidadoso com o degrau. (most natural BR)
Understandable but unidiomatic; Brazilians say 'tenha cuidado'.
✅ Tenha cuidado com o degrau.
Be careful with the step.
❌ Vão-se embora! (BR casual)
Enclitic reflexive sounds European/formal; Brazilians drop the clitic.
✅ Vão embora!
Go away! (to several people)
Key Takeaways
- Memorize the six: seja, vá, esteja, tenha, dê, venha (plurals sejam, vão, estejam, tenham, deem, venham).
- These are the present-subjunctive forms — learning them as commands gives you a head start on the subjunctive.
- Casual speech often swaps in tu-forms: vai for vá, vem for venha, dá for dê — even from non-tu speakers.
- Mind the accents — vá, dê, deem — and remember "be careful" is tenha cuidado (with ter), not a literal "be."
Now practice Portuguese
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Start learning Portuguese→Related Topics
- The Imperative in BR PortugueseA2 — How Brazilian Portuguese gives commands, requests, and instructions — the você-form (from the subjunctive), the regional tu-form, the always-subjunctive negative, and the famous tu/você mismatch in real speech.
- Affirmative Imperative with VocêA2 — The standard Brazilian command form — derived from the present subjunctive 3sg (fale!, coma!, venha!, faça!) — including the plural vocês forms and why every sign, label, and instruction in Brazil uses it.
- Affirmative Imperative with Tu (Regional)B1 — How the tu-form imperative works, where it is used in Brazil, and why fala, vem, and olha are the colloquial workhorses of everyday speech.
- Negative ImperativeA2 — How to tell someone NOT to do something — always built on the present subjunctive — and why não fale is standard even though the affirmative is fala.
- Presente do Subjuntivo: Irregular VerbsA2 — The irregular present subjunctive in Brazilian Portuguese — most forms come from the 1sg present indicative, plus six truly suppletive verbs to memorize.
- Summary of Irregular Present Indicative FormsA2 — A consolidated reference table of the most common irregular Brazilian Portuguese verbs in the present indicative, grouped by the type of irregularity — suppletive stems, -g-/-ç- eu forms, -z- stems, and vowel-changing -ir verbs.