Tu Affirmative Commands | Portuguese (Portugal) Grammar

The tu affirmative imperative is the command form you will use most often in casual European Portuguese. Telling a friend to come over, asking a child to eat their dinner, directing a sibling to close the door, giving a classmate a piece of advice -- all of these live in the affirmative tu. It is one of the few slots in the imperative system with its own distinctive shape, not borrowed from the subjunctive. Learning it well unlocks a huge amount of natural, everyday speech.

The one rule

Take the 3rd-person singular of the present indicative, and -- well, you are done. That is the affirmative tu command.

falar → (ele) fala → Fala! ("Speak!")
comer → (ele) come → Come! ("Eat!")
partir → (ele) parte → Parte! ("Leave!")

Equivalently, you can take the tu form of the present indicative (falas, comes, partes) and strip off the final -s. Either description gives the same result: the regular affirmative tu command is always a two-syllable (or shorter) word ending in a vowel.

Fala com a tua mãe, ela está preocupada.

Talk to your mother, she's worried.

Come a sopa enquanto está quente.

Eat the soup while it's hot.

Abre a janela, está abafado aqui.

Open the window, it's stuffy in here.

Escreve-me quando chegares.

Write to me when you get there.

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Because the form is identical to the 3rd-person present indicative, a sentence like ele come ("he eats") and come! ("eat!") share the same verb shape. Context, intonation, and the absence of a subject pronoun tell you instantly that you are dealing with a command.

The irregular affirmative tu commands

A handful of very common verbs have irregular affirmative tu imperatives that do not follow the "drop the -s" pattern. These are among the most memorized items in all of Portuguese grammar, because they come up constantly in everyday speech.

Infinitive	Affirmative tu	Meaning
ser	sê	be
ir	vai	go
ter	tem	have
vir	vem	come
fazer	faz (or faze)	do, make
dizer	diz (or dize)	say, tell
pôr	põe	put
saber	sabe	know
ver	vê	see, look

Notice the diacritics. The circumflex on sê (be!) distinguishes it from se ("if" / reflexive pronoun). The tilde on põe (put!) reflects the nasal -õe ending that runs through the whole pôr paradigm. The circumflex on vê marks the stressed close-mid -e. Without these marks, the words are either wrong or ambiguous.

Vem cá, tenho uma coisa para te mostrar.

Come here, I have something to show you.

Vai ao supermercado e traz pão.

Go to the supermarket and bring some bread.

Sê paciente, ele ainda é criança.

Be patient, he's still a child.

Diz à tua irmã que o jantar está pronto.

Tell your sister dinner is ready.

Põe o casaco, lá fora está a chover.

Put on your coat, it's raining outside.

Faz-me um favor e fecha a porta.

Do me a favor and close the door.

The longer forms faze and dize are archaic or extremely formal. In modern speech, faz and diz are the living forms. You might encounter faze in a prayer, a classical poem, or elevated rhetoric, but nowhere near an everyday conversation.

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Mnemonic for the nine irregulars: Sê bom, vai lá, tem calma, vem cá, faz favor, diz-me, põe a mesa, sabe bem e vê isto -- a string of nine tiny commands you could say to a friend in one minute. If you can reproduce this chain, you know the irregular set.

Reflexive and clitic attachment

When a tu affirmative imperative has a pronoun attached (object, reflexive, or combined), the pronoun is enclitic -- it comes after the verb, joined with a hyphen.

Levanta-te, já são nove horas!

Get up, it's already nine o'clock!

Senta-te aqui ao pé de mim.

Sit here next to me.

Diz-me a verdade, por favor.

Tell me the truth, please.

Dá-mo antes que me esqueça.

Give it to me before I forget.

The form mo in the last example is the fused clitic for me + o ("to me + it"). Portuguese combines indirect and direct object pronouns into single morphemes: mo, ma, to, ta, lho, lha, no-lo, vo-lo. This happens only in enclisis; in proclisis the pronouns stay separate. See combined clitics for the full picture.

Reflexive tu takes the pronoun te:

Despacha-te, estamos atrasados!

Hurry up, we're late!

Cala-te, estás a fazer muito barulho.

Be quiet, you're making too much noise.

When tu feels right

Tu is the default for:

Friends and peers of any age -- bare commands with tu sound natural and warm among friends.
Family -- siblings, parents to children, between spouses, close relatives.
Children and pets -- always tu with kids; Portuguese never shifts to você with a child.
Classmates and coworkers of equal rank who are on informal terms.

Espera por mim à entrada do cinema.

Wait for me at the entrance of the cinema.

Traz o meu livro amanhã, se não te esqueceres.

Bring my book tomorrow, if you don't forget.

Bebe água, estás com ar de quem precisa.

Drink some water, you look like you need it.

When tu feels wrong

Using tu with the wrong person can be a social misstep. Avoid it with:

Strangers in general, unless they are clearly peers in a casual setting.
Elderly people you do not know -- default to você or o senhor / a senhora.
Customers, officials, clients in a professional context.
A doctor, a professor, a police officer -- unless you are on personal terms.

If you are not sure, wait until the other person addresses you with tu first. Portuguese speakers do this naturally; an older person or someone in authority might invite the tu by using it themselves, signaling that it is mutual.

A bare command can feel direct

Because tu commands come without any softening by default, a bare imperative can sound brusque. Compare:

Dá-me o sal. -- "Give me the salt." (neutral to curt)
Dá-me o sal, por favor. -- "Pass me the salt, please." (warm)
Passas-me o sal? -- "Can you pass me the salt?" (softened, literally "do you pass me the salt?")
Podes passar-me o sal? -- "Can you pass me the salt?" (most polite, interrogative)

None of these are rude; context determines everything. Between close friends, a bare dá-me o sal is fine. Between classmates who barely know each other, the softened version is better.

Empresta-me a caneta, por favor.

Lend me the pen, please.

Podes emprestar-me a caneta?

Can you lend me the pen?

Real-life contexts

Here are clusters of tu affirmative commands in the places you would actually meet them.

Parents to children

Lava as mãos antes de comer.

Wash your hands before eating.

Veste o pijama e vai para a cama.

Put on your pajamas and go to bed.

Arruma o teu quarto já.

Tidy up your room right now.

Friends to friends

Vem cá, quero mostrar-te uma coisa.

Come here, I want to show you something.

Liga-me quando chegares a casa.

Call me when you get home.

Prova este vinho, é fantástico.

Try this wine, it's fantastic.

Directions and instructions

Sai na próxima, depois vira à direita.

Get off at the next one, then turn right.

Carrega no botão verde e espera.

Press the green button and wait.

Common Mistakes

❌ Fale comigo, por favor. (to a close friend)

Registrally wrong -- using the você form with a friend feels cold.

✅ Fala comigo, por favor.

Talk to me, please.

Reaching for fale (the você form) when you should be using tu produces a command that is grammatically correct but socially off-key. With a friend, use tu.

❌ Ve aqui.

Incorrect -- missing diacritic on the irregular imperative of ver.

✅ Vê aqui.

Look here.

The irregular tu imperative of ver is vê, with an acute accent. Without it, the word is either wrong or ambiguous.

❌ Poe o prato na mesa.

Incorrect -- missing tilde on põe.

✅ Põe o prato na mesa.

Put the plate on the table.

The tu imperative of pôr is põe, with a tilde. The tilde marks the nasal diphthong that is essential to the pronunciation.

❌ Se bom.

Incorrect -- missing circumflex on sê.

✅ Sê bom.

Be good.

Sê (be!) needs the circumflex to distinguish it from se ("if", the reflexive pronoun, and other unrelated words).

❌ Me dá o livro.

Incorrect order -- proclisis with an affirmative command is not EP.

✅ Dá-me o livro.

Give me the book.

European Portuguese puts the pronoun after an affirmative command with a hyphen. Brazilian speech sometimes puts it before, but this is not how EP works.

❌ Trazes-me o livro? (meaning: Bring me the book)

Not wrong, but this is a softened request, not a command.

✅ Traz-me o livro.

Bring me the book.

The form trazes-me (present indicative with question intonation) is a polite request, not a command. If you want a command, use traz-me.

Key takeaways

The regular affirmative tu command = 3sg present indicative (or tu present minus -s): fala, come, parte.
Nine irregulars to memorize: sê, vai, tem, vem, faz, diz, põe, sabe, vê.
Diacritics matter: sê (ˆ), põe (˜), vê (ˆ). Missing diacritics are factual errors.
Pronouns attach to the end with a hyphen: dá-me, levanta-te, diz-mo.
Use tu with friends, family, children, and peers. Default to você or o senhor with strangers.
A bare tu command can feel direct; softeners (por favor, podes...?) are your friends.

For the negative side of the pair, see negative commands. For the more formal address, see você affirmative.