Imperativo afirmativo de vosotros: ¡hablad!

The affirmative vosotros imperative is the signature command form of peninsular Spanish. When you tell two or more friends, family members, or informal colleagues to do something, this is the form you reach for: ¡Hablad más alto!, ¡Venid aquí!, ¡Comed la sopa! It does not exist in Latin American Spanish — they would use hablen, vengan, coman. Learning this form (and learning it correctly, with the -d ending and not the colloquial substitute infinitive) is one of the clearest markers of having actually studied Spain Spanish rather than a neutral textbook variety.

The rule: replace -r with -d

The affirmative vosotros imperative is built directly from the infinitive. You take the infinitive, remove the final -r, and add -d. That's the entire formation rule, and it has no exceptions among regular verbs. There are also no stem changes — verbs that diphthongize in the present indicative (such as pensar → pienso) keep their original stem here: pensad, not piensad.

So-called "irregular" verbs are regular here

The most striking feature of this form is what isn't here: there are no irregulars. Verbs that misbehave wildly in other tenses fall into line the moment you build their vosotros imperative. Decir doesn't shorten to di (as it does for tú); it just becomes decid. Ir doesn't shorten to ve; it becomes id (literally just "id" — a two-letter command). Ser becomes sed. Hacer becomes haced.

The reflexive trap: -d disappears

When the verb is reflexive, the affirmative vosotros imperative does something startling: the final -d drops and the reflexive os attaches directly. Levantar + os is levantaos, not levantados. Sentar + os is sentaos. Vestir + os is vestíos (with an accent, because the stress has to land on the -í- of the original infinitive ending).

This is the rule that catches almost every learner the first time. It feels wrong — you expect levantados by analogy with the simple levantad + os. But Spanish refuses the double consonant cluster -dos here, and the -d vanishes. There is exactly one exception (see below).

The -ir verbs need an accent on the -í- because without it the stress would default to the wrong syllable. Compare: vestíos (stress on í, two syllables: ves-tí-os) versus a hypothetical vestios which the rules of Spanish stress would read as ves-tios with stress on ve. The accent locks the stress where the verb originally had it in the infinitive (ves-tir).

The one exception: irse

The single verb that keeps its -d before the reflexive os is irse (to leave): the prescriptively correct form is idos. This is preserved because i + os (without the -d) would collapse into a single syllable too thin to function as a clear command. The Real Academia accepts both idos (traditional, slightly literary) and iros (the colloquial form everyone actually uses in Spain since 2017, when the RAE finally relented). In real life, you will hear iros constantly and idos almost never.

The idos / iros doublet is genuinely unusual: it's one of the very few cases where the Royal Academy has officially endorsed a colloquial form alongside the traditional one. For learners, iros is the safer choice in spoken Spain — it sounds natural everywhere and is now fully accepted in writing too.

The infinitive-as-command trap

In casual spoken Spain, you will constantly hear what looks like the infinitive being used as a vosotros command: ¡Hablar más bajo!, ¡Venir aquí!, ¡Sentaros! (note sentaros, not sentaos). This is so widespread that many native speakers don't realize it's nonstandard — but it is. Every Spanish grammar, every teacher, every editor will mark these as errors. The correct forms are ¡Hablad más bajo!, ¡Venid aquí!, ¡Sentaos!

For learners, the practical advice is: always use the -d form in writing and in any setting that's even slightly formal. In purely casual speech among friends, the infinitive forms exist and you'll hear them constantly, but producing them yourself marks you as a learner copying a colloquial register without understanding it. The -d forms always work; the infinitive forms only work in very informal contexts and are never preferred.

Pronoun attachment

In the affirmative vosotros imperative, pronouns attach directly to the end of the verb, forming a single written word. Object pronouns simply follow the -d: decídmelo (tell me), mandádselo (send it to him), dádnoslo (give it to us). Note that when two pronouns attach, the verb almost always needs a written accent to preserve the original stress.

The reflexive -d-drop rule from above only applies to reflexive os. Other pronoun combinations leave the -d intact: decídmelo keeps the -d because the pronouns are me + lo, not the reflexive os.

How this differs from English

English doesn't distinguish singular and plural commands at all — "Speak!" works whether you're addressing one person or a crowd. Spanish in general, and peninsular Spanish in particular, slices this space finely: habla (one friend), hablad (multiple friends), hable (one formal person), hablen (multiple formal people). The vosotros imperative is the form that pulls its weight precisely because Spain still maintains the formal/informal plural distinction that almost every other variety of Spanish has lost.

For English speakers, the conceptual shift is recognizing that you're picking not just a verb form but a relationship: choosing hablad over hablen signals warmth and informality the way addressing your audience as "you guys" rather than "ladies and gentlemen" does in English — but the choice is built into the verb itself, not into a separate vocative.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

The affirmative vosotros imperative is a small, clean form: replace the -r of the infinitive with -d, and you're done. It has no irregulars, no stem changes, no exceptions — except the reflexive -d-drop (levantaos, sentaos, vestíos) and the famous idos / iros doublet for irse. The form is unique to Spain and is the unmistakable sound of native peninsular speech when addressing a group informally. Use it confidently with friends, family, and any group you'd address as vosotros — and resist the temptation to substitute the infinitive, no matter how often you hear native speakers do it.