The nosotros imperative is Spanish's "let's" — the form you use when you're proposing a joint action that includes yourself. Hablemos del tema. Comamos juntos. Salgamos de aquí. No vayamos por ahí. Unlike English, where "let's" is a single fixed marker that takes any base verb, Spanish builds the form directly into the verb itself, using the 1st-person plural of the present subjunctive for both affirmative and negative. This form is the most stylistically flexible of all the imperatives: in spoken Spain it's often replaced by the periphrastic vamos a + infinitive (Vamos a hablar del tema = "Let's talk about it"), and there's one outright exception — the affirmative of ir uses the indicative vamos, not the subjunctive vayamos. This page covers all of that.
The rule: present subjunctive, 1st plural
To form the nosotros imperative, take the 1st-person plural of the present subjunctive. The endings are -emos for -ar verbs and -amos for -er and -ir verbs. The same form covers both the affirmative ("let's") and the negative ("let's not"), with the negative simply adding no.
| Infinitive | Affirmative | Negative | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| hablar | hablemos | no hablemos | let's (not) speak |
| cantar | cantemos | no cantemos | let's (not) sing |
| trabajar | trabajemos | no trabajemos | let's (not) work |
| comer | comamos | no comamos | let's (not) eat |
| beber | bebamos | no bebamos | let's (not) drink |
| vivir | vivamos | no vivamos | let's (not) live |
| escribir | escribamos | no escribamos | let's (not) write |
Hablemos en serio un momento — necesito tu opinión.
Let's talk seriously for a minute — I need your opinion.
Comamos algo rápido antes de la reunión.
Let's grab something quick to eat before the meeting.
No discutamos delante de los niños, por favor.
Let's not argue in front of the kids, please.
The vamos / vayamos split
The verb ir breaks the pattern in one direction. The affirmative "let's go" is vamos — which is actually the present indicative 1st-plural, not the subjunctive. The subjunctive form vayamos does exist and is grammatically correct, but for affirmative commands native speakers overwhelmingly use vamos. For the negative, the pattern reasserts itself: no vayamos is the standard form.
| Affirmative | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| ir (let's go) | vamos | no vayamos |
Vamos al cine esta noche, ponen una buena.
Let's go to the movies tonight, there's a good one playing.
No vayamos por la autopista, vamos a estar en un atasco enorme.
Let's not take the highway, we're going to be in a huge traffic jam.
Vamos a casa, ya es tarde.
Let's go home, it's late.
Irregulars and stem changes
Apart from ir, every other verb in the nosotros imperative behaves predictably as the present subjunctive. The yo-go verbs keep their -g- stem: tengamos, pongamos, salgamos, hagamos, digamos, vengamos.
| Infinitive | Nosotros imperative | English |
|---|---|---|
| tener | tengamos / no tengamos | let's (not) have |
| hacer | hagamos / no hagamos | let's (not) do |
| decir | digamos / no digamos | let's (not) say |
| venir | vengamos / no vengamos | let's (not) come |
| salir | salgamos / no salgamos | let's (not) leave |
| poner | pongamos / no pongamos | let's (not) put |
| ser | seamos / no seamos | let's (not) be |
| estar | estemos / no estemos | let's (not) be (location/state) |
| dar | demos / no demos | let's (not) give |
| saber | sepamos / no sepamos | let's (not) know |
For -ir stem-changing verbs, the change propagates here (dormir → durmamos, pedir → pidamos, sentir → sintamos) just as it does throughout the subjunctive. -ar and -er stem-changers do not change in this person, because the stress doesn't fall on the stem syllable.
Salgamos pronto, antes de que empiece a llover.
Let's leave soon, before it starts raining.
No seamos egoístas — hay sitio para todos.
Let's not be selfish — there's room for everyone.
Pidamos una pizza, así no tenemos que cocinar.
Let's order a pizza so we don't have to cook.
Vamos a + infinitive: the spoken default
In actual spoken Spain, the simple subjunctive form (hablemos, comamos, salgamos) is less common than the periphrastic alternative vamos a + infinitive. Vamos a hablar is much more frequent in conversation than hablemos. The two are nearly synonymous, but the periphrastic version is more colloquial and tends to feel softer or more inclusive, like a suggestion rather than a proposal.
| Subjunctive form | Periphrastic form | English |
|---|---|---|
| Hablemos. | Vamos a hablar. | Let's talk. |
| Comamos. | Vamos a comer. | Let's eat. |
| Salgamos. | Vamos a salir. | Let's leave. |
| Veamos. | Vamos a ver. | Let's see. |
Vamos a ver qué dice el manual antes de llamar a soporte.
Let's see what the manual says before we call support.
Vamos a esperar diez minutos más y luego nos vamos.
Let's wait ten more minutes and then we'll leave.
Vamos a hacer las cosas con calma, no hay prisa.
Let's do things calmly, there's no rush.
The simple subjunctive form (hablemos) tends to sound more formal, more decisive, or more literary — it's the form you'd use in a written invitation ("Hablemos pronto"), in a political speech ("Construyamos un país mejor"), or when you want to mark the proposal as deliberate and serious. The periphrastic form is the everyday version.
Pronoun attachment and the -s drop
In the affirmative, pronouns attach to the end as usual: hablémoslo, digámosle, dejémoslos. The verb almost always needs a written accent when pronouns attach, because the stress has to remain on the original stem syllable.
There's also a small but consistent quirk with reflexive verbs: when the reflexive nos attaches to the affirmative form, the final -s of the verb drops before the nos. So levantemos + nos is levantémonos (with a single -s- at the junction), not levantémosnos. The same goes for sentémonos, vámonos, vistámonos.
| Affirmative form + nos | Result | English |
|---|---|---|
| levantemos + nos | levantémonos | let's get up |
| sentemos + nos | sentémonos | let's sit down |
| vamos + nos | vámonos | let's go (away) |
| vistamos + nos | vistámonos | let's get dressed |
| callemos + nos | callémonos | let's be quiet |
Vámonos ya, que el último tren sale en veinte minutos.
Let's get going, the last train leaves in twenty minutes.
Sentémonos en la terraza, hace una tarde preciosa.
Let's sit on the terrace, it's a beautiful afternoon.
Callémonos un momento, quiero oír lo que está diciendo.
Let's be quiet for a moment, I want to hear what he's saying.
In the negative, the reflexive nos slides to the front of the verb, the -s stays put, and there's no contraction: no nos levantemos, no nos sentemos, no nos vayamos.
No nos quedemos hasta tarde, mañana hay que trabajar.
Let's not stay too late, we have to work tomorrow.
No nos preocupemos por eso ahora, ya pensaremos en ello mañana.
Let's not worry about that now, we'll think about it tomorrow.
Why the -s drops
The -s drop in levantémonos isn't arbitrary — it's a phonological smoothing rule. Spanish dislikes the awkward sequence of -s immediately followed by nos- that would result from levantémosnos. Rather than tolerate the cluster, the language drops the verb's final -s sound. The same thing happens with the -d drop in reflexive vosotros imperatives (levantaos, not levantados) and the -mos + nos → -monos contraction here. Both are consonant-cluster avoidance rules.
This is also why the written form needs to reflect the dropped -s: writing levantémosnos would be wrong both phonologically and orthographically. The correct written form levantémonos is what speakers actually pronounce.
How this differs from English
English handles "let's" as a single particle bolted onto the front of any infinitive: "let's eat," "let's not eat," "let's go," "let's not go." There's no verb change, no agreement, no irregularities. Spanish, by contrast, encodes "let's" directly in the verb morphology, and uses the present subjunctive to do it — meaning that learning the nosotros imperative is identical to learning the present subjunctive 1st-plural.
A subtler difference is that English "let's" is always inclusive of the addressee — it means "let us together." Spanish hablemos carries the same inclusive sense, but there's also a separate construction in Spanish for proposals that explicitly don't include the addressee: vamos a hablar yo y María ("María and I are going to talk") versus hablemos ("let's talk" with you included). The inclusion is contextual, not encoded — but it matches English's "let's" cleanly enough that the mapping is usually intuitive.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vayamos al cine esta noche.
Technically correct but unnatural — for affirmative ir, use vamos.
✅ Vamos al cine esta noche.
Let's go to the movies tonight.
❌ Levantémosnos temprano.
Incorrect — the -s drops before reflexive nos.
✅ Levantémonos temprano.
Let's get up early.
❌ No vamos por ahí, hay obras.
Incorrect for a proposal — sounds like a statement of fact ('we aren't going').
✅ No vayamos por ahí, hay obras.
Let's not go that way, there's construction.
❌ Hablemos no del tema.
Incorrect word order — no must precede the verb.
✅ No hablemos del tema.
Let's not talk about it.
❌ Dejemos a el coche aquí y vayamos andando.
Two errors: 'a el' should contract to 'al', and affirmative ir uses vamos.
✅ Dejemos el coche aquí y vamos andando.
Let's leave the car here and walk.
Key Takeaways
The nosotros imperative is the 1st-plural present subjunctive, used identically for affirmative and negative: hablemos, no hablemos; comamos, no comamos. The one verb that breaks the pattern is ir: affirmative vamos, negative no vayamos. In spoken Spain, the periphrastic vamos a + infinitive is the everyday alternative for affirmative proposals (Vamos a comer ≈ Comamos), but the simple subjunctive remains the only option for the negative. Reflexive forms contract: levantemos + nos → levantémonos. The form is the Spanish way of saying "let's," but it does the work morphologically — built into the verb itself rather than added as a particle.
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- Presente de subjuntivo: verbos regulares en -arB1 — The six present-subjunctive endings for regular -ar verbs in Spain, including the all-important vosotros form habléis.
- Ir a + infinitivo: futuro y planesA1 — The workhorse near-future construction of spoken peninsular Spanish — voy a + infinitive for plans, intentions, and imminent events.
- Imperativo afirmativo de vosotros: ¡hablad!A2 — The peninsular affirmative vosotros command — replace the -r of the infinitive with -d, drop the -d before reflexives, and never substitute the infinitive.
- Imperativo: visión generalA2 — The master map of the Spanish imperative — affirmative and negative commands for tú, vosotros, usted, ustedes and nosotros — with the peninsular vosotros form as its headline feature.
- Imperativo de usted: hable, no hableA2 — The formal singular command in peninsular Spanish — the 3rd-singular present subjunctive for both affirmative and negative, used only in genuinely formal contexts in Spain.