The usted imperative is the form you use to command a single person you're addressing formally — a stranger at a counter, a much older person, a customer, a patient, a client. ¡Pase usted!, ¡Siéntese aquí, por favor!, ¡No se preocupe! Unlike the tú and vosotros imperatives, which have separate affirmative and negative forms, the usted imperative uses one and the same form for both: the 3rd-person singular of the present subjunctive. Hable is both "speak" (affirmative) and "no hable" (negative). This symmetry makes it the simplest imperative paradigm to learn — but in peninsular Spain, using it correctly is less about the form and more about knowing when it's appropriate, because Spain uses usted far more sparingly than most Spanish-speaking countries.
The rule: present subjunctive, 3rd singular
To form the usted imperative, take the 3rd-person singular of the present subjunctive. For regular -ar verbs the ending is -e (hable); for regular -er and -ir verbs it's -a (coma, viva). This is the "opposite vowel" pattern that runs through the entire present subjunctive paradigm.
| Infinitive | Affirmative | Negative | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| hablar | hable | no hable | (don't) speak |
| trabajar | trabaje | no trabaje | (don't) work |
| comer | coma | no coma | (don't) eat |
| beber | beba | no beba | (don't) drink |
| vivir | viva | no viva | (don't) live |
| escribir | escriba | no escriba | (don't) write |
Pase usted, le estábamos esperando.
Come in, we were waiting for you.
Coma despacio, no hay prisa.
Eat slowly, there's no rush.
No escriba con bolígrafo rojo, por favor — use el negro.
Please don't write in red pen — use black.
Irregulars: the subjunctive irregulars
Because the form is identical to the present subjunctive, every present-subjunctive irregularity carries over. The yo-go verbs (tener, poner, salir, hacer, decir, venir, oír) all use their -g- stem here: tenga, ponga, salga, haga, diga, venga, oiga. Completely irregular subjunctives behave the same way.
| Infinitive | Usted imperative | English |
|---|---|---|
| tener | tenga / no tenga | (don't) have |
| poner | ponga / no ponga | (don't) put |
| hacer | haga / no haga | (don't) do |
| decir | diga / no diga | (don't) say |
| venir | venga / no venga | (don't) come |
| salir | salga / no salga | (don't) leave |
| oír | oiga / no oiga | (don't) hear |
| ir | vaya / no vaya | (don't) go |
| ser | sea / no sea | (don't) be |
| estar | esté / no esté | (don't) be (location/state) |
| dar | dé / no dé | (don't) give |
| saber | sepa / no sepa | (don't) know |
Tenga, esto es suyo, se le ha caído.
Here, this is yours, you dropped it.
Vaya al fondo del pasillo y gire a la derecha.
Go to the end of the hallway and turn right.
No sea tan duro consigo mismo, ha hecho todo lo que ha podido.
Don't be so hard on yourself, you've done all you could.
The form dé carries an obligatory accent to distinguish it from the preposition de ("of, from"). Similarly esté keeps its accent on the -é because it's the regular subjunctive ending pattern for estar, and vaya has no accent because the stress falls on the natural penultimate syllable.
Stem changes
Stem-changing verbs propagate their change into the usted form when the change appears in the present indicative 1st-person singular (the yo form), which is the historical basis for the subjunctive.
| Infinitive | Yo (indicative) | Usted imperative |
|---|---|---|
| pensar (e→ie) | pienso | piense / no piense |
| volver (o→ue) | vuelvo | vuelva / no vuelva |
| dormir (o→ue/u) | duermo | duerma / no duerma |
| pedir (e→i) | pido | pida / no pida |
| conocer | conozco | conozca / no conozca |
| traducir | traduzco | traduzca / no traduzca |
Vuelva mañana por la mañana, el doctor estará disponible.
Come back tomorrow morning, the doctor will be available.
Piense bien lo que va a firmar antes de hacerlo.
Think carefully about what you're going to sign before doing it.
Pronouns: attached for affirmative, before for negative
The same rule that governs the tú and vosotros imperatives applies here: pronouns attach to the back of the affirmative form (siéntese, dígame, póngamelo) and slide to the front of the negative form (no se siente, no me lo diga). When pronouns attach to a multi-syllable verb, you usually need to add a written accent to preserve the original stress.
Dígame su nombre completo, por favor.
Tell me your full name, please.
Siéntese, le va a atender enseguida.
Sit down, they'll see you right away.
No se preocupe, no es nada grave.
Don't worry, it's nothing serious.
The reflexive se for usted is identical in form to the impersonal se, but the meaning is unambiguous in context. Siéntese can only mean "sit down" (addressed to one formal person), not anything impersonal, because the form is unambiguously imperative.
When to use usted in Spain
This is where peninsular Spanish parts company with Latin America. In most of Latin America (especially Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico), usted is broad — it's used with strangers, sometimes even within families, and the line between tú and usted is finely policed. In Spain, usted is reserved for genuine formality, and modern Spaniards under 50 use it sparingly. Use it when:
- Addressing someone significantly older than you whom you don't know personally
- Speaking with a doctor, lawyer, judge, or notary in a professional capacity
- Being addressed by name and title (Don Juan, Sra. García) as part of formal recognition
- In customer service from the service provider's side: a waiter or shop assistant might use usted with you
- In any written or spoken context that's clearly formal (a business letter, a courtroom appearance, a job interview with a much older interviewer)
In casual contexts in Spain — a bar, a shop, asking directions on the street — even strangers routinely use tú with each other. A young Spaniard addressing a 30-year-old stranger as usted would actually sound oddly distancing or sarcastic. The English-speaker reflex of being "polite by defaulting to the formal form" misfires in Spain: it can feel chilly, cold, or even mocking when applied to someone who would have expected tú.
Buenos días, ¿en qué puedo ayudarle? Pase, siéntese.
Good morning, how can I help you? Come in, have a seat.
No se moleste, ya lo recojo yo.
Don't trouble yourself, I'll pick it up.
Disculpe, ¿podría hablar más despacio? No le entiendo bien.
Excuse me, could you speak more slowly? I'm not following you.
The pronoun "usted" — often dropped, sometimes added for clarity
The pronoun usted itself is optional and is usually dropped, just like every other subject pronoun in Spanish. Pase by itself is enough to mean "come in" addressed to a formal singular person — context (and the verb form) makes it clear. The pronoun is added for emphasis, clarification, or politeness: Pase usted sounds slightly more deferential than Pase alone, the way English "do come in, please" is slightly warmer than just "come in."
There's also a positional convention: when the pronoun is included, it usually follows the verb in commands: Pase usted, Dígame usted — not Usted pase. This is one of the few places in Spanish where the subject pronoun appears post-verbally as a normal pattern.
Hable usted con el encargado, él le podrá ayudar.
You talk to the manager, he'll be able to help you.
How this differs from English and from LatAm Spanish
English collapses formal and informal commands into a single "speak!" or "please speak." Spanish requires you to choose a register through the verb form itself: habla (informal), hable (formal). The choice is harder than it looks because Spain has shifted aggressively toward informality in the last 40 years, while Latin America hasn't, so a learner who picked up Spanish in Mexico will instinctively reach for usted in Spain where a Spaniard would use tú — sounding overly stiff.
A practical rule: in Spain, if you would use someone's first name without hesitation, use tú. If you would call them Don or Doña or Señor/Señora + surname, use usted. Almost everything in between leans tú.
Common Mistakes
❌ Habla usted más despacio, por favor.
Incorrect — the form for usted is hable, not habla.
✅ Hable usted más despacio, por favor.
Please speak more slowly.
❌ Sientese aquí.
Incorrect — missing the obligatory accent on siéntese.
✅ Siéntese aquí.
Sit here.
❌ No siéntese todavía.
Incorrect — pronouns precede in the negative imperative.
✅ No se siente todavía.
Don't sit down yet.
❌ Va al fondo y gire a la derecha.
Incorrect — mixing indicative (va) with imperative (gire).
✅ Vaya al fondo y gire a la derecha.
Go to the end and turn right.
❌ Digame su DNI.
Incorrect — missing the obligatory accent on dígame.
✅ Dígame su DNI.
Tell me your ID number.
Key Takeaways
The usted imperative is the 3rd-singular present subjunctive, used identically for affirmative and negative: hable, no hable; coma, no coma. Pronouns attach to the back in the affirmative (siéntese) and slide to the front in the negative (no se siente). In peninsular Spain, the form is grammatically straightforward but socially loaded: usted is reserved for clear formality, and overusing it sounds cold or distant. The default with adult strangers in everyday Spanish life is tú — save usted for contexts where formality is genuinely expected.
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