When you want to give instructions, make requests, or walk someone through a recipe step-by-step, you use the imperative mood (commands). In this lesson, we will focus on giving formal affirmative commands to someone you address as você (singular) or to a group of people addressed as vocês (plural).
The "Vowel Swap" for -ar Verbs
To form a formal command, we take the eu (I) form of the present tense, drop the final -o, and add an "opposite" vowel.
For -ar verbs, that means swapping the expected "a" sound for an e. You add -e when speaking to one person (você), and -em when speaking to multiple people (vocês).
| Infinitive | você (Singular) | vocês (Plural) |
|---|
| cortar (to cut) | corte | cortem |
| juntar (to add) | junte | juntem |
| misturar (to mix) | misture | misturem |
Commands for -er and -ir Verbs
For -er and -ir verbs, we follow the exact same logic, but the opposite vowel is a. We add -a for a single person and -am for a group.
| Infinitive | você (Singular) | vocês (Plural) |
|---|
| mexer (to stir) | mexa | mexam |
| abrir (to open) | abra | abram |
Commands with Pronouns
When giving step-by-step instructions, it is common to replace the object with a pronoun (like saying "mix it" instead of "mix the milk"). In affirmative commands, direct object pronouns attach directly to the end of the verb with a hyphen. Notice that if the verb ends in an -m, the pronoun becomes -no or -na!