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Lava la lechuga con agua.

Lava la lechuga con agua.
Wash the lettuce with water.
From Lesson 67:Affirmative commands·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Lava la lechuga con agua.

Why does the command for wash look like the he/she form lava instead of the you form lavas?
When you give a positive command to someone you call tú, you simply drop the final s from the normal tú present tense form. So lavas (you wash) becomes the command lava (wash!). This means it looks exactly the same as the he/she/it present tense form, but context tells us it is an instruction.
How would I change this sentence to politely instruct someone I address as usted?
To give a command to someone you address formally as usted, you swap the verb's typical vowel. Since lavar is an -ar verb, the usted command takes an -e ending, becoming lave. The formal instruction would be Lave la lechuga con agua.
Can I just add no in front of lava to tell someone not to wash the lettuce?
No, negative commands follow different rules in Spanish! To say don't wash to tú, you actually have to swap the vowel and keep the s, making it No laves la lechuga. For this lesson, we are just focusing on the affirmative (positive) commands.
I remember learning the phrase el agua. Why doesn't the sentence say con el agua?
Just like in English, you don't need the word the when talking about water in a general sense here. As a quick refresher: the word agua is actually feminine! It only uses el instead of la in the singular so that the two a sounds do not blur together when speaking.

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