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Pelad las zanahorias y hervid el agua.

Pelad las zanahorias y hervid el agua.
Peel the carrots and boil the water.
From Lesson 181:Cooking and Kitchenware·Spanish (Spain)

Breakdown of Pelad las zanahorias y hervid el agua.

y
and
el agua
the water (f)
la zanahoria
the carrot
pelar
to peel
hervir
to boil

Questions & Answers about Pelad las zanahorias y hervid el agua.

Why do pelad and hervid end in a 'd'?
These are commands directed at vosotros (the informal plural 'you' used in Spain). To tell a group of people to do something, you take the infinitive verb (pelar, hervir), drop the final -r, and add a -d. So, pelar becomes pelad (peel) and hervir becomes hervid (boil).
Hervir usually has a vowel change (like yo hiervo). Why is it not hiervid?
The vosotros command form is wonderfully simple because it never has stem changes. You always use the exact letters of the infinitive. That is why it stays as hervid rather than changing to hiervid.
Why does the sentence use el before agua if water is a feminine noun?
Agua is indeed a feminine word, but it starts with a stressed 'a' sound. In Spanish, to avoid the awkward pause in la agua, we use the masculine article el for the singular word. However, any adjectives describing the water would still be feminine, like el agua fría.
How would these commands change if I were speaking to people formally using ustedes?
If you were addressing a group formally, you would use the ustedes command forms. The sentence would become pelen las zanahorias y hiervan el agua. Notice that the verb hervir gets its vowel change back in this formal command!

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