When you are directly addressing a person or persons that you would normally address as usted or ustedes, give formal commands by taking the yo form of the present indicative tense and changing the ending of -ar verbs to -e for singular (usted) commands or -en for plural (ustedes) commands and changing the ending of -er/-ir verbs to -a or -an. Because you are working from the yo form of the present indicative, the formal commands reflect the irregularities you find in irregular and stem-changing verbs.

Regular Verbs

-AR

buscar > busque, busquen*

dejar > deje, dejen

hablar > hable, hablen

llamar > llame, llamen

 

-ER/-IR

comer > coma, coman

insistir > insista, insistan

leer > lea, lean

vivir > viva, vivan

Verbs with Irregular yo Forms

conocer (conozco) > conozca, conozcan

decir (digo) > diga, digan

oír (oigo) > oiga, oigan

poner (pongo) > ponga, pongan

salir (salgo) > salga, salgan

tener (tengo) > tenga, tengan

traer (traigo) > traiga, traigan

venir (vengo) > venga, vengan

Stem-Changing Verbs

almorzar (ue) > almuerce, almuercen*

cerrar (ie) > cierre, cierren

empezar (ie) > empiece, empiecen

jugar ( ue) > juegue, jueguen*

pedir (i) > pida, pidan

perder (ie) > pierda, pierdan

servir (i) > sirva, sirvan

volver (ue) > vuelva, vuelvan

*NOTE: A spelling change is necessary to preserve the sound of the infinitives that end in -car, -gar, and -zar: c > qu, g > gu, and z > c.

A few verbs have irregular command forms and must be memorized:

dar > dé, den

estar > esté, estén

ir > vaya, vayan

saber > sepa, sepan

ser > sea, sean