Irregular Tú Commands

Affirmative Tú Commands You already know how to give affirmative commands to someone you address as tú: You take the 3rd person form of the verb. Comer = ¡come!

Negative Tú Commands You remember that in order to give a negative command, we have 3 steps. 1. Put the verb in the ‘yo’ form 2. Change the ‘o’ ending to -as for –er and –ir verbs -es for –ar verbs 3. Put ‘no’ in front of the verb.

Negative Tú Commands Examples: HablarComer Escribir HabloComo Escribo HablesComas Escribas No hablesNo comas No escribas

Irregular Tú Commands In Spanish, some verbs have irregular commands. We will begin with verbs that are regular in the positive form, but become irregular when made negative.

Irregular Tú Commands Verbs that end with –car, -gar, zar - car - gar -zar practicar jugar empezar tocar pagarcomenzar buscar sacar The negative command form of these verbs is irregular.

For verbs ending in –CAR In the negative form, these verbs will end with –QUES The ‘c’ changes to ‘que’ to maintain the ‘k’ sound. Example: !No toques!

For verbs ending in -GAR In the negative form, these verbs will end in –GUES It is spelled with ‘gu’ instead of ‘g’ to keep the hard ‘g’ sound. Example: ¡No juegues!

For verbs ending in -ZAR In the negative form, these verbs will end with –CES The ‘z’ changes to ‘c’ to give a harder sound. Eample: !No empieces!

More Irregular Commands n n There are some verbs that are irregular in the positive form, the negative form, or both. For the following verbs, you will have to memorize the commands.

Irregular Tú Commands VerbDefinitionPositiveNegative Venirto comeVenNo vengas Decirto say; to tellDiNo digas Salirto leaveSalNo salgas Hacerto do; to makeHazNo hagas Tenerto haveTenNo tengas Irto goVeNo vayas Ponerto put; to placePonNo pongas Serto beSéNo seas

A Way to Remember Commands n n Ven n n Di n n Sal n n Haz n n Ten n n Ve n n Pon n n Sé

Helpful Hint n n If you take a look at the list of irregular verbs, you will notice that a number of them are ‘yo-go’ verbs. These are verbs that in the present tense, yo form, end in –go. venir = vengotener = tengo decir = digoponer = pongo salir = salgo

Helpful Hints n n For all the yo-go verbs (except hacer) you will notice that the positive command form is the yo form, minus the –go. Venir = vengo = ven Decir = digo = di Salir = salgo = sal Tener = tengo = ten Poner = pongo = pon

Negative Form of yo-go Verbs n n The yo-go verbs form the negative command the same way a regular verb is formed. Remember, first conjugate the verb in the yo form! n Example: n hacer n 1. hago n hagas n No hagas

Verbs to Keep an Eye on! n n Both ser and ir are irregular in the positive and negative command forms. Ser = sé (for a positive command) Ser = no seas (for a negative command) Ir = ve (for a positive command) Ir = no vayas (for a negative command)