Imperativo negativo

No comas esta manzana

Verbs in Imperativo afirmativo from the previous section allow us to ask people to do something. Let’s now learn, how to ask people not to do something. For that, we’ll need Imperativo negativo.

Some verb forms in Imperativo negativo are just like in Imperativo afirmativo, bot some are different.

No hables con Julián – Don’t talk to Juan (tú)

No contestes a esta pregunta – Don’t answer this question (tú)

No entren – Don’t come in (ustedes)

No llame usted a Cristina – Don’t call Cristina (usted)

No vendas tu moto – Don’t sell your motorbike (tú)

No comáis muchos dulces – Don’t eat many sweets (vosotros)

No abra el maletero – Don’t open the wallet (usted)

Forms

-ar

mirar – to look

tú – no mires

usted – no mire

ustedes – no miren

vosotros – no miréis

nosotros – no miremos

Try it yourself:

hablar

esperar

comprar

-er

comer – to eat

tú – no comas

usted – no coma

ustedes – no coman

vosotros – no comáis

nosotros – no comamos

Try it yourself:

responder

vender

leer

-ir

The er- and ir-verbs have the same endings in Imperativo negativo.

abrir – to open

tú – no abras

usted – no abra

ustedes – no abran

vosotros – no abráis

nosotros – no abramos

Try it yourself:

escribir

subir

cubrir

If you compare the Spanish Presente tense with Imperativo negativo, you can find some logic, that the endings have. The a letter in Presente, is changed to e in Imperativo negativo, and viceversa.

Presente: tú compras

Imperativo negativo: no compres

Presente: usted escribe

Imperativo negativo: no escriba

There is one more similarity, that will help you a lot. If you compare the two Spanish imperatives, you’ll se, that the forms for usted and ustedes are equal. You can take usted as the key form, and build the other forms, based on usted.

compre – buy (usted)

no compre – don’t buy (usted)

no compre + s = no compres – don’t buy (tú)

no compre + is = no compréis – don’t buy (vosotros)

no compre + n = no compren – don’t buy (ustedes)

no compre + mos = no compremos – let’s not buy

Keep this tip always in mind. It will help you conjugate not only regular verbs right, but also all irregular verbs, as well.