17 Canta!: The informal affirmative command

The informal affirmative command is useful to ask a friend or a close acquaintance to do something. You shouldn’t use the same as the tú form. Paradoxically, you use the same as the He/She form but don’t add the word él or ella.

• Cantar= “Canta una canción” means both “He OR She sings a song” and at the same time “Please, sing a song” directed to a single person
• Comer= “Come menos” means both “He OR She eats less” and at the same time “Please, eat less” directed to a single person
• Cerrar= “Cierra la Puerta” means both “He OR She closes the door” and at the same time “Please, close the door” directed to a single person

The context usually tells you whether it’s the third person or a command. As in English, you add por favor=please to indicate the command.

Another difference is that in a command the object pronoun should be attached at the end of the verb. Ex: “Traeme el libro” (=bring me the book OR bring the book for me). En las canciones es común the cheering chant: MUÉVELO which is MUEVE + LO= move it.

But there are some irregulars which usually just delete the ending from the infinitive in the pronunciation:

• hacer (=to do) haz
• tener (=to have) ten
• decir (=to say) di

Some dialects may try to make it regular and would use just the same as the He/She form, but in written it is not common to find them. E.g. háceme el favor=make me the favor, or tiéneme esto=hold this for me.

Sample conversations

Ask your classmate to move parts of their body:

Verb “levantar”=to raise

• Levanta la mano (=hand) derecha (=right) / izquierda (=left)
• Levanta el pie (=foot) derecho (=right) / el pie izquierdo (=left)
• Levanta la rodilla (=knee) derecha (=right) / izquierda (=left)
• Levanta el codo (=elbow) derecho (=right) / el codo izquierdo (=left)
• Levanta los ojos (=eyes)

Example:

A: Levanta la rodilla derecha.

B: (Doesn’t say anything, just does the action and goes back to rest).

A repeats by picking random parts of body.

IAN and extreme students may add:

A: Levanta los brazos

B: (Doesn’t say anything, just raises them).

A: Bájalos (LOS matches the gender and number of “los brazos”).

B: (Doesn’t say anything, just lowers them).

A: Mueve las piernas.

B: (Doesn’t say anything, just moves the legs).

A: Déjalas quietas (=Put them still).