Imperative Mood in Portuguese

In Brief

Portuguese uses the imperative mood (imperativo) for commands, requests, instructions, invitations and warnings. For a simple beginner rule, affirmative tu commands usually use the present-tense form without final -s (falas → fala!), while você and vocês use subjunctive forms (fale! falem!). Negative commands use não + subjunctive: não fales, não fale, não falem.

Overview

The imperative mood is a set of verb forms used to influence what someone does: “come in,” “please wait,” “don’t touch that,” or “let’s begin.” A command does not have to sound like an order. Tone, context and words such as por favor can turn the same grammar into a polite request, an invitation or friendly advice.

Portuguese needs more choices than English because the verb usually reflects whom you are addressing. The most useful forms are tu (informal singular “you”), você (singular “you,” with third-person grammar), vocês (plural “you”), and nós (“we,” used for “let’s”). Which singular form sounds natural depends on the country, region and relationship between speakers.

This topic is introduced at A2 because many useful commands can be built from present-tense forms you already know. Some forms use the present subjunctive (a verb pattern used when an action is not presented as a plain fact). You do not need to master every use of the subjunctive now: learn the command patterns as practical units first, then connect them to the wider subjunctive system later.

How It Works

1. Choose whom you are addressing

Portuguese normally leaves the subject pronoun unstated in a command. The verb form itself shows the intended listener.

Addressee	Typical meaning	Example with falar
tu	one person, informal	Fala!
você	one person; neutral, familiar or polite depending on region	Fale!
vocês	two or more people	Falem!
nós	“let’s …”	Falemos!
vós	plural “you”; rare in everyday speech	Falai!

English has one bare form in “Speak!” Portuguese distinguishes fala, fale and falem. This is the central fact to learn.

2. Affirmative commands with regular verbs

An affirmative command tells someone to do something. For regular tu commands, start from the present indicative (the ordinary present used for facts) and remove final -s:

• tu falas → fala!
• tu comes → come!
• tu abres → abre!

This gives a useful shortcut: regular -ar verbs end in -a, while regular -er and -ir verbs end in -e in the affirmative tu command.

The você, vocês and nós forms come from the present subjunctive. For regular verbs, -ar changes to -e-, while -er and -ir change to -a-.

Infinitive	tu	você	nós (“let’s”)	vocês
falar	fala	fale	falemos	falem
comer	come	coma	comamos	comam
abrir	abre	abra	abramos	abram

The infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb, such as falar “to speak.” There is no first-person singular imperative: a speaker does not normally command “I” to act.

3. Negative commands

A negative command tells someone not to do something. Use não followed by a present-subjunctive form for every addressee, including tu.

Infinitive	tu	você	nós	vocês
falar	não fales	não fale	não falemos	não falem
comer	não comas	não coma	não comamos	não comam
abrir	não abras	não abra	não abramos	não abram

Notice the contrast:

• Fala mais alto! — Speak louder! (tu, affirmative)
• Não fales tão alto! — Don’t speak so loudly! (tu, negative)
• Fale mais alto! / Não fale tão alto! — Speak louder! / Don’t speak so loudly! (você)

Do not make a negative command merely by putting não before the affirmative tu form in careful standard Portuguese. The expected pair is fala / não fales, not fala / não fala.

4. Common irregular commands

Some very frequent verbs do not follow the simple regular shortcut. Learn these as complete positive/negative pairs.

Infinitive	tu: affirmative	tu: negative	você: affirmative	vocês: affirmative
ser (be)	sê	não sejas	seja	sejam
ir (go)	vai	não vás	vá	vão
vir (come)	vem	não venhas	venha	venham
ter (have/be careful)	tem	não tenhas	tenha	tenham
dizer (say/tell)	diz	não digas	diga	digam
fazer (do/make)	faz	não faças	faça	façam
trazer (bring)	traz	não tragas	traga	tragam
dar (give)	dá	não dês	dê	deem

Accent marks matter: sê is the command “be,” while se is normally a pronoun or conjunction; dá means “give,” while da is the contraction of de + a.

5. Pronouns with commands

An object pronoun is a small word standing for the person or thing affected by an action: me in “tell me,” or it in “take it.” In the standard pattern taught especially for European Portuguese, attach pronouns to the end of an affirmative command with a hyphen:

• Escreve-me! — Write to me!
• Diga-nos a verdade. — Tell us the truth.
• Senta-te. — Sit down.
• Levem-no convosco. — Take him/it with you.

With a negative command, put the pronoun before the verb:

• Não me escrevas. — Don’t write to me.
• Não nos diga isso. — Don’t tell us that.
• Não te sentes aí. — Don’t sit there.
• Não o levem. — Don’t take him/it.

Brazilian Portuguese often places an unstressed pronoun before the verb even in affirmative everyday speech: Me diga a verdade and Se senta are common conversational patterns. Formal edited usage and European Portuguese follow different preferences more strictly; see Usage Notes below.

6. Making a command softer

Portuguese can soften an imperative without changing its grammar. Add por favor, use a friendly tone, or frame the request with a polite expression.

• Feche a porta, por favor. — Close the door, please.
• Espera um momento, está bem? — Wait a moment, okay?
• Venha tomar um café connosco. — Come have coffee with us.

For an especially indirect request, speakers often avoid the imperative altogether: Pode fechar a janela? (“Can you close the window?”). As in English, a grammatically correct command can still sound abrupt if the situation calls for a request.

Examples in Context

Portuguese	English	Note
Fala mais devagar!	Speak more slowly!	Informal singular tu
Coma a sopa!	Eat the soup!	Singular você
Não fales tão alto!	Don’t speak so loudly!	Negative tu
Escreve-me quando chegares.	Write to me when you arrive.	Pronoun attached to an affirmative command
Abram os livros na página vinte.	Open your books to page twenty.	A teacher addressing several people
Não abram esta porta.	Don’t open this door.	Negative vocês
Sê paciente comigo.	Be patient with me.	Irregular tu form of ser
Venha por aqui, por favor.	Come this way, please.	Polite or contextually appropriate você form
Não te esqueças das chaves.	Don’t forget the keys.	Reflexive pronoun before a negative command
Diz-me o teu nome.	Tell me your name.	tu, common in European Portuguese
Me diga seu nome, por favor.	Tell me your name, please.	Common Brazilian pronoun placement
Façamos uma pausa.	Let’s take a break.	nós command
Vão com cuidado.	Go carefully.	Irregular vocês form of ir
Não se preocupem.	Don’t worry.	Addressing several people
Leva um casaco: está frio.	Take a coat: it’s cold.	Advice rather than an order

Common Mistakes

Using one command form for every listener

• Wrong: Fala mais devagar, senhores.
• Right: Falem mais devagar, senhores.
• Why: Fala addresses one tu. A group normally requires vocês, so the verb is falem.

Keeping the affirmative tu form after não

• Wrong in the standard beginner pattern: Não fala tão alto!
• Right: Não fales tão alto!
• Why: Standard negative tu commands use the present subjunctive. You may hear não fala in regional Brazilian speech, but do not treat it as the neutral formal rule.

Adding -s to an affirmative tu command

• Wrong: Falas mais devagar!
• Right: Fala mais devagar!
• Why: Falas is an ordinary present-tense statement (“you speak”). The regular command drops final -s.

Mixing você with a tu command

• Wrong in a consistent standard pattern: Você come a sopa!
• Right: Você coma a sopa! or simply Coma a sopa!
• Why: Você takes third-person grammar and therefore the command coma. In real Brazilian usage, mixed systems occur, but beginners communicate more reliably by keeping one pattern consistent.

Leaving the pronoun after a negative command

• Wrong: Não esqueças-te das chaves.
• Right: Não te esqueças das chaves.
• Why: Negation draws the unstressed pronoun before the verb in standard Portuguese.

Assuming an imperative is always rude

• Potentially abrupt: Dê-me água.
• More natural as a request: Dê-me água, por favor. / Pode dar-me água, por favor?
• Why: Grammar does not determine politeness by itself. Relationship, voice and request wording matter.

Usage Notes

European and Brazilian choices

In Portugal, tu is widespread with relatives, friends, children and many peers; its verb forms are generally kept distinct from third-person forms. Você exists, but its social effect is not identical everywhere and can sound distant or marked in some situations. Speakers often use a person’s name, title or no explicit pronoun while keeping a third-person verb: Entre, por favor.

In Brazil, você is the everyday singular form in much of the country. Tu is common in several regions, but actual agreement varies: some speakers use traditional tu falas / fala!, while others combine tu with third-person verb forms. These are real regional systems, not random errors. As a learner, choose a regional model and stay consistent in careful speech and writing.

For the plural, vocês is normal in both major varieties. Traditional vós survives in prayers, older texts, solemn language and a few regional settings, but it is not a priority for everyday conversation.

Pronoun placement differs too

European Portuguese commonly uses attachment after affirmative commands: Diz-me, Ajude-me, Sentem-se. Brazilian conversation strongly favors forms such as Me diz, Me ajude and Se sentem, although edited norms may prefer other placements in some contexts. Learn to recognize both. When producing European Portuguese, the hyphenated post-verbal pattern is particularly important.

Instructions often omit personal address

Recipes, signs and manuals may use an imperative, an infinitive, or an impersonal construction. You may see Misture bem (“mix well”), Não fumar (“no smoking”), or Deve conservar no frigorífico (“must be kept in the refrigerator”). Not every English instruction therefore maps to a personal command.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the details in this section at A2, but they explain forms you will encounter later.

Pronoun spelling can change

When direct-object pronouns o, a, os, as attach to some verb endings, pronunciation and spelling adjustments occur. After a form ending in -s, that consonant can disappear and the pronoun becomes -lo/-la/-los/-las: façamos + o → façamo-lo (“let’s do it”). After a nasal sound, -no/-na/-nos/-nas appears: façam + o → façam-no (“do it,” plural). These patterns belong to the wider Portuguese object-pronoun system; beginners can first use commands with nouns or easier pronouns such as me and nos.

The nós command and vamos

The subjunctive nós form gives a true “let’s” command: Comecemos agora (“Let’s begin now”), Não percamos tempo (“Let’s not waste time”). In everyday speech, vamos + infinitive is extremely common: Vamos começar (“Let’s start”). With ir itself, vamos can simply mean “let’s go”: Vamos!.

Commands can express more than orders

The imperative appears in advertising, advice, wishes, invitations and fixed expressions:

• Experimente grátis. — Try it free.
• Tenha um bom dia. — Have a good day.
• Fica à vontade. — Make yourself at home. (tu)
• Veja bem… — Look / consider this carefully…

In conditional-sounding sequences, a command can introduce a consequence: Estuda mais e vais melhorar (“Study more and you’ll improve”). The first verb is formally a command, but the whole sentence presents advice and its likely result.

Formal written vós forms

The affirmative vós endings are -ai for -ar, -ei for -er, and -i for -ir: falai, comei, abri. Negative forms use the subjunctive: não faleis, não comais, não abrais. Recognizing these forms is useful for hymns, scripture, historical writing and deliberately elevated style; most learners do not need to produce them in conversation.

Practice Tips

1. Learn commands in four-part sets. For each useful verb, say an affirmative and negative command for both tu and você: fala / não fales; fale / não fale. This prevents the common mistake of using the positive form after não.
2. Choose a variety for active practice. If your goal is Portugal, rehearse diz-me and senta-te. If your goal is Brazil, listen for local choices such as me diz and for whether speakers around you prefer tu or você. Still learn the standard forms so that you can read and write confidently.
3. Turn real tasks into commands. Use a recipe, route or morning routine: abre a janela, pega nas chaves, não te esqueças do telefone. Then change the listener from one friend to a group and adjust every verb.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Regular -AR Verbs — provides the present-tense pattern behind commands such as falas → fala and helps make the subjunctive endings easier to recognize.