Coffee Break Spanish - How to give commands, instructions and suggestions - The imperative in Spanish | CBS Show 2.06

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Have you ever wondered how to give commands in Spanish? In this episode we reveal how to use the imperative like a native speaker!Prefer to watch these lessons? You can do exactly that for free on Coffee Break TV, and download the episodes to your device so you can access them on the go. Or, you can head to our Coffee Break Spanish YouTube channel to access the video version of each podcast episode there. Remember to subscribe to our channel so that you don’t miss an episode.That's not all... each episode of the Show is accompanied by a blog article to increase your understanding of the topics covered.➡️ Click the link to access the blog article and worksheet that accompany this lesson ⬅️ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish Welcome to the Coffee Break Spanish show I'm Mark And I'm Concha How much, Mark? How are you? Thank you. Thank you. I'm very content of I'm here in other episode

of The Coffee Brick Spanish Show So in this weekly episodes We help you improve your Spanish One Coffee Break at a time And if you're admiring our lovely Coffee Break Spanish Mugs You can get your own There are links beneath this video

If you're watching on YouTube Or head to Coffee Break Gift Shop.com I mentioned YouTube You may well be watching on our YouTube channel. And if so, make sure you subscribe to the channel here on YouTube. Or if you're listening to the podcast version, then make sure you subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Well, Conza, what we do?

Oh, today we're going to be talking about how to give commands in Spanish. Okay, sounds good. Let's get started. Let's get started. Giving commands and in particular giving commands to people we know. Exactly. This is using a special form of the verb called the imperative, isn't it? Ah, yes. So the imperative is actually a mood in a sense. So it doesn't matter so much what you're saying. It matters how you're saying. So this imperative has different versions. In English, we just say read, walk, sing, dance and so on.

Yes, yes. Giving an instruction. But in Spanish, we have to think about who it is. We're, inviting to readwalks, sing or dance. That's so it's. And the good thing is that not all the persons take the imperative, so we don't need to learn that many conjugations. You can't really order yourself to do something, can you? Exactly, yeah, no, it doesn't make sense. So we normally use the person,

you, bothotros, Ustead, Usteads, and nosotros. Yeah, okay, so if we're ordering ourselves to do something, it's like saying, let's do something, let's begin. because we often say like Empecemos, let's get started

inviting us all to get started. Exactly. And you may know that that Empecemos is actually the form of the subjunctive of the verb in that person. But so yeah, nosotros Ustead and Ustead share the same forms in the

imperative and in the subjunctive. But don't worry about this because we're not focusing on these in this lesson. There is another episode in the subjunctive coming up later in the season that you can look forward to. However, today we're going to really focus on TUL and maybe mention Vosotros as well. Exactly. So we will focus on how to give commands to someone that you know and you're familiar with.

Yeah. Okay. So let's begin then looking at regular verbs. How do we say, for example, speak Spanish, Concha? So you would say, Abla Spanish. Abla Spanish. So if I want Concha to speak Spanish to me, because I want to practice my Spanish, I could say,

Abla Spanish, for favor. Exactly. It may come across is a little bit direct, Abla Spanish. Yes.

You can add in a for favor and it will be fine. Yeah. If you add a for favor, you're safe. Absolutely.

But if you don't, it's for Spanish speakers is natural to use this form. Good. So you won't come across as rude. Okay.

So that's an ER verb. Abla from Abla. So we're just taking off the R of the infinitive. Yes.

Taking off the ER and adding an E. Uh, exactly. Which is what what we do with the third person

singular in the present tense if you think about it. So when you want to conjugate a verb in the imperative for tu, just think about the third person singular in the present tense. So the normal form that we use for he, she, or it. Exactly. Because if we said you are speaking Spanish, that's Ablas Español. But if I'm telling you, speak Spanish, Abla Español.

Okay. So what happens for ER verbs? So for ER verbs, for example, the verb, if I wanted to say, drink more water, verb, beber to drink. I would say, bebe, more water.

So you see what's happening there again. Tu bebes, El or ella, bebe. We're going to that form and using that form as the command form

for, well, the imperative command form. Sometimes you call it the command form. Sometimes the imperative is the same thing for that giving an order.

Bebe more water. Exactly. And what about an IR verb to complete the trio? Yes. So let's use the verb pedir. I like it

because it's irretier. regular. So for pedir, which means to order and other things, but one of the meanings is to order.

If I wanted to say order a hamburger, please, I would say, Pide an hamburger, so once again, we're going to

that third person singular of the verb, the normal form that we would say Conta, Pide an hamburger, but in this case it's Pide

an hamburger. We're giving a command order a hamburger. Pide an hamburger. And obviously other types of burgers are available. Exactly. Yes. So, pedir, you know, is a stem changing verb.

Yeah. So all the stem changing verbs in the present will also be stem changing in the imperative. In the form two. Okay. If these terms like imperative and stem changing verbs and so on are all new to you, please do check out Coffee Break Spanish Level 1, our first season of the podcast, where you can learn all about the basics of,

of Spanish and that's available way back in the podcast feed and of course on our YouTube channel too. Yes, yes. Let's look at some irregulars because this is actually where, very often in languages, the verbs that are irregular are the ones that are used most often. That's the way the language has developed. So when we use imperatives, very often we're going to be saying, do this, say that and so on. So let's look at some of these irregular verbs and see how they form in the imperative. Okay, perfecto.

one of the ones that you just say, say, that you just said, say, it's a tongue twister for me. So that's the verb, dee, and the imperative form is di. D, okay. So say that would be, di, so. D-eso. D-es-o. Now, very often, that D will be combined with a pronoun. For example, tell me.

And that would become, Dime. Dime. or tell him it would be so we'll see that very often with the me the le and so on and so on exactly and we also have the verb a c'er is also irregular

and the form is a a so h a z obviously if you're in latin america you'll hear that as as exactly okay so ath or as so do your homework a a

those deveres. Ath los deveres. Very good. Exactly. Or if you wanted to say do it, you can say, athlo. And it's combined together

in one word because the pronoun combines on to the end of the imperative. Exactly. Okay. Another one is the verb ir.

Which is funny, I think. Yeah. This one is B. So that's Vee. And again, you're less likely to hear that

on a its own, but there is a verb that is the reflexive form of ear, irse, which means kind of to go away. So if you combine be with the pronoun te, the reflexive pronoun te, and we say bette, it means go away. Yes, exactly. Go away, please. Then we have the verb poner, which is quite funny in the imperative for my father. Because it's pon. Pon. So you were to telling your son or daughter to set the table. Pon la mesa, for favor. That's, yes.

Or if you wanted to say put it there, ponlo aie. Ponlo aie. Okay, so pon. And once again, that pronoun is sticking on to the end of the imperative. That's very good.

We also have the verb salir. And salé is also a funny one because the irregular form is sal. Sal. So leave here, get out of here, Sal de acque. Exactly. And we also have the verb

ser. Ser is C. C. So that's S E with an accent. So we could be, we could say

be kind. Aha. That's say amable. So you're telling someone be kind it's an instruction, a command

say amable. Yes, exactly. And if you think about it, it shares the form with say from I know, lo see.

So it does share the same form, but they mean something entirely. So both spelled exactly the same, but they mean two different things. So say, I know, and say be in that sort of sense of be kind. I'm thinking of something that we've done in a previous episode of this season of the show. And that was when we talked about using a different verb to mean to be. For example, to be warm, to be cold, to be hungry and so on. And that was when we used the verb Tener.

And tenor has an imperative form as well. Yes, exactly. It's also irregular. And it's ten. Ten. Ten. So just T-E-N. So if you're wanting someone, for example, to be patient, literally what you're saying is have patience.

Exactly. So you would say... Ten paciencia. Ten paciencia. Yes. Very good. And we have one more, which is the verb benir. Benir.

To come. Uh-huh. And you... hear this all the time in Spain. So for example, if someone is walking the dog and they want to call the dog, they would say, ben. Ben, Ben, here. Exactly. Ben-a-ki. So, Ben-A-E-N from the verb, Ben-ir. Uh-huh. Exactly. So, Mark, how would you say, come here and do your homework? Okay, so let's do this as a translation challenge for our listeners. I'm going to push the magic 10-second button. So the challenge is come here and do your homework.

Ben Acquis and do the Bres. Perfect. Very well. It's interesting that in Spanish you say, aft los demeres. You kind of know who they belong to, don't you? Yeah, exactly. Come here and do my homework.

Exactly. That's why we tend not to use the at those de beles. Yes. Okay. So far we've been looking at the singular forms. And there is a plural form for the vosotros part of the verb. Now obviously this would be used in Spain, not in most parts of Latin America. But the Boshotros form is actually quite simple.

Yep, exactly. So all you need to do is take the infinitive of the verb and change the R to a D. A D. Okay. So give us an example. Okay. So let's take the sentence that we have just looked at for the translation challenge. So we had come here and do your homework.

So that's the verb beneath. So if we remove the ar, and we add a D, that would be benid. Benid. Uh-huh. Exactly. So, benid here, and the same for acer. Yeah.

So we remove the R, we add the D, benid here, and aced los deveres. So benid here and aced los deveres. That's right. I'm going to share a little thought that I've had about this. Because very often, I feel that when I hear a person from Spain saying, benes, here and make the dee

that D very often sounds a little bit like an R Aha, yes and in fact some people

are saying an R and it hurts me Oh it's hard you It hurts me a little bit

because it's not the form that we consider correct Okay, so actually the form the imperative form is with

a D but it's easier to pronounce it with an R and it's easier to link words exactly with an R

That's why sometimes they say, Beni'i'i, which in reality they're using the infinitive. It doesn't make sense. But we do hear it a lot. Yeah. So if you do hear that, don't worry, you're right. They're wrong. Exactly.

There is, I mean, I suppose R's and Ds kind of happen in the same part of your mouth anyway. So there's a link there in a sense. Okay. Anything else that we need to consider in this episode, Conce? Yes. We have touched on this topic a little bit already, but I want to emphasize how to use the imperative with pronouns. Yeah, this is important.

Yeah, especially because in Spanish we have so many reflexive verbs and we use pronouns as much as we can. So it's good to get used to using them with the imperative as well. So if you remember correctly, Mark, we added the pronoun at the end of the verb. And joined together. So it becomes one word, yeah? Exactly, yes.

So sometimes that gives a situation. where an accent has to appear. Yeah. So the reason for this is because typically, when you have a Spanish word, typically that Spanish word, unless it's got an accent in it, is pronounced on the second last syllable, particularly like a verb like, like, Compa, for example. So, I compro, your compra, sell,

compra, he'll get, compra, and so on. So each one of those, the accent is happening on the second last syllable. That's, yes. So when we add the pronoun, the stress of the word can't change. Okay, we keep it there. And because of the accent rules

and just to make sure that we know how to stress the word, we put the accent. So see if I said by a shirt, Compa una camisa, but then I replaced that a pronoun, how would that word be? So the una camisa would be replaced by it, meaning la in Spanish.

So la standing for the camisa. So we'd be saying, But if we think about how that's written, it's one word and it's got three syllables. And if we're applying that rule about using the second last syllable for our strong syllable, it would sound like comprala. Yes, which is really funny. So, yeah, so we need the accent to indicate that the stress is still on Comprala. So Comprala, our accent goes on the first syllable.

Exactly. So we could make this a little bit more complicated. if we said buy a shirt for Jorge. Okay, so here we have got buy a shirt for Jorge. So the shirt is going to be replaced again with la. Because la will stand for a shirt. So buy a shirt. We're going to replace that bit with la.

And then for him, for Jorge, it's, we can actually do that with one pronoun. We don't even need the for in there. Exactly. We can just say le to him. So literally what we're saying is buy to him it. That's right. Now something a little bit odd happens here. Because if we were to put all those things together and say,

Compra, then to him le, and la for it at the end, Compralela. That doesn't sound right to a native Spanish year. No. So what do you do? Compra le la, no. So we would replace that le for C. comprasela So you can hear

it runs off the tongue much more easily Comprasela as opposed to Compralela Yeah, le la is very strange for us to pronounce Yeah

So when things get strange to pronounce the way the language develops It changes And you can replace that Or you have to replace that Le with say

Compracela Exactly But the accent stays on the Compa Yes The O there Comprasela

So we've got four syllables now And we still have that accent with Comprasela. Exactly. Yes. Well, Concha, in this episode, we've learned much, no?

Exactly. Much to learn. Much to study. So, we hope that you have enjoyed this lesson. And as Concha said, Estudia. I'm talking to you. Exactly. Yes. But if you need help studying, then we have got a blog article, which

will help you with all of the examples written down and you'll see some further explanations of how the imperative works in the two form and a little bit of the Bosotros form too. Exactly. And if you need more help with your Spanish, you can

sign up to receive our free email lessons. Just visiting coffeebreaklanguages.com slash Spanish. And yeah, just look up for the next mini lesson in your inbox. Perfect. Well, much thanks. Thank you. And thanks a both. And thanks a bossotros.

Yes, yes. And until the next. Happy coffee breaking. Copyright 2024 Radiolingua Limited. Recording copyright, 2024, Radiolingua Limited. All rights reserved.