When someone yells Sai!Leave! or a doctor says Pare de fumarStop smoking , there’s one thing they’re doing in common: using the imperativoimperative mood!
There are 2 types of imperatives in Portuguese: the affirmative and the negative, shown below respectively. In these examples, the speaker is talking to multiple people, i.e. using the vocês (you – plural) form.
Parem de fazer barulho.Stop making noise.
Não parem de correr.Don't stop running.
Regular Verbs in the Imperative in Portuguese
The imperativoimperative can be thought of as the verb conjugation used for giving commands or telling someone to do something (or not to do something). These “commands” could take the form of orders, advice, requests, or pleas. Since the speaker is always talking directly to another person (or group of people), the imperative is only used with the following forms:
- tuyou (informal)
- vocêyou (sing.,formal)
- nóswe (When you’re including yourself in the command, e.g. “Let’s…”)
- vocêsyou (plural)
- vós (This pronoun has mostly fallen out of use in daily life, except in few regions — we won’t worry about this one for now!)
Affirmative Commands
To form an affirmative command in the imperative in Portuguese, you start with the verb stem (the infinitive version of the verb minus the -ar, -er, or -ir ending) and add the correct verb ending. The imperative endings for regular verbs are summarized in the chart below:
| tu | você | nós | vocês | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ar verbs | -a | -e | -emos | -em |
| -er/-ir verbs | -e | -a | -amos | -am |
Tip: An easy way to remember affirmative informal commands (tu) is to start with the present tense verb conjugation, and then all you have to do is remove the final -s to form the imperative. (Or, you could just remember that it’s most often the same as the 3rd-person present tense conjugation.) For example, with the verb comer:
- Present tense (tu): Tu comes a sopa.You eat the soup.
- Imperative (tu): Come a sopa.Eat the soup.
Negative Commands
The negative form must include an advérbio de negaçãoadverb of denial at the beginning of the sentence, such as nãono , nuncanever , or jamaisnever ever . Then, the verb form itself is borrowed from the present subjunctive tense. The imperative only has its own exclusive verb conjugations in affirmative sentences.
Nunca deixes a porta aberta.Never leave the door open.
Accordingly, negative commands are conjugated the same way as affirmative commands, except with the informal tu form. Let’s look at the same chart again, but this time with the negative tu endings added.
| affirmative tu | negative tu | você | nós | vocês | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ar verbs | -a | -es | -e | -emos | -em |
| -er/-ir verbs | -e | -as | -a | -amos | -am |
Irregular Verbs in the Imperative in Portuguese
The chart below shows some of the common irregular verbs conjugated in the imperative in Portuguese, i.e. the verbs that don’t completely follow the rules shown in the table above.
Examples:
Estejamos calados.Let's be quiet.
Não vá por aí, senhor.Don't go through there, sir.
Dizer, Fazer, Trazer, and -uzir Verbs
For the verbs dizerto say , fazerto do, to make , trazerto bring , and verbs ending in -uzir: when giving informal (tu) affirmative commands, the imperative is formed by dropping the –es from the indicative present tense conjugation. Examples:
Dizer:
- Present tense: Tu dizesYou sayindicativo > presente
- Imperative: DizSay (imperative)
Traduzir:
- Present tense: Tu traduzesYou translate
- Imperative: TraduzTranslate (imperative)
Imperativo Reflexo
You can also form the imperative in Portuguese with pronomes reflexivosreflexive pronouns
These are the 4 clitic pronouns directly* used with the imperative:
- te (used in place of tu)
- se (used in place of você/vocês)
- nos (used in place of nós)
- vos (used in place of vós – as mentioned before, this is not commonly used, generally speaking)
*Other clitic pronouns may also appear, but only to refer to people other than those being directly addressed.
In the affirmative, you simply add the clitic pronoun after the verb.
Acalma-te!Calm yourself down!
Deixa-me em paz!Leave me alone! (a case of a clitic pronoun that does not refer to the listener)
In the negative, the clitic pronoun comes before the verb.
Não se levantem.Don't stand(yourselves) up.
Let’s see an example of how to conjugate the reflexive verb calarto silence, shut up in the imperative in Portuguese:
Imperativo vs. Presente do Conjuntivo
Bonus! Now that you know the imperative verb conjugation, you have a head start on the presente do conjuntivo (subjunctive present), which comes up later in the course and uses mostly the same verb endings.
But for now, let’s practice with the imperative…
There seemed to be two types of imperatives. Formal and informal. they are so confusing? do you know any way to distinguish and memorise both? Muito obrigada!
Yes, you have different conjugations for “tu” (informal second-person singular) and “você” (formal second-person singular, which is actually conjugated as a third-person singular). Unfortunately, there really are no shortcuts here. Portuguese verbs are highly conjugated and it takes a lot of repetition and study to memorize all the respective conjugations, especially for irregular verbs. We have a fully dedicated Verbs section to help with this process 🙂 You can also go through our Learning Notes, as we have several about verbs and particular tenses.
Very useful and clear, thank you very much!
Hi Team,
In this lesson while describing the reflexive imperatives you list the 4 clitics used but then the first example uses ‘me’ which is not on the list………..why is this?
Thanks.
Hi, Cameron. You’re right, that part with the example “Deixa-me em paz” wasn’t totally clear, but it’s actually correct.
What we meant to explain was that those 4 clitic pronouns are the ones that refer directly to the person we’re talking to, in line with what was explained at the start about the imperative only being used with second persons (singular and plural) — because a direct command, advice, etc., can only be given, grammatically speaking, to a second person; so, not to ourselves or to a third person.
However, we can give orders to one person that indirectly affect other people too, so the other clitic pronouns we know may still show up. In “Deixa-me em paz”, the order is given to “you”, but it affects “me” as the target of your actions. I’ve just amended that section of the Learning Note to make this clearer 🙂
Maybe it’s useful to point out that Modo Imperativo for “tu” (2nd person singular informal) is ALWAYS the same as 3rd person singular in “present simple” form. (?)
If we remember it this way, we don’t have to care if the verb stem actually finishes with “ar” or “er”/”ir”. It will be always same as 3rd person singular.
All the best!!!
(I practice with your platform every day and I think it’s certainly the best website available to practice european portuguese.
Thank you so much for your work!!)
Sara
Good point, I just updated the tip above. Thanks! (And you’re very welcome 🙂 )
Thanks, Sara! I’ll just add that it’s not always, but *almost* always 🙂 One notable exception, for example, is the verb ser (to be).
Am I missing something? Shouldn’t the imperative “eat the soup” be “Coma a sopa?” (above it says Come a sopa, which looks like present indicative tense)
“Coma a sopa” would be the singular, formal imperative form (você) and “Come a sopa” is the singular, informal imperative form (tu). So both are correct, it’s just a matter of who you’re speaking to. Check out the chart where it says “Affirmative Commands”. The endings are basically reversed for -ar and -er/-ir verbs. 🙂
Very nice plz do on more grammer topics
As an older English person, I went to school during a ‘progressive ‘ era when it wasn’t considered necessary to teach formal grammar, so I really struggle with this type of lesson. I can’t even tell my indicative from my subjunctive most of the time. My head is spinning, so I’m hoping that if I ignore it, I’ll never use it. Seriously though, I’m just going to get on with it and hope that some of it will eventually fall into place 😉
Olá! I can imagine how overwhelming all of these grammar concepts might seem. Even for people who are well versed in grammar, getting into it in a completely new language can be daunting.
Here at Practice Portuguese, we sometimes reflect on how everything is so much simpler when we first learn a language as children: we don’t need to thoroughly understand grammar to make sense of what we intuitively pick up just from listening to people. To some extent, we like to encourage people to go back to that mindset and be open to the language without always feeling the need to dissect it. But we are also mindful of the fact that not only the adult brain works differently, but also that these grammar crutches are important at certain times to properly frame or unlock some concepts. On top of that, we all have different learning styles and some people really benefit from a more academic approach!
I guess it’s ultimately about finding what works for us, and developing strategies to deal with or somehow circumvent the rest 😉
Hi, what would be the rule for verbs ending in -OR like “pôr”? I find it a bit hard to find the rule for it. Thank you
This unit should help: The Verb Pôr The lessons are only accessible if you’re a member, but the Learning Note at the very beginning is free and will explain how verbs ending in -or work. Members can also view the conjugations of some -or verbs here.
Basically, the -or verbs are technically considered part of -er verbs for etymological reasons, but they are irregular. Luckily, however, if you know the conjugations for the verb pôr, you can apply the same endings to other verbs ending in -por.
For the imperativo, pôr is conjugated like this:
tu: põe
você: ponha
vocês: ponham
Dear Joseph
Am I correct to say that the “present subjunctive” is used only in the case of “Tu” in a negative sentence?
Olá! In negative sentences, the present subjunctive is used for all grammatical persons, not just ‘tu’. What the Learning Note was trying to explain is that in an affirmative imperative sentence, the conjugation for “Tu” is different than in a negative imperative sentence, because ‘tu’ (and the not covered pronoun ‘vós’) has a specific imperative conjugation. Other pronouns (i.e. aside from ‘tu’ and ‘vós’) use present subjunctive conjugations both in affirmative and negative imperative sentences, so they look the same 🙂
This helps a lot
It’s helped me a lot to understand imperative thank you so much
Boa noite. I’m confused when doing Lesson 2 by this “Faça o que achar melhor”. Why use the infinitive of the verb ACHAR in this sensentce? Shouldn’t it be “Faça o que acha melhor” to be consistent with Faça?Obrigado!
In this sentence, it’s not the infinitive, but the future subjunctive that’s being used – they happen to look the same in both cases. The future subjunctive is a natural (and grammatically compatible) choice here, since the sentence is focused on a relatively uncertain near future: it’s not clear what the person will think is best.
The present indicative ‘acha’ is also acceptable, as a more concrete and immediate alternative. Consistency with “faça” is not a factor here, because “faça” is being used as an imperative form (a mood without any specific tense), rather than as a mere present subjunctive form. So, there is no requirement to keep the whole sentence in the present tense.
I’m getting conflicting information about forming the imperative. On my A1/A2 course several years ago (run by IEFP) I was taught:
Informal – fala baixa (não fales alto)
formal – fale baixa
plural – falem baixa
I am now doing a B1/B2 course (run by IEFP but with a different professora) and she insists that the only valid Portuguse (Portugal) forms of the imperative are:
Tu fala baixa
Você falai baixa
Which is more correct? Every Aprender Portuguese book I own uses the form I was taught on my A1/A2 course.
Good question.
In formal Portuguese grammar, the true imperative mood only has two forms, one for ‘tu’ (2nd-person singular) and one for ‘vós’ (2nd-person plural).
‘Vós’ is a subject pronoun that is still well in use, but mostly regionally restricted to the north of Portugal, so in everyday life, if you’re not in that region, it might be rare for you to hear it. For this reason, and due to the complexity of the conjugations with ‘vós’, it is not taught in all Portuguese courses. Instead, the pronoun ‘vocês’ is presented as an alternative 2nd-person plural pronoun, since it’ll sound natural throughout the whole country. Even as a 2nd-person plural pronoun, ‘vocês’ uses 3rd-person plural verb conjugations, which makes it easier to learn and use.
So, what you’re noticing is a contrast between a pragmatic approach (A1/A2 course teacher) and a more formal/academic approach (B1/B2 course teacher):
– Your A1/A2 teacher taught you the standard form “fala baixo” (informal singular, with ‘tu’) + the non-standard form “falem baixo” (plural, with ‘vocês’). Additionally, they also taught you the non-standard “fale baixo” (formal singular, with ‘você’). Both non-standard forms use conjugations from the present subjunctive, because they don’t exist in the true imperative.
– Your B1/B2 teacher only taught you the standard forms with ‘tu’ and ‘vós’ (there’s no ‘você’ in that case). You added the respective pronouns to each example, but please note that regardless of the approach, we don’t actually include them in an imperative sentence, they’re just implied. The sentences themselves would just be “Fala baixo” and “Falai baixo”.
Strictly speaking, your B1/B2 teacher is more correct on a formal level and her approach is the same followed by the national Portuguese education system, as it should. But what your A1/A2 teacher taught you will probably be more useful for you in both the short and long run, because it fast-tracks you into the real-world use of the language. Practice Portuguese is also aligned with this pragmatic approach.
Hi Joseph
Thank you for the prompt and informative response. I should have put vós, not você, for the falai part, I also only included the pronouns for clarity, I probably should have put them in parenthesis. The B1/B2 teacher also insists that we use the vós form for each verb conjugation, even though it is not in everyday use. I will just have to accept her view for the remainder of the course.
My main issue is that every other bit of teaching material for the QECR-based courses uses the same basis as my A1/A2 teacher. As this course is sponsored (paid for?) by IEFP with the main aim of integrating people into the workplace, surely it should be using the sort of language that will be encountered in day-to-day situations.
Anyway, you have resolved my dilemma, so thank you. I might not agree with the teacher but I can now understand why she is teaching in the manner she is.
You’re welcome! I would say that there should be a consistent approach within the same institution, one way or another. But hopefully, you can now navigate this with more clarity anyway 🙂