In short

The imperative is how you tell someone to do something - give an order, an instruction, an invitation, a piece of advice: Fala mais devagar (“Speak more slowly”), Entre, por favor (“Come in, please”), Vira à direita (“Turn right”). Which form you use depends on who you are talking to - the informal tu or the polite você / o senhor - exactly the address split of Lesson 3. The good news is that both forms are built from verbs you already know: the tu command is just the “he/she” present-tense form with nothing added (ele fala -> fala!), and the você command is the eu present form with its ending swapped. This lesson covers only the affirmative (“do it!”); the negative (“don’t do it!”) and its full system are built in Lesson 33.

The rule

Two commands for two ways of addressing people

Portuguese has no single “you”-command. You pick the form that matches how you address the person (Lesson 3):

• tu - informal, one person you are close to (a friend, a child, family).
• você / o senhor / a senhora - polite or respectful, one person. It uses the third-person verb form, so grammatically it looks like “he/she”.
• vocês - the plural of both, for any group (EP has dropped the old vós command falai / comei outside prayers and set phrases).

The tu command: the “he/she” present form

To give an informal command, take the third-person singular present indicative (the ele / ela form from Lessons 6-8) and use it as is - drop the final -s of the tu form:

• tu falas -> Fala! , tu comes -> Come! , tu abres -> Abre!

That single rule also delivers most irregular commands, because they are simply the ele present form: ter -> tem, fazer -> faz, dizer -> diz (also dize), vir -> vem, pôr -> põe, ver -> vê, dar -> dá, ler -> lê. Two must be memorised: ser -> sê and ir -> vai.

The você command: eu form, swap the ending

For the polite command, start from the eu present form (Lessons 6-8), drop the -o, and add the opposite theme vowel:

• -ar verbs add -e: falo -> fale, entro -> entre, espero -> espere. Plural: -em (falem).
• -er / -ir verbs add -a: como -> coma, abro -> abra, parto -> parta. Plural: -am (comam, abram).

Because you start from eu, every irregular eu-stem is carried automatically: faço -> faça, digo -> diga, venho -> venha, ponho -> ponha, saio -> saia, peço -> peça, durmo -> durma, ouço -> ouça. Only a handful are irregular and must be learned - mostly verbs whose eu form does not end in -o, plus querer: ser -> seja, estar -> esteja, ir -> vá, dar -> dê, saber -> saiba, querer -> queira. Every vocês command is that você form plus -m (seja -> sejam, ponha -> ponham); only ir and dar break the pattern - vão and deem.

Saying “let’s”: vamos + infinitive

The everyday EP way to say “let’s do X” is vamos + infinitive - no special form needed: Vamos comer! (“Let’s eat!”), Vamos embora! (“Let’s go!”), Vamos ver. (“Let’s see.”). A one-word nós command exists (comamos, partamos) but it is formal and rare in speech; vamos + infinitive is what people actually say.

Where the pronoun goes: attached after the verb

With an affirmative command the object or reflexive pronoun (Lesson 12) comes after the verb, joined by a hyphen - this is ênclise, the default position you will study fully in Lessons 29-31:

• Senta-te! (“Sit down!”), Levanta-te, Diz-me, Dá-me, Chama-lhe.
• With você / vocês: Sente-se, Levantem-se, Diga-me, Dê-me.

Never front the pronoun in an affirmative EP command: it is Diga-me, not Me diga.

Softening the order: invitations and politeness

A bare imperative can sound blunt, so EP wraps it in courtesy words - por favor, se faz favor, faça (o) favor de + infinitivo - or uses set polite imperatives: Faça favor (“Please, go ahead”), Tenha um bom dia, Desculpe, Diga (“Yes? / Go on”). The imperative is also the normal mood for written instructions and recipes, where EP uses the você form: Descasque as batatas, corte-as e junte o sal.

Forms & patterns

Regular verbs, the two everyday address forms plus the plural:

The high-frequency irregulars:

Reflexive and object pronouns attach after the verb:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Comes a sopa! -> Come a sopa! - the tu command is the ele form; drop the -s of the present tu form.
• Fale mais devagar said to a friend -> Fala mais devagar - use the tu command for someone you address as tu; fale is the você form.
• Me diga / Te senta -> Diga-me / Senta-te - in an affirmative EP command the pronoun attaches after the verb with a hyphen, never before it.
• Vá said to a friend -> Vai - vai is the tu command of ir; vá is the você form (and sê vs seja work the same way).
• Falar mais alto! as a spoken order -> Fala / Fale mais alto! - the plain infinitive is not the normal spoken command; use the imperative form.
• Faça a janela (meaning “close”) -> Feche a janela - build the você command from the right verb’s eu form (fecho -> feche), not from fazer.
• Sente-te / Senta-se mixing forms -> keep one address: Senta-te (tu) or Sente-se (você), not a blend of the verb of one and the pronoun of the other.

Tips

• Two recipes cover almost everything: tu = the ele present form (fala, come, abre); você = the eu present form with the ending flipped (falo -> fale, como -> coma). Learn those and the short irregular list, and you can command any verb.
• Because the você form starts from eu, every stem-changing eu form comes along for free: faço -> faça, digo -> diga, venho -> venha, durmo -> durma. You are not learning new stems, just a new ending.
• For “let’s”, reach for vamos + infinitivo (Vamos ver, Vamos comer) - it is the natural EP choice and avoids the rare one-word form.
• Keep the pronoun after the affirmative verb: Senta-te, Diga-me, Levantem-se. This is the enclisis you will formalise in Lessons 29-31.
• Soften commands with por favor, se faz favor, or faça favor de + infinitivo so they do not sound abrupt - the imperative alone can feel curt.
• In Brazil the picture shifts: você is the default even among friends, so Brazilians use the tu-form words (fala, come) with você-level familiarity, and they place pronouns before the verb (Me diz, Se senta). European Portuguese keeps tu forms for tu and attaches the pronoun after - stick with the EP pattern here.