A2 · The imperative
Formal imperative: você
One form for asking, telling and the instructions on a packet.
At a glance
- Remember
- With você the form is always the same.
- Form
- (tu) come!eat!
- Signal words
- fale
- coma
- faça
- diga
- venha
- Trap
- Wrong:Não preocupe-se.Right:Não se preocupe.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in Portuguese. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) tense marker person ending ending for tense and person negation
| eat! | (tu) come! |
| eat! (formal) | (você) coma! |
| let’s eat! | (nós) comamos! |
| eat!, plural and formal | (vós) comei! |
| eat! (plural) | (vocês) comam! |
| don’t eat! | (tu) não comas! |
| don’t eat! (formal) | (você) não coma! |
| let’s not eat! | (nós) não comamos! |
| don’t eat!, plural and formal | (vós) não comais! |
| don’t eat! (plural) | (vocês) não comam! |
| speak | fale |
| do not speak | não fale |
| eat | coma |
| speak (plural) | falem |
| sit down | sente-se |
| can you repeat that? | pode repetir? |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
With você the subjunctive always stands.
Fale mais devagar, por favor.Please speak more slowly.
Affirmative and negative use the same form.
Não se preocupe.Don't worry.
In the plural an -m is added.
Sentem-se, por favor.Please take a seat.
A question is politer than any imperative.
Pode ajudar-me, por favor?Could you help me, please?
Example sentences
Entre, por favor.Please come in.
Não se esqueça do recibo.Don't forget the receipt.
Diga-me o seu nome, por favor.Please tell me your name.
Tenham paciência, já vamos.Please be patient, we are coming.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
In the polite form the pronoun also moves forward as soon as there is a negative: sente-se becomes não se sente. Leave the hyphen where it was and you build não sente-se — the same trap as with tu, with a different form in front of it.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
With você and o senhor the subjunctive stands, affirmative and negative alike: fale and não fale, coma and não coma.
This is the form you will read in a shop, at the doctor's and in every set of instructions — and it is easier than the tu form, because it never switches. English has one imperative doing all of that, so there is nothing to unlearn: this single form covers the request at a counter, the instruction on a packet of medicine and the notice on a door.
In the plural an -m is added: falem, comam, não se preocupem.
Politer than any imperative is a question: pode repetir? rather than repita. In Portuguese that is not evasion, it is the usual tone — much as « could you say that again » is ordinary English while « say that again » is not.
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