How to express orders in Spanish
Updated: Sep 8, 2023
Spanish language has numerous options at our disposal to express orders, it has so many that it is often complicated for students of Spanish to choose which one is the most correct. Learn Spanish like a native speaker by practicing these forms of expressing orders in Spanish.
Imperative is the king of commands, although it is not the only verb form we use in Spanish to express commands. Today I want to show you other structures to express orders in Spanish. Are you ready?
Present tense of Indicative in Spanish to express orders
More than orders I like to call it instructions, it is not the same to be told ¡Cállate! to be told you have to shut up, it sounds a bit more polite and the objective is the same, that someone shuts up.
Even so, I like to start this Spanish lesson by saying that you can express orders in Spanish using the present indicative.
Primero abrís el libro y segundo leéis el texto
Infinitive in Spanish to express orders
I love this way of giving orders in Spanish and it is very common in this beautiful language that is Spanish. We use the preposition¨a¨ and the infinitive verb and it is used a lot in informal situations and even in angry situations.
La comida está preparada, ¡a comer!
estás hablando demasiado ¡ a callar!
What infinitive verb can you think of in Spanish?
Put the preposition "a" before it and all within exclamatory symbols and you are using a form to express orders.
Cantar = ¡A cantar!
Bailar = ¡ A bailar!
Escribir = ¡A escribir!
Begs in Spanish to express orders
But, are colloquial contexts the only and most important ones when speaking Spanish? certainly not, in fact in DELE exams there can (and should) be situations in which we need to use a more polite language. This is where the verb ROGAR (To beg) comes in, in which we can use it to give orders in two different ways. In personal form of the verb and in impersonal form of the verb.
Se ruega guarden silencio
Rogamos guarden silencio
Notice that these sentences are subordinate clauses and the second verb is in the subjunctive, could the indicative mood be used? That's a very good question, let's look at it.
Se ruega guarden silencio vs Se ruega guardar silencio
Both guarden and guardar are noun subordinates in direct object function, they are interchangeable so using one or the other is a matter of style.
In short, the verb can be in infinitive or subjunctive form
Orders with the word "que"
We have seen that we can give orders when we are angry or even when we are in a hurry. In addition to the infinitive verb we can use the conjunction que and the subjunctive to express these orders with the sense of urgency.
Te he dicho que te calles
¡qué te levantes ya que es muy tarde!
As we can see, they are subordinate sentences followed by the nexus que, so the verb is conjugated in the subjunctive.
Verbal periphrases for giving orders
Of course, this is one of the most common ways of giving orders in Spanish.
You have to =Tienes que
you must go = debes + verbo en infinitivo
We use it to give advice (very close to orders) expressing a benefit for the interlocutor.
Si quieres mejorar tu español tienes que practicar mucho
Debes hablar más con gente nativa para aprender un idioma
Here I have given you some alternatives for giving orders in Spanish without using the imperative but I want to let you know dear reader that we still have many more. If you want to learn a little more about how to give orders in Spanish book an appointment with Spanish Super Tutor and we will talk about some other ways to give orders in Spanish.
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