Like other Romance languages, Portuguese has a rich system of verb conjugations, including the Imperative mood.

The Imperative is used to give commands, instructions, suggestions, and directions—whether in everyday conversations, at work, or in public settings.

Importantly, using the Portuguese Imperative correctly depends on several factors: the level of formality, whether you’re speaking to one person or a group, and whether the command is affirmative or negative.

Here’s an example with the verb falar (to speak): 

The challenge here lies in knowing when to use each form while also remembering the correct conjugation. Fortunately, there are some useful tricks to help you with that. Read on.

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Fala mais devagar

Fill in the blanks with the verbs in the Imperative.

Fill in the blanks

Caldo Verde

Fill in the blanks with the verbs in the formal Imperative.

Fill in the blanks

1. Tweaking the Present Tense

This strategy is simple, straightforward, and popular among beginners. 

You start with the first-person singular (eu) of the Present Simple of the verb in question. From there, you tweak its ending to find the Imperative form you need. All it takes is learning a few pattern adjustments, as shown below.

But there’s a caveat! It only works for regular verbs.

Granted, most verbs are regular; therefore, this strategy remains widely applicable and useful. However, as you may know, some of the most frequently used verbs are irregular.

That said, let’s learn these tweaks. 

🔎 Learn more about regular conjugation:

Portuguese Regular Verbs in the Present Tense
Portuguese Regular Verbs in the Past Tense

Singular and informal (tu)

In informal contexts, the Imperative form changes depending on whether the sentence is affirmative or negative.

To determine both affirmative and negative forms for each verb conjugation group, we adjust the endings of the first-person singular (eu) form in the Present tense, following these patterns:

Singular and formal (você)

In formal contexts, there is only one Imperative form (regardless of whether the sentence is affirmative or negative).

To find this form for each conjugation group, we adjust the endings of the first-person singular (eu) form in the Present tense according to the following patterns:

Plural (vocês)

When addressing a group of people, we adjust the endings of the first-person singular (eu) form in the Present tense according to the following patterns:

Again, all these spelling tweaks won’t work with irregular verbs. To handle those, you’ll need to adopt the second strategy outlined below (or memorize the forms over time).

Irregular verbs

Here are the Imperative forms of six widely used irregular verbs:

🔎 Portuguese Must-Know Irregular Verbs

2. Going from the Subjunctive

This second path to finding the Imperative forms is universal but implies that you are acquainted with the Present Subjunctive (besides the Present tense Indicative). 

See, the Present tense Subjunctive grants you access to the Imperative forms of all verbs, whether or not they are regular.

🔎 Present Subjunctive in Portuguese: How and When to Use It

So, here’s how it all works: 

Now, let’s see if the scheme shown above holds. We start with the regular verb Beber : 

As we can see, the suggested Imperative forms of Strategy 2 match those indicated by Strategy 1.

Let’s now try with an irregular verb: 

Again, if you look up the table of the irregular verbs above, you’ll see that the Imperative forms are the same.

There’s only one exception! And that’s Imperative 1  of the verb ser: sê.  In this case, the third-person indicative mood won’t match it. But that’s about it when it comes to exceptions.

This is it. I hope these two strategies will help you to cope with this Imperative challenge 🙂

🔎 Other verb-related topics:
 
How to Tell “Poder” Apart From “Conseguir” in Portuguese
Portuguese Past Participle and Auxiliary Verbs that Go with It
Portuguese Reflexive Verbs and Reflexive Pronoun Placement
Portuguese Grammar for Beginners