The Formal Commands

The formal commands are requests that you make of people in authority positions, elderly and respected individuals, including doctors, waiters, teachers... Waiters? Yes, in most Hispanic countries you will not find a young teenager bouncing over to your table with a "Hey! I'm Jim!" name-tag on. There is a more formal atmosphere, and servers are treated with the respect that all strangers receive. So use the Ud. (usted) form and formal commands unless you are invited to do otherwise.
Basically we'll follow the exact same steps we take to form the Present Subjunctive. Here are the endings for the formal commands:

	AR VERBS	IR/ER VERBS
Usted	e	a
Ustedes	en	an

Let's make a Formal Command. We'll use the verb Hablar.

We take the first person singular "Yo" form of the verb: hablo
Now drop the "o" : habl-
Notice that the Subjunctive vowel endings for the -Ar verbs are "e"s -the vowel we normally use with -Ir and -Er verbs. And we use "a" with the -Ir and -Er verbs! We call this using the "opposite" ending.
So now we attach the "opposite" ending to our verb stem to form our command: Hable!

If the "Yo" form is irregular, the command will be irregular:

If we use Traer, the present tense "Yo" form is Traigo
We drop the "o" : Traig-
We add the opposite ending: `a'
And we have our command: Traiga

Other irregulars:

Salir	Salgo	Salga
Hacer	Hago	Haga
Poner	Pongo	Ponga
Decir	Digo	Diga
Venir	Vengo	Venga

With Estar and Dar, we need to drop both the "O" and the "Y":

Estar	Estoy	Esté
Dar	Doy	Dé
Ir (Ir is very irregular)	Voy	Vaya
Saber (it is also very irregular)	Sé	Sepa

Don't forget - if there is a stem change in the Present Tense, there will be a stem change in the Command (Present Subjunctive) form:

Pedir	Pido	Pida
Pensar	Pienso	Piense
Dormir	Duermo	Duerma
Atender	Atiendo	Atienda
Hervir	Hiervo	Hierva
Entender	Entiendo	Entienda
Poder	Puedo	Pueda
Freír	Frío	Fría

Practice on the Web!	More practice, including reflexive verbs!	Even more practice -this time using direct object pronouns!
More Practice!	And yet MORE practice!	Back to Verbs!