The imperative mood serves to direct another person's action in an immediate and direct way. It appears especially in orders, prohibitions, polite requests, invitations and suggestions, and also in notices, instructions, recipes and practical advice. For indirect orders toward third parties, the subjunctive mood is usually preferred, with que, as in 'Que venga mañana'.

The imperative is activated with verbs that express command or invitation, such as manda, haz, ven, vamos and prueben. It also appears with the negation no + verb to prohibit, and with courteous phrases like please and you can. In practical registers, this mood is very common in signage, public notices, recipes and brief instructions.

The imperative can express command, plea, suggestion, exhortation and permission depending on tone and situation. The force of the form does not depend solely on the verb, but also on the relationship between speaker and listener, the context, and the presence of courteous words. Therefore the same pattern can sound firm, friendly, or simply guiding.

In the affirmative forms, the imperative has its own forms for tú, usted, vosotros, nosotros and ustedes. In the general rule, tú uses a special form, usted and ustedes coincide with the present subjunctive, vosotros has a form of its own in the peninsular variety, and nosotros is usually used as an invitation or shared proposal. For the general organization of these paradigms it is useful to relate it to Verb Moods.

Several very frequent verbs have irregular forms in the affirmative and must be memorized as blocks: be, go, have, come, put, do and say. In negative, these forms are not used and one resorts to the present subjunctive forms, such as sea, vaya, sepa, dé and esté. This alternation shows that the affirmative imperative preserves special forms only in a limited group of verbs.

In the negative form, all persons use the present subjunctive, not a special imperative. The negation is placed in front of the verb with no, and the clitic pronouns go before the verb in proclitic position. This structure is essential in prohibitions and is central for Personal Pronouns and Double Pronouns.

In affirmative, clitic pronouns attach to the verb and bind to it as enclitics, as in 'dímelo'. In negative, the pronouns go before the verb, as in 'no me lo digas'. This difference also affects pronominal verbs, so it is advisable to coordinate study with Reflexive Pronouns.

When the intention includes the speaker, the nosotros imperative competes with the periphrasis 'vamos a', which usually expresses a near future or a proposal of action. For third parties, the indirect order is formulated with que plus the subjunctive, as in 'Que venga mañana'. In the Rio de la Plata area there is also the imperative with vos, with forms of its own such as vení and hacé.

The imperative is chosen when the speaker wants to direct an action that is immediate, direct, and clearly oriented to the listener or the group. If the intention is to order, invite, suggest, prohibit, beg, or give practical instructions, the imperative is the natural option; if it is about softening, indirectly ordering others or sharing a proposal, the subjunctive, courtesy formulas, or the periphrasis 'vamos a' usually come into play. The key is to identify the relationship between intention, recipient and degree of immediacy.