Imperative: fale, coma, vamos

The Portuguese imperative gives instructions and requests. For você and vocês it uses the present subjunctive (fale, coma, abra); for tu it is the he/she form of the present (fala, come).

How it works

• The você-form swaps the vowel: -ar verbs end in -e, -er and -ir verbs in -a. Irregular eu-forms carry over: faço → faça, digo → diga, ponho → ponha, tenho → tenha.
• Brazilian speech often uses the tu-form even with você (Fala mais alto!). In writing and with strangers the você-form is safer.
• “Let’s …” is vamos + infinitive: Vamos sair!
• Reflexive verbs keep their pronoun: Sente-se. Não se preocupe.
• Soften with por favor, or use a question: Pode fechar a porta?

Examples

• Fale mais devagar, por favor.Please speak more slowly.
• Abra a porta!Open the door!
• Façam os exercícios em casa.Do the exercises at home.
• Vamos almoçar!Let’s have lunch!
• Não se preocupe, eu ajudo você.Don’t worry, I’ll help you.
• Tenha um bom dia!Have a nice day!

Common mistakes

• ✗ Deixa-nos ir! (meaning “let’s go”)✓ Vamos!English “let’s go” is not built with deixar, which means “allow us to go”; Portuguese uses vamos, which already means “let us go”.
• ✗ Não preocupe!✓ Não se preocupe!preocupar-se is reflexive, so the imperative keeps se; English “don’t worry” has no pronoun, which is why it gets lost.
• ✗ Por favor, senta para baixo.✓ Por favor, sente-se.English adds “down”, but sentar-se already means “sit down”; para baixo is just a word-for-word copy.
• ✗ Seje bem-vindo!✓ Seja bem-vindo!The imperative of ser is seja; seje is a frequent spoken slip, even among native speakers, and is not accepted in standard Portuguese.
• ✗ Pona o casaco, está frio.✓ Ponha o casaco, está frio.pôr is irregular: its você-imperative comes from the eu-form ponho, so ponha; pona is a guess based on regular verbs.