Voseo Advanced: Imperatives & Irregular Forms

Your Paisa friend Camila is dragging you out of the apartment on a Saturday morning. "¡Vení, pues!" she calls from the doorway. "¡Mirá la hora que es! Ponéte los zapatos y salgamos ya." In three seconds she has fired off three voseo imperatives -- vení, mirá, ponéte -- and you need to understand every one of them, because she is not going to slow down. Paisa life moves at the speed of conversation, and commands in vos are how things get done.

If Lesson 2 taught you that voseo present tense follows one rule, this lesson will make you love the imperative even more. Voseo commands are formed by the same logic: drop the -r, accent the final vowel. But there is a twist that makes them even simpler than present tense -- and radically simpler than the nightmare of irregular tú commands. Where tú imperatives require you to memorize eight irregular forms (ven, di, haz, pon, sal, ten, sé, ve), voseo imperatives make every single one regular.

By the end of this lesson, you will give commands like a Paisa, handle the key irregular verbs that define the dialect, and understand the most iconic sentence in all of Paisa Spanish: "Vos sos..."

1. Voseo Imperatives: The Same Rule, Even Simpler

The voseo imperative follows the same principle as present tense, but drops the final -s:

Infinitive → drop -r → accent the final vowel (no -s)

Infinitive	Drop -r	Accent	Imperative
hablar	habla	hablá	¡Hablá! (speak!)
comer	come	comé	¡Comé! (eat!)
vivir	vivi	viví	¡Viví! (live!)

Compare this to tú imperatives, which are identical to the third-person present (habla, come, vive) -- and which have eight common irregular forms that break the pattern entirely.

2. The Irregular Tú Commands That Voseo Fixes

This table is the argument for why voseo imperatives are learner-friendly. Every irregular tú command becomes regular with vos:

Verb	Tú imperative (IRREGULAR)	Vos imperative (REGULAR)	English
venir	ven	vení	come
decir	di	decí	say / tell
hacer	haz	hacé	do / make
poner	pon	poné	put
salir	sal	salí	leave / go out
tener	ten	tené	have / hold
ir	ve	andá	go
ser	sé	sé	be

Notice: ir uses andá (from andar) rather than a form of ir -- this is the one imperative that uses a different verb stem. And ser happens to be the same form for both systems. Every other "irregular" tú command becomes perfectly regular with vos.

3. Reflexive Verbs in the Imperative: Sentate, Ponete, Vestite

When a reflexive verb takes the voseo imperative, the reflexive pronoun te attaches to the end of the verb. The accent typically shifts:

Verb	Tú reflexive imperative	Vos reflexive imperative
sentarse	siéntate	sentate
ponerse	ponte	ponete
vestirse	vístete	vestite
levantarse	levántate	levantate
acostarse	acuéstate	acostate
irse	vete	andate

Notice how the tú forms have stem changes (siéntate, acuéstate, vístete) while the vos forms keep the stem regular (sentate, acostate, vestite). The simplification continues.

4. Negative Imperatives: The Subjunctive Appears

Positive voseo imperatives are beautifully simple. Negative imperatives add a layer: they use the subjunctive mood, just like all negative commands in Spanish.

Pattern: No + subjunctive vos form

The voseo subjunctive forms for negative commands:

Verb	Positive imperative	Negative imperative
hablar	¡Hablá!	¡No hablés!
comer	¡Comé!	¡No comás!
venir	¡Vení!	¡No vengás!
hacer	¡Hacé!	¡No hagás!
salir	¡Salí!	¡No salgás!
decir	¡Decí!	¡No digás!
ir	¡Andá!	¡No vayás!

Notice the negative forms use subjunctive stems (veng-, hag-, salg-, dig-, vay-) with the voseo subjunctive ending (-ás for -er/-ir verbs, -és for -ar verbs -- the vowels flip, just like standard subjunctive).

5. The Key Irregular Verbs of Paisa Spanish

A handful of verbs have unique voseo forms that do not follow the standard rule perfectly. These are high-frequency verbs you will use constantly:

SER - The Most Iconic: Vos Sos

Form	Example	Notes
vos sos	¿Vos sos de Medellín?	Present indicative - THE iconic Paisa form
sé	¡Sé fuerte!	Imperative - same as tú

"Vos sos" is arguably the single most recognizable phrase in Paisa Spanish. It translates as "you are" and replaces tú eres. You will hear it dozens of times per day in Medellín.

IR - Present vs. Imperative Split

Form	Example	Notes
vos vas	¿Vos vas al centro?	Present - same as tú vas
¡Andá!	¡Andá al supermercado!	Imperative - uses andar stem

ESTAR and VER - No Change from Tú

Verb	Vos form	Notes
estar	vos estás	Same form as tú estás
ver	vos ves	Same form as tú ves (monosyllabic, no accent needed)

6. Voseo Across Tenses: What Changes and What Stays

A critical teaching point for B1 learners: voseo primarily affects the present indicative and the imperative. In most other tenses, vos uses the same verb forms as tú:

Tense	Vos form	Example
Present indicative	CHANGES (-ás, -és, -ís)	Vos hablás, comés, vivís
Imperative	CHANGES (hablá, comé, viví)	¡Hablá más fuerte!
Preterite	Same as tú	Vos hablaste ayer
Imperfect	Same as tú	Vos hablabas mucho
Future	Same as tú	Vos hablarás mañana
Conditional	Same as tú	Vos hablarías mejor
Present subjunctive	CHANGES (-és, -ás, -ís)	Espero que vos hablés
Imperfect subjunctive	Same as tú	Si vos hablaras...

Key Takeaways

• Voseo imperatives follow the same rule as present tense but WITHOUT the final -s: hablá, comé, viví
• All 8 irregular tú imperatives become regular in voseo (except ir → andá and ser → sé)
• Reflexive vos imperatives attach -te to the end: sentate, ponete, vestite (no stem changes)
• Negative vos imperatives use the subjunctive: ¡No hablés! ¡No vengás! ¡No hagás!
• "Vos sos" is the most iconic Paisa form -- learn it first, use it constantly
• Voseo only changes present indicative, imperative, and present subjunctive -- all other tenses stay the same as tú

Summary Checklist

After this lesson, you should be able to:

• Give positive commands to a Paisa friend using vos (¡Vení! ¡Hacé! ¡Mirá!)
• Give negative commands using the voseo subjunctive (¡No vengás! ¡No hagás!)
• Use reflexive voseo imperatives (sentate, ponete, vestite)
• Conjugate ser, ir, estar, and ver with vos
• Identify which tenses change with voseo and which stay the same

This Week's Practice

• Day 1-2: Write 10 positive vos commands using common verbs. Include at least 3 that are irregular in the tú form (vení, hacé, poné, decí, salí).
• Day 3-4: Convert those 10 commands to negative form. Check: are you using the subjunctive stem correctly?
• Day 5: Practice reflexive imperatives: write a "morning routine" paragraph using levantate, vestite, sentate, etc.
• Day 6-7: Role-play a scenario where you give directions using vos commands: "Andá por esta calle, girá a la derecha, no crucés la avenida..."