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Imperative mood is often expressed using special conjugated verb forms. Like other finite verb forms, imperatives often inflect for person and number.Second-person imperatives (used for ordering or requesting performance directly from the person being addressed) are most common, but some languages also have imperative forms for the first and third persons (alternatively called cohortative and ...
These forms are used only in positive expressions, not negative ones. The subjunctive supplements the imperative in all other cases (negative expressions and the conjugations corresponding to the pronouns nosotros, él/ella, usted, ellos/ellas, and ustedes). The imperative can also be expressed in three other ways: [7]
Nosotros → Nosotros hablemos; nosotros comamos; nosotros vivamos; Vosotros → Vosotros habléis; vosotros comáis; vosotros viváis; Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes → ellos hablen; ellos coman; ellos vivan; Since the vos forms are derived from vosotros, the following would be expected (and used in Central America): Vos → Vos hablés; vos comás; vos ...
The pronouns yo, tú, vos, [1] él, nosotros, vosotros [2] and ellos are used to symbolise the three persons and two numbers. Note, however, that Spanish is a pro-drop language, and so it is the norm to omit subject pronouns when not needed for contrast or emphasis. The subject, if specified, can easily be something other than these pronouns.
The dictionary form always has the vowel, not the diphthong, because, in the infinitive form, the stress is on the ending, not the stem. Exceptionally, the -u- of j u gar (u-ue -gar, -jugar) and the -i- of adqu i rir and inqu i rir (i-ie) also are subject to diphthongization ( juega , etc.; adquiere , etc.).
Quite unusually among European languages, the first- and second-person plural subject pronouns (nosotros/nosotras and vosotros/vosotras, respectively) inflect for gender: nosotros and vosotros are used to refer to groups of men (as well as mixed-gender groups), while nosotras and vosotras are used exclusively to refer to groups of women.
Inflected forms of a Spanish verb contain a lexical root, a theme vowel, and inflection; for example, the verb cantar ("to sing") becomes cantamos [b] ("we sing") in its first-person plural, present indicative form. [10] Verbs inflect for tense, number, person, mood, aspect, voice, and gender.
Note that the term vosotros is a combined form of vos otros (meaning literally 'ye/you others'), while the term nosotros comes from nos otros ("we/us others"). In the first half of the 19th century, the use of vos was as prevalent in Chile as it was in Argentina.