Examples of imperative besides the "tú" form?

Question

This is my first question on Spanish SE!

I have a question on the imperative; I assume that one uses the "tú" form of the imperative almost all the time, rather than the other pronouns. When you speak in the imperative, you usually say something like "Do it! (¡Hazlo!)" or "Clean your room! (¡Limpia tu cuarto!)."

However, the imperative exists for other pronouns. The "nosotros" form for, say, "comer" is "comamos." But when do you ever use any other form besides the "tú" form? When giving a command, like "clean your room," it really means "YOU clean your room." But for the nosotros form, "WE clean our room" doesn't make much sense in an imperative setting.

Help is greatly appreciated!

TL;DR - When do you use the imperative form other than "tú"? For example, one only says "Clean your room!" as a command, not "We clean our room!" as a command.

Answer 1

The only two grammatical persons that have an exclusively imperative form to express imperative are the second person singular and plural.

In Spain and other countries where tú and vosotros are used, we have, for example:

• Hazlo.

• Hacedlo.

• Límpialo.

• Limpiadlo.

In the countries where "vos" (second singular for informal treatment) is used, there is also an exclusive imperative for that person. When a pronoun is added, the stress is lost:

• Hacé la tarea / Hacela.
• Limpiá tu cuarto / Limpialo.

For all other persons except the third, the form used is identical to the subjunctive, the only difference being that, if there are pronominal objects, they will be attached after the verb.

If "usted" and "ustedes" are used, we have:

• Hágalo (imperative). (Quiero que lo haga: subjunctive)

• Háganlo (imperative). (Quiero que lo hagan: subjunctive)

• Límpielo (imperative). (Quiero que lo limpie: subjunctive)

• Límpienlo (imperative). (Quiero que lo limpien: subjunctive)

With the first person plural, the imperative follows the same rule as above. Since the speaker is involved, rather than an order it may sound like a suggestion, as is the case with "let's":

• Hagámoslo (imperative). (Sugiero que lo hagamos: subjunctive)
• Limpiémoslo (imperative). (Sugiero que lo limpiemos: subjunctive)

In the third person, the imperative also borrows its forms from the subjunctive, but in this case "que" needs to be used and pronominal objects, if any, precede the verb:

• Que lo haga ya.
• Que lo limpien rápido.

Answer 2

One common use for the imperative of nosotros occurs when you and a group of people have to complete a task and are about to start. For example: let's do it -> Hagámoslo; let's go do our homework -> Vamos a hacer nuestra tarea; let's finish this -> Terminemos con esto.