caer Affirmative Imperative Conjugation
caer — to fall
The imperative uses 'cae' for tú and 'caiga' for formal/plural commands.
caer Affirmative Imperative Forms
When to Use the Affirmative Imperative
Use this for direct commands, though telling someone to 'fall' is usually part of a reflexive idiom like 'caete' (fall down).
Notes on caer in the Affirmative Imperative
The 'tú' form is 'cae' (regular), but the 'usted' and 'ustedes' forms use the 'caig-' stem from the subjunctive.
Example Sentences
¡Cae ya!
Fall already!
tú
Caiga con cuidado.
Fall carefully (formal).
Caigamos todos a la vez.
Let's all fall at the same time.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Using 'cae' for 'usted'.
Correct: caiga
Why: The formal imperative must use the subjunctive form.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: caigo
Caer is irregular only in the 'yo' form (caigo), while the rest follow normal -er patterns.
Preterite
yo: caí
Caer is irregular in the preterite, featuring a 'y' in the third-person forms (cayó, cayeron) and accents on all other endings.
Imperfect
yo: caía
Caer is regular in the imperfect: caía, caías, caía, caíamos, caíais, caían.
Future
yo: caeré
Caer is regular in the future tense: caeré, caerás, caerá, caeremos, caeréis, caerán.
Conditional
yo: caería
The conditional of caer is regular: caería, caerías, caería, caeríamos, caeríais, caerían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: caiga
The present subjunctive of caer is based on the irregular 'yo' form: caiga, caigas, caiga, etc.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: cayera
The imperfect subjunctive uses the 'y' from the preterite: cayera, cayeras, cayera, etc.
Negative Imperative
yo: no caigas
The negative imperative of caer always uses the present subjunctive forms.