mentir Affirmative Imperative Conjugation
mentir — to lie
Use 'miente' for informal commands and 'mienta' for formal ones.
mentir Affirmative Imperative Forms
When to Use the Affirmative Imperative
Used to tell someone to lie (rarely, perhaps in a game or undercover situation).
Notes on mentir in the Affirmative Imperative
The 'tú' form uses the present indicative 'él' form (miente). The others use the subjunctive stems.
Example Sentences
¡Miente por mí, por favor!
Lie for me, please!
tú
Mienta usted en el formulario.
Lie (formal) on the form.
Mintamos para protegerlo.
Let's lie to protect him.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Mente tú.
Correct: Miente tú.
Why: The informal command (tú) keeps the e > ie stem change.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: miento
Mentir is a stem-changing verb (e > ie) in all forms except nosotros and vosotros.
Preterite
yo: mentí
Mentir changes its stem from 'e' to 'i' only in the third-person forms: mintió and mintieron.
Imperfect
yo: mentía
Mentir is regular in the imperfect: mentía, mentías, mentía, mentíamos, mentíais, mentían.
Future
yo: mentiré
Mentir is completely regular in the future tense; just add the endings to the infinitive.
Conditional
yo: mentiría
The conditional of mentir is regular: mentiría, mentirías, mentiría, mentiríamos, mentiríais, mentirían.
Present Subjunctive
yo: mienta
Mentir changes to 'ie' in most forms, but importantly uses 'i' in the nosotros/vosotros forms.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: mintiera
The imperfect subjunctive of mentir uses the 'i' stem: mintiera, mintieras, mintiera...
Negative Imperative
yo: no mientas
All negative commands for mentir use the present subjunctive forms.