servir Negative Imperative Conjugation
servir — to serve
The negative imperative of servir uses the present subjunctive forms: no sirvas, no sirva, no sirvamos, no sirváis, no sirvan.
servir Negative Imperative Forms
When to Use the Negative Imperative
Use this to tell someone not to serve something yet or to tell someone that an object shouldn't be used for a certain task.
Notes on servir in the Negative Imperative
Every form in the negative imperative uses the 'sirv-' stem because it is based on the present subjunctive.
Example Sentences
No sirvas el café todavía.
Don't serve the coffee yet.
tú
No sirvan la carne en platos fríos.
Don't serve the meat on cold plates.
ustedes
No sirvamos más comida, ya es tarde.
Let's not serve more food, it's late already.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: no sirve
Correct: no sirvas
Why: Learners often use the affirmative tú command form with 'no' instead of the subjunctive form.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: sirvo
Servir has an e > i stem change in all present forms except nosotros and vosotros: sirvo, sirves, sirve, servimos, servís, sirven.
Preterite
yo: serví
In the preterite, servir only changes e > i in the third-person forms: sirvió and sirvieron.
Imperfect
yo: servía
The imperfect of servir is completely regular: servía, servías, servía, servíamos, servíais, servían.
Future
yo: serviré
The future of servir is regular: attach -é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án to the infinitive.
Conditional
yo: serviría
The conditional of servir is regular: add -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían to the infinitive.
Present Subjunctive
yo: sirva
The present subjunctive of servir uses the 'i' stem change in ALL forms: sirva, sirvas, sirva, sirvamos, sirváis, sirvan.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: sirviera
The imperfect subjunctive of servir is based on the preterite 'sirvieron' stem: sirviera, sirvieras, sirviera, etc.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: sirve
The imperative of servir uses 'sirve' for tú and 'sirva' for usted, with 'servid' being the only form without the 'i' change.