Recetas y Consejos - Recipes and Real-Life Advice

The first three lessons gave you the grammar of Spanish commands. This last lesson puts it to work. Two real situations dominate everyday Spanish use of the imperative: recipes and consejos (advice / tips). Every Spanish recipe is a string of imperatives. Every conversation about how to get somewhere in Madrid is a string of imperatives. By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to read a tortilla recipe, give a friend metro directions, and mix gentle advice with softer phrases without sounding either bossy or robotic.

Reading a Spanish Recipe — Tortilla de Patatas

The tortilla de patatas is the national dish of Spain, the test recipe of every Spanish cook, and a perfect imperative-rich text. Here is a complete version. Notice how every sentence is a command in tú form.

Tortilla de Patatas — Receta

Pela las patatas y lávalas.

Córtalas en rodajas finas.

Pela una cebolla y pícala en trozos pequeños.

Pon una sartén a fuego medio con bastante aceite.

Echa las patatas y la cebolla.

Cocínalas durante veinte minutos, sin dorarlas.

Escurre el aceite y resérvalo para otra ocasión.

Bate seis huevos en un bol grande.

Añade las patatas y la cebolla a los huevos.

Mezcla todo bien y deja reposar dos minutos.

Calienta una sartén con un poco de aceite.

Vierte la mezcla y cuájala a fuego medio.

Dale la vuelta con un plato.

Cuájala por el otro lado un par de minutos.

Sírvela caliente o templada.

Notice five things:

Almost every verb is in tú affirmative. Pela, corta, pon, echa, bate, añade, mezcla, sirve.
Pronouns attach to the affirmative imperative. Lávalas, córtalas, resérvalo, dale, sírvela.
Each step is one or two short sentences. Recipes don't write por favor pelarías las patatas si no te importa — they're direct, terse, and structured around the verb.
Stress accents appear on every attached pronoun. Once you read three recipes, the accents become predictable.
Time markers scaffold the sequence: durante veinte minutos, dos minutos, un par de minutos.

A short recipe vocabulary list to memorise:

Verb	English	Imperative example
pelar	to peel	pela las patatas
cortar	to cut	corta en rodajas
picar	to chop fine	pica la cebolla
freír	to fry	fríe a fuego medio
hervir	to boil	hierve agua con sal
escurrir	to drain	escurre el aceite
batir	to beat / whisk	bate los huevos
mezclar	to mix	mezcla todo bien
añadir	to add	añade un poco de sal
dejar reposar	to let rest	deja reposar dos minutos
cuajar	to set / coagulate	cuájala por los dos lados
servir	to serve	sirve caliente
probar	to taste	prueba si necesita sal

Giving Directions in Madrid

Imperatives also dominate Spanish travel directions. The Madrid metro and walking-direction set is small and high-frequency:

Coge la línea 1. – Take line 1.
Bájate en Sol. – Get off at Sol.
Sube por Preciados. – Walk up Preciados (street).
Sigue recto. – Keep going straight.
Gira a la derecha en la siguiente esquina. – Turn right at the next corner.
Cruza la plaza. – Cross the square.
Pasa por delante del Corte Inglés. – Walk past El Corte Inglés.

The Iberian quirk you'll hear: Spaniards in Spain say coger for "to take" — coge el metro, coge un taxi, coge esa calle. Latin American Spanish prefers tomar because coger is vulgar in Mexico and Argentina. In Spain, the verb is everywhere, and there's no taboo.

A short direction in narrative form:

Coge la línea 1 hasta Sol. Bájate y sube por Preciados. Sigue recto hasta la Plaza del Callao. Gira a la izquierda y pasa por delante del cine. Camina dos calles más y verás el bar a tu derecha.

That's seven imperatives and a futuro simple, and it's how a Spaniard would text you a meeting point. Practice reading it out loud with the pace of a WhatsApp message — short, punchy, no fluff.

Mixing Commands with Softeners

Real Spanish advice often mixes imperatives with softer phrases — the condicional from M12, the impersonal expressions from M13, and the negative imperatives from L2 of this module. The mix avoids sounding like a barked order:

Descansa un poco, que mañana hace falta que estés fresca. Rest a little — you need to be fresh tomorrow.
Llámame cuando llegues, pero no te preocupes si es tarde. Call me when you get there, but don't worry if it's late.
Coge un taxi si te viene mal el metro. Sería mejor que no andaras tan tarde sola. Take a taxi if the metro doesn't work — it would be better for you not to walk so late alone.
Ve a la farmacia y pide ibuprofeno. No te tomes más de tres al día. Go to the pharmacy and ask for ibuprofen. Don't take more than three a day.

The pattern: an imperative for the action, then a softener for the caveat or reason. Spaniards layer the two so naturally they don't notice they're doing it. The effect is care, not control.

Practice

Words to Remember

Spanish	English
pela	peel
corta	cut
pica	chop fine
fríe	fry
añade	add
mezcla	mix
bate	beat / whisk
hierve	boil
escurre	drain
prueba	taste / try
sirve	serve
coge	take / grab
baja	get off
sube	get on / go up
sigue	follow / continue
gira	turn
cruza	cross
descansa	rest
llámame	call me
no te preocupes	don't worry

Conversation

Helping a friend with the tortilla

Diego: Marta, ¿cómo hago la tortilla? Marta, how do I make the tortilla?

Marta: Pela las patatas, córtalas finas y fríelas a fuego medio. Peel the potatoes, cut them thin and fry them on medium heat.

Diego: ¿Y los huevos? And the eggs?

Marta: Bate seis y mézclalos con las patatas. No te olvides de la sal. Beat six and mix them with the potatoes. Don't forget the salt.

Giving metro directions

Sofía: Oye, ¿cómo llego a tu casa? Hey, how do I get to your place?

Lucía: Coge la línea 1 y bájate en Sol. Luego sigue recto por Preciados. Take line 1 and get off at Sol. Then keep going straight along Preciados.

Sofía: Vale. ¿Y si me pierdo? OK. And if I get lost?

Lucía: Llámame, pero no te preocupes, es fácil. Call me, but don't worry, it's easy.

Friend advice before a trip

Carmen: Mañana me voy a Granada sola. Tomorrow I'm going to Granada alone.

Javi: Disfruta, pero ten cuidado y no andes muy tarde por la noche. Have fun, but be careful and don't walk too late at night.

Carmen: Tranquilo. Te escribo cuando llegue. Don't worry. I'll text you when I arrive.

Cultural Note

The Spanish recipe is a small literary genre. Pull any cookbook off a Spanish bookshelf and you'll find a tone you don't see in English: confident, unfussy, command-driven. A French recipe might say on fait revenir l'oignon ("one fries the onion"). An English recipe says fry the onion or the onion should then be fried. A Spanish recipe says fríe la cebolla — direct imperative, second person, no apology. It's the same authorial voice as a mother giving instructions in a kitchen. It's how the language works.

The Madrid metro vocabulary is one of those small wins of moving to Spain. Coge la 1, bájate en Sol, sube por Preciados — a Spaniard from outside Madrid sounds slightly like a tourist if they have to ask which line goes where. A learner who can navigate the metro in fluent imperative reaches a threshold that no amount of grammar drilling can replicate. The verbs are small (coge, baja, sube, sigue, gira, cruza, pasa), but the cumulative effect is competence. Plant them this week.

A small register tip for advice: when you give a string of imperatives in Spanish, finish with a softener. Coge un taxi, no andes tan tarde sola, y si te pasa algo me llamas. The final clause — present indicative or futuro simple — collapses the bossiness of the imperative chain. It says "I'm not ordering you, I'm thinking out loud about your safety." The same trick works for any string of recipe steps. Finish with y disfrútala ("and enjoy it") or pruébala antes de servir ("taste it before serving"), and the whole recipe sounds like care, not instructions. That's Spanish at its most generous.