How to Give Simple Instructions In Igbo

How do you tell someone “Come here” in Igbo?

What about “Hold that money” or “Don’t touch it”?

Commands are some of the most practical Igbo sentences to learn because you can start using them almost immediately.

Here are three to begin with:

Bịa ebe a.
Come here.

Jide ego ahụ.
Hold that money.

E metụkwala ya aka.
Don’t touch it.

Notice something already?

Not all commands do the same thing.

Some tell someone to do something. Others tell someone not to do something. And some include the person, place or thing the instruction relates to.

Let’s look at these different types of Igbo commands and practise a few you can actually use.

Igbo Commands: Quick Guide

If you’re scanning, start here.

The main thing to notice:

Bịa ebe a tells someone what to do.

Jide ego ahụ tells someone what to do with something.

E metụkwala ya aka tells someone what not to do.

Those three ideas give you a useful starting point for recognising commands in Igbo.

This topic is part of IgboLearn’s How to Build Igbo Sentences lesson.

You can hear the commands pronounced, follow the tutor’s explanation and learn more about how these sentences work in the full lesson.

👉 Take the How to Build Igbo Sentences lesson on IgboLearn.

1. Direct Commands in Igbo

Let’s start with a straightforward instruction:

Bịa ebe a.
Come here.

You’re telling someone to perform an action.

You might use this when calling a child, sibling, friend or someone else towards you.

Instead of thinking about grammar first, remember the situation.

Someone is over there.

You want them here.

Bịa ebe a.

That’s the phrase you need.

Try it

Imagine you’re calling someone towards you.

Don’t look at the Igbo yet.

How would you say:

Come here.

…

Bịa ebe a.

Now say it aloud.

Then try it again without looking.

That’s one command you can begin recognising and using immediately.

2. Commands That Involve a Person or Thing

A command can also tell someone to perform an action involving something else.

For example:

Jide ego ahụ.
Hold that money.

Here, there’s something involved in the instruction:

ego ahụ — that money

Imagine you’re holding some money and want someone else to hold it.

You say:

Jide ego ahụ.

This is useful because it shows that commands don’t have to stop at a single action. You can make an instruction more specific by including the person or thing the action relates to.

For now, focus on the complete phrase:

Jide ego ahụ.

The full How to Build Igbo Sentences lesson goes further into how sentences like this are put together. That’s where you can move from remembering the phrase to understanding the sentence behind it.

👉 Continue the How to Build Igbo Sentences lesson on IgboLearn.

3. Negative Commands in Igbo

Sometimes you don’t want someone to do something.

You want them to stop or avoid an action.

For example:

E metụkwala ya aka.
Don’t touch it.

Imagine someone reaching towards something they shouldn’t touch.

You can say:

E metụkwala ya aka.

Now compare it with:

Bịa ebe a.
Come here.

One tells someone to do something.

The other tells someone not to do something.

That’s an important distinction to recognise when you’re learning commands in Igbo.

Positive vs Negative Commands

Here’s the simple difference:

Positive command
→ tells someone to do something.

Negative command
→ tells someone not to do something.

So:

Bịa ebe a.
→ Do something.

E metụkwala ya aka.
→ Don’t do something.

You don’t need to memorise all the grammar behind that difference from this article.

But you should be able to recognise it.

There is a reason the negative command is formed differently.

In the full lesson, the tutor can take you further into how these commands work as part of Igbo sentence structure.

Can You Recognise the Commands?

Let’s practise before you move on.

Someone is across the room and you want them to come towards you.

What do you say?

Bịa ebe a.
Come here.

Someone reaches for something they shouldn’t touch.

What do you say?

E metụkwala ya aka.
Don’t touch it.

You want someone to hold that money.

What do you say?

Jide ego ahụ.
Hold that money.

Now try all three again without looking at the answers.

If you can remember the Igbo from the situation alone, you’re already moving beyond simply memorising translations.

Don’t Just Memorise the English Translation

It’s easy to look at:

Bịa ebe a = Come here

and think you’ve learnt it.

But there’s a better test.

Could you actually say it when you need it?

Try associating each phrase with a situation rather than only its English translation.

Someone is across the room:

Bịa ebe a.

You’re handing someone money:

Jide ego ahụ.

Someone reaches for something they shouldn’t touch:

E metụkwala ya aka.

Now you’re connecting the Igbo with an action, not just another line in your notes.

That’s much closer to how you’ll need the language in real life.

Practise These Igbo Commands Today

Here’s your challenge.

Use at least one of these commands today.

If someone is in another room, try:

Bịa ebe a.

If you need someone to hold some money:

Jide ego ahụ.

And if the opportunity doesn’t naturally come up, create the situation yourself and practise saying:

E metụkwala ya aka.

You don’t need twenty new phrases today.

You need a few phrases you can actually remember and use.

If you’re practising with someone else, give them one of the instructions and see if they understand what you’re asking them to do.

The goal is to start connecting the situation directly to Igbo instead of always going:

Situation → English → translate to Igbo.

Want to Go Beyond These Three Commands?

You now know three useful commands:

Bịa ebe a.
Come here.

Jide ego ahụ.
Hold that money.

E metụkwala ya aka.
Don’t touch it.

More importantly, you’ve seen that commands can work in different ways.

They can tell someone what to do, include the person or thing the instruction relates to, or tell someone what not to do.

That’s a useful starting point.

But being able to remember three commands isn’t the same as understanding how to build your own.

That’s where the full lesson comes in.

In How to Build Igbo Sentences – Part 1, Igbo tutor takes the teaching further and shows you how commands fit into Igbo sentence structure.

You can hear the examples instead of only reading them, follow the tutor’s explanation and then test what you’ve learnt with the lesson assessment, games, topic activities and audio flashcards.

IgboLearn is an Igbo learning app built to help you move beyond memorising individual words and start understanding and using the language.

👉 Take the How to Build Igbo Sentences lesson for Free on IgboLearn.

Keep Building Your Igbo Sentences

Commands are only one part of learning how to express yourself in Igbo.

If you’re working through Igbo sentence formation, continue with these guides:

Simple and Negative Sentences in Igbo — see how positive and negative meanings work in practical sentences.

How to Form Simple Sentences in Igbo — learn what makes an Igbo sentence complete and why verbs matter.

How to Build Simple Igbo Sentences: Subject, Verb and Object — learn how the main parts of an Igbo sentence fit together.