Differentiate between third person Presente and second person Imperativo

Question

hi - What is the indicator we should look for to understand whether the verb is being used for third person presente or second person imperativo? Is it that in Presente, there will always be an El / Ella?

Answer

Hola Dhruv,
to know if it is talking about an action in the present tense or it is an affirmative command (imperative) we need to read the context. You can't rely on the the pronouns (él/ella) because we tend to drop them anyway. An imperative is very often expressed with exclamation marks, so that is an indicative, for example:

Laura mira por la ventana. (present tense) 
(Laura looks/is looking through the window.)

If I want to make this an affirmative command, you will find a comma after the noun and probably ¡ ! too:

¡Laura, mira por la ventana! 
Laura, look through the window!

I hope this helps,
Inma