THE IMPERATIVE - Explained with examples

THE IMPERATIVE

The Imperative is the form of the verb that is used for giving commands or orders. For the reason, the imperative is used only for the second person pronouns. Phrases like “stand, “Close the door “,”sit!”, “Go slow!”,etc. are example of the imperative form in English. That since English has only one pronoun “you "both for the formal and informal person well as for the singular and plural person, the command remains the same irrespective the person it is used for. Thus, for instance, the command “Sit!” can be given formally and informally as well as to a singular and to a group of persons.

German, however, differentiates between the formal and the informal “you “ and between singular and the plural person in the informal form. Hence, the imperative forms are as different for the different persons. The imperative form for the informal, singular person Is derived from the conjugated form as follows :

The examples given above are for the regular verbs. In case of regular verbs, the pronoun and the verb ending are simply deleted to get the imperative form for the informal, singular person “du”. Note that in case of separable verbs, the prefix is used in the imperative form but again, at the end of the sentence.

The method for making imperative from the conjugated form remains similar in the case Irregular verbs too, but with some difference. These are given below:        

Note that the vowel change from “a“ in case of the irregular verbs is not taken in the Imperative form.

The imperative form for the informal, plural person “ ihr “ is derived from its conjugated form as follows:

For “ihr “,this scheme also applies to the irregular verbs without any exceptions.

The imperative form the formal person “Sie”, both singular and plural form, is the same as its conjugated form.

This scheme also applies to the irregular verbs without any exceptions.

Verbs “ sein “, “ haben” and “Werden “ have totally irregular forms of imperative that do not  follow the pattern given above. These are listed in the table below :

In case of the verb “ sein “ all the three form are irregular, Whereas in case  of “ haben” and “werden “, the irregularity is seen only in the “du” form.