Today we’ll be giving orders and making polite requests. This is what imperative forms are for.
In English it’s really easy to make imperatives. You just take the bare infinitive (the infinitive without to) and voila! You’re done:
| to go | go! |
Imperatives – Second Person Plural and Sie
In German there are separate forms for each of the three you-persons, so one form for du, one form for ihr and one form for the formal Sie. Actually we’ll start with ihr and Sie as these are the easiest ones. They are formed by removing the personal pronoun. That easy! Have a look:
| ihr kommt | Kommt! | Sie kommen | Kommen Sie! |
| ihr spielt | Spielt! | Sie spielen | Spielen Sie! |
| ihr helft | Helft! | Sie helfen | Helfen Sie! |
| ihr fahrt | Fahrt! | Sie fahren | Fahren Sie! |
| ihr geht | Geht! | Sie gehen | Gehen Sie! |
| ihr gebt | Gebt! | Sie geben | Geben Sie! |
| ihr nehmt | Nehmt! | Sie nehmen | Nehmen Sie! |
There is one exception, though. It’s the verb sein (to be). The informal form is regular, but as far as the formal form is concerned, you say:
Sie sind (you are)
but the imperative is
Seien Sie! (be!, formal)
Here are some imperatives used in sentences:
| Ihr kocht schlecht. | You cook badly. | Kocht gut! | Cook well! |
| Ihr weint. | You are crying. | Weint nicht! | Don’t cry! |
| Sie bleiben hier. | You are staying here. (formal) | Bleiben Sie hier! | Stay here! |
| Sie sind langsam. | You are slow. (formal) | Seien Sie schnell! | Be quick! |
Imperatives – Second Person Singular
OK, what about du? You will need the form of the second person singular to start with. Then you must remove the personal pronoun du and the –st ending and sometimes add an –e at the end. It’s easier to follow when you see some examples.
Let’s take the verb gehen (to go). The second person singular is du gehst. You remove the personal pronoun and the –st ending. What’s left is Geh! and this is the imperative form.
The base form is the second person singular, so you have:
| geben | du gibst | Gib! | Give! |
| nehmen | du nimmst | Nimm! | Take! |
| essen | du isst | Iss! | Eat! |
| sehen | du siehst | Sieh! | See! |
| lesen | du liest | Lies! | Read! |
The imperative form of the verb to be is irregular:
du bist – you are
but
Sei! – Be!
And if there is an umlaut (the two dots) in the second and third person singular, it’s removed:
| halten | du hältst | Halt! | Hold! |
| fahren | du fährst | Fahr! | Go! / Drive! |
| laufen | du läufst | Lauf! | Run! |
| lassen | du lässt | Lass! | Let! |
| schlafen | du schläfst | Schlaf! | Sleep! |
Sometimes you should add an –e at the end. It used to be a regular imperative ending and you can still come across older texts where this form is present, but nowadays the ending should be added only if the verb stem ends in –t, -d, -ig, -eln, -ern and –n following another consonant. Some examples:
| finden | to find | Finde! | Find! |
| arbeiten | to work | Arbeite! | Work! |
| leiden | to suffer | Leide! | Suffer! |
| melden | to report | Melde! | Report! |
| beruhigen | to soothe | Beruhige! | Soothe! |
| sammeln | to collect | Sammle! | Collect! |
| lächeln | to smile | Lächle! | Smile! |
| füttern | to feed | Füttere! | Feed! |
| öffnen | to open | Öffne! | Open! |
| zeichnen | to draw | Zeichne! | Draw! |
In verbs ending in –eln, the e is dropped: sammeln → Sammle!(not *Sammele!).
And some sentences:
| Stirb nicht, Oma! | Don’t die, grandma! |
| Lies nicht so schnell! | Don’t read so fast! |
| Arbeite nicht so langsam! | Don’t work so slowly! |
| Lächle jetzt nicht! | Don’t smile now! |