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The Imperative

The imperative is used to give orders or instructions or to express requests. The verb endings for the imperative depend on the person to whom you are talking:

  kaufen     warten
du kauf(e)!     warte!
ihr kauft!     wartet!
Sie kaufen Sie!     warten Sie!
 
  fahren     handeln
du fahr!     handle!
ihr fahrt!     handelt!
Sie fahren Sie!     handeln Sie!


Formation of the imperative
1. The "du" form of the imperative is formed by dropping the final "-en" of the infinitive and adding "-e" to the end of the word. This "-e" ending is usually dropped in spoken German and quite often in written German as well.

2. The "-e" ending on the "du" imperative is always kept with verbs whose stem end in "-d", "-t", "-ig" and "-m" or "-n" after another consonant. See for example the verb "warten" (= to wait) in the table above.

3. Verbs whose infinitive ends in "-eln" drop the "-e" of the stem in the "du" imperative but not in the "ihr" and "Sie" forms. See the verb "handeln" (= to act) in the table above.

4. The "ihr" form of the imperative is exactly the same as the "ihr" form of the regular present tense.

5. The "Sie" form of the imperative is exactly the same as the "Sie" form of the regular present tense BUT the word order is reversed - the verb always precedes the pronoun.

6. Note in particular that the "Sie" form of the imperative is the only one in which the pronoun is used in the command; you must omit the pronoun in the "du" and "ihr" forms.


The "du" imperative of certain irregular verbs
As we have seen when looking at the present tense, there are a number of irregular or 'strong' verbs with a stem vowel in "-e-" in the stem change this to "-i-" or "-ie-" in the "du" form on the present tense. These strong verbs also retain this vowel change in the "du" imperative. Such verbs never add the ending "-e" in the "du" form. The "ihr" and "Sie" forms remain unaffected by this vowel change.

  geben     nehmen
du gib!     nimm!
ihr gebt!     nehmt!
Sie geben Sie!     nehmen Sie!
 
  empfehlen     lesen
du empfiehl!     lies!
ihr empfehlt!     lest!
Sie empfehlen Sie!     lesen Sie!


Note however that this vowel change in the "du" imperative is only true for those verbs with a stem vowel in "-e-" that changes to "-i-" or "-ie-". Verbs that make other vowel changes in the "du" form of the present tense do not retain this vowel change in the imperative. For example:

  • The verb "fahren" has the "du" imperative fahr! (and not: fähr), although the present tense of the verb is du fährst.
  • The verb "tragen" has the "du" imperative trag! (and not: träg), although the present tense of the verb is du trägst.
  • The verb "laufen" has the "du" imperative lauf! (and not: läuf), although the present tense of the verb is du läufst.
  • The verb "stoßen" has the imperative stoß! (and not: stöß), although the present tense of the verb is du stößt




The "wir" imperative
There is also a "wir" form of the imperative which equates to "Let's do something" rather than being an order. Just like the "Sie" form of the imperative, you merely take the normal "wir" form of the present tense verb and follow it with the pronoun, which cannot be omitted. Any separable prefix will come at the end of the clause.

  • "Gehen wir!" (= "Let's go!")
  • "Spielen wir!" (= "Let's play!")
  • "Lesen wir!" (= "Let's read!")
  • "Fangen wir jetzt an!" (= "Let's start now!")




The imperative forms of "sein"
The verb "to be" shows irregularity in the imperative in that all of its forms use "sei-" as a stem. This means that the "wir" and "Sie" forms of the imperative are different from the present tense forms of the verb.

  • "Sei glücklich!" (= "Be happy!")
  • "Seien wir optimistisch!" (= "Let's be optimistic!")
  • "Seid pünktlich!" (= "Be punctual!")
  • "Seien Sie glücklich!" (= "Be happy!")

Weiter!Go to the index of the German Verb Tables


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