Imperative

Imperative is a grammatical mood that forms commands or requests, including giving instructions or advice. It is one of the irrealis moods.

Overview

The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request. An example of a verb used in the imperative mood is the English phrase "Leave!" Such imperatives imply a second-person subject (you), but some other languages also have first- and third-person imperatives, with the meaning of "let's (do something)" or "let him/her/them (do something)" (the forms may alternatively be called cohortative and jussive).

This is not to be confused with declarative sentences, which are statements of fact, or interrogative sentences, which ask questions.

Use in English

In English, the imperative form of a verb is the same as that of the bare infinitive (with the exception of be). The subject of commands, requests, or instructions, when mentioned, is always in the second person, and is omitted in sentence structure: "Go away" means "You go away" or "[You] Be good!" means "You be good!".

Use in Other Languages

In many languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian, and German, the imperative is formed by conjugating the verb in a specific way. For example, in French, the verb aller (to go) becomes va (go) in the imperative.

See Also

• Grammatical mood
• Declarative sentence
• Interrogative sentence
• English language
• French language
• Spanish language
• Italian language
• German language