Verbs:Der Imperativ

Usage

The imperative mood (in contrast to the indicative mood - such as statements) is used to give commands and directions. There are four possible recipient 'groups' for commands in German.

Die Stiefschwester in der Welt von Frau Holle

You use the personal pronoun wir and Sie when giving commands, but not du or ihr unless you really want to emphasize that you had better do this, instead of somebody else (have you ever heard an exasperated parent tell you what to do?!?)

Forming the imperative

Since, of the imperative forms, only the du imperative requires deep thought, let's get the other three forms out of the way first.

wir, ihr, Sie

The wir, ihr and Sie imperatives take the same verb-forms as the present tense conjugated verbs (both regular and irregular verbs) with a new word order and the loss of ihr:

du

The du-imperative is formed by

regular verbs

This pattern holds true for both irregular verbs – so, you will have to review your basic verb conjugations too! – with one additional requirement: verbs that have an Umlaut on the 2nd person singular form in the regular conjugation (e.g., fahren => fährst or laufen => läufst) lose that Umlaut in the imperative.

irregular verbs

Verbs whose stem ends in a -d, -t, -ig, -m or -n (after another consonant), get an -e suffix for the du-imperative (there is also some regional variation, for example lad mich ein is also possible):

Separable prefix verbs

Separable prefixes separate from the verb when forming the imperative.

Exceptions: some really irregular verbs

Not surprisingly, haben and sein, werden and wissen - some of the most commonly used verbs - are exceptions, and they don't follow any of the above patterns:

Infinitives as commands

Infinitives can be used as commands, especially in official situations, where the command is not directed at any one particular person:

Sollen for commands

Infinitives with sollen can also express commands, and expresses an obligation established by someone other than the person at whom the 'sollen + infinitive' command is directed:

Lass uns ...

The last imperative construction we'll discuss here is the 'lass uns + infinitive' construction. This is used for first person plural suggestions/commands. It has the same meaning as the regular 1st person plural verb form, for example:

Common irregular du-imperative forms