KAPITEL 10
 

Imperative forms in German



The imperative is the form of the verb to give commands, to make requests, and to give instructions and directions.

The imperative has four forms:

        o the familiar singular (du)
        o the familiar plural (ihr)
        o the polite singular and plural (Sie)
        o the first-person plural (wir)

A sentence in the imperative is usually punctuated with an exclamation point.

~~~~~

Sie and wir

In both the Sie and wir forms, the verb begins the sentence and the pronoun follows.

     Gehen Sie über die Brücke!
     Gehen wir ins Kino!

~~~~~

ihr

The familiar plural imperative consists of the present-tense ihr-form of the verb without the pronoun ihr.

     Geht über die Straße und lauft geradeaus weiter.

~~~~~

du

The familiar singular imperative consists of the present-tense du-form without the -(s)t ending and without the pronoun du.

         du kommst          Komm!
         du schaust          Schau!

In written German, you will sometimes see a final -e (komme, gehe) but this -e is usually omitted in spoken language except for those verbs for which the present-tense du-form ends in -est.

         du arbeitest          Arbeite!
         du öffnest               Öffne!

Verbs with a stem-vowel change from a to ä or au to äu do not take an umlaut in the imperative form.

         du fährst          Fahr!
            du läufst          Lauf!
            du hälst           Halt!