The German Imperative — Giving Instructions
After this lesson you can tell someone what to do, politely and informally.
Do this first: Present tense
Übungen
Eight exercises on what you just watched. Get 80% and the lesson is marked done and added to your A1 progress.
1 / 8 · Type the missing word
2 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
Come here, please!
3 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
Go home!
4 / 8 · Choose
What is the du imperative of kommen?
5 / 8 · Choose
What is the du imperative of gehen?
6 / 8 · Choose
What is the Sie imperative of kommen?
7 / 8 · Choose
What is the ihr imperative of kommen?
8 / 8 · Choose
How do you build the du imperative?
In short
German has three imperative forms, matching its three "you"s. For du, take the present-tense form and drop the -st: du kommst → Komm! For ihr, use the plain ihr form: Kommt! For Sie, use the infinitive plus Sie: Kommen Sie!
How it works
The imperative is how you tell someone to do something — and because German has three words for "you", it has three commands. Each is built from a form you already know, so there is nothing new to memorise, only a small operation to perform.
For du: take the present-tense du form and remove the -st ending. du kommst → Komm! du gehst → Geh! du hörst → Hör! The pronoun disappears entirely. For ihr: the form is identical to the ordinary present tense, just without the pronoun. ihr kommt → Kommt! For Sie: the infinitive followed by Sie, which stays in place. Kommen Sie!
Two things soften it. German adds bitte freely — Komm bitte! — and, more usefully, the little word mal, which takes the edge off almost any instruction: Komm mal her, Hör mal. It has no direct translation but it is what makes a command sound like a request. Note also that verbs with an e → i vowel change keep it in the du imperative (Sprich! Nimm! Lies!), while a → ä verbs do not (fahren → Fahr!, not Fähr!).
| Addressing | How it is built | kommen | gehen |
|---|---|---|---|
| du | present du form, minus -st | Komm! | Geh! |
| ihr | present ihr form, no pronoun | Kommt! | Geht! |
| Sie | infinitive + Sie | Kommen Sie! | Gehen Sie! |
| Verb | du imperative | Note |
|---|---|---|
| sprechen | Sprich! | e → i is kept |
| nehmen | Nimm! | e → i is kept |
| lesen | Lies! | e → ie is kept |
| essen | Iss! | e → i is kept |
| fahren | Fahr! | a → ä is NOT kept |
| schlafen | Schlaf! | a → ä is NOT kept |
| Verb | du | ihr | Sie |
|---|---|---|---|
| sein | Sei! | Seid! | Seien Sie! |
| haben | Hab! | Habt! | Haben Sie! |
| werden | Werde! | Werdet! | Werden Sie! |
Examples
- Komm bitte her!Come here, please!
- Geh nach Hause!Go home!
- Kommen Sie bitte herein.Please come in. (formal)
- Sprich langsamer, bitte.Speak more slowly, please.
- Nimm das Buch.Take the book.
- Hört mal zu!Listen up! (to several people)
- Sei vorsichtig!Be careful!
- Warten Sie einen Moment, bitte.Wait a moment, please. (formal)
- Mach die Tür zu, bitte.Close the door, please.
- Fahr langsam!Drive slowly!
Mistakes to avoid
✗ Du komm!
✓ Komm!
The pronoun is dropped in the du and ihr imperative. Only Sie keeps its pronoun.
✗ Kommst!
✓ Komm!
The -st goes. Leaving it on turns the command back into a statement.
✗ Fähr langsam!
✓ Fahr langsam!
a → ä verbs lose the umlaut in the imperative. Only the e → i and e → ie verbs keep their change.
✗ Kommen Sie! to a friend
✓ Komm!
Matching the imperative to the wrong "you" is jarring. Check which form of address you are on first.
Wortschatz
The words from this lesson.
| der Imperativ | the imperative | |
| bitte | please | |
| mal | softening particle — "just", "a moment" | |
| warten | to wait | |
| zuhören | to listen | |
| vorsichtig | careful | |
| langsam | slow, slowly | |
| schnell | fast, quickly | |
| herein | in (towards the speaker) | |
| die Tür | door |
Kulturnotiz
A bare German imperative sounds far less harsh to a German ear than its literal English translation does to yours. "Give me the salt" would be rude in English; Gib mir bitte das Salz is entirely normal. German softens with bitte and mal rather than with the elaborate hedging English uses ("would you mind possibly…"), and translating that hedging into German makes you sound evasive rather than polite.
Common questions
+How do I form the du imperative?
Take the present-tense du form and drop the -st: du kommst → Komm!, du gehst → Geh!. The pronoun disappears too.
+Do vowel-changing verbs keep their change?
The e → i and e → ie ones do: Sprich!, Nimm!, Lies!. The a → ä ones do not: fahren gives Fahr!, not Fähr!.
+How do I make a command polite?
Add bitte, and add mal. Komm mal her, bitte is a request; Komm her! is an order. The particle mal is the single most useful softener in spoken German.
+Which imperative do I use with several friends?
The ihr form, which is the same as the ordinary present tense without the pronoun: Kommt!, Geht!, Hört mal zu!