The German Imperative — Giving Instructions
After this lesson you can tell someone what to do, politely and informally.
Do this first: Present tense
The German Imperative — Giving Instructions
The imperative is how you tell someone to do something. German has three versions of it, because it has three words for "you".
The imperative is how you tell someone to do something. German has three versions of it, because it has three words for "you".
du
↓
Geh!
present du form, minus -st
The letter du becomes present du form, minus -st. For example: Komm!.
The video for this lesson is being made. Here is the idea in the meantime.
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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!