How French works
Unlike finite verb forms, the imperative has three persons :
1st person singular: donne!
1st person plural: donnons!
2nd person plural: donnez!
The second person singular is formed by taking the second person singular of the present indicative (e.g. donnes) and removing the final –s:
Donne-lui un coup de main pour la vaissaille!
Give him / her a hand with the washing-up!
Va lui donner un coup de main pour la vaissaille!
Go and give him / her a hand with the washing-up!
Note, however, that the –s returns to this form when it is followed by y or en:
Vas-y, achètes-en
Go on, buy some
The first person plural is the same as the first person plural of the present indicative (e.g. donnons):
Donnons-lui un coup de main pour la vaissaille!
Let’s give him / her a hand with the washing-up!
Allons lui donner un coup de main pour la vaissaille!
Let’s go and give him / her a hand with the washing-up!
The second person plural is the same as the second person plural of the present indicative (e.g. donnez):
Donnez-lui un coup de main pour la vaissaille!
Give him / her a hand with the washing-up!
Allez lui donner un coup de main pour la vaissaille!
Go and give him / her a hand with the washing-up!
For most other verbs , all three persons are the same as the equivalent persons in the present indicative :
Finis tes devoirs! Finissez vos devoirs!
Finish your homework!
Rends rendez-lui le livre!
Give him / her back the book!
There are, however, four irregular formations:
Être sois, soyons, soyez
Avoir: aie, ayons, ayez
Savoir: sache, sachons, sachez
Vouloir: veuille, (-), veuillez
Sois sage!
Be good!
N’ayez pas peur!
Don’t be frightened!
Sache que je n’y suis pas mêlé
Please understand that I’m not involved
Veuillez vous asseoir
Please sit down
The imperative is used very much as it is in English:
To give an order Fermez la porte!
Make a suggestion: Allons-y!
Make an invitation: Venez chez nous!
Express a wish: Dors bien!
The compound or past imperative is a form of the imperative comprising the imperative of the auxiliary verb avoir or être plus the past participle of a non-auxiliary verb. It is used (fairly rarely) to express orders which are to be accomplished at a point in the future:
Ayez fini le rapport avant la fin de la semaine
Be sure to have finished the report before the end of the week
In the affirmative imperative, pronouns come after the verb and are linked to it by a hyphen. Note that moi and toi are used instead of me and te:
Tu veux du chocolat? Prends-en!
Do you want some chocolate? Take some!
Ce sera bientôt l’anniversaire de ta mère. Envoie-lui une carte!
It will soon be your mother’s birthday. Send her a card!
Tu as trouvé ses clefs? Donne-les-lui!
Did you find his keys? Give them to him!
Tu as des photos? Montre-les-moi!
Do you have some photos? Show them to me!
Y and en as ever come after the other pronouns , but note that before en, moi reverts to m' and toi to t':
Tu a du chocolat - Donne-m'en!
Do you have some chocolate? Give me some!
Ils aiment la glace? - Achète-leur-en!
Do they like ice-cream? Buy them some!
In the negative imperative , however, pronouns come before the verb :
Ne les lui donne pas!
Don’t give them to him!
Ne me les montre pas!
Don’t show them to me!
Ne m’en donne pas!
Don’t give me any!
Ne leur en achète pas!
Don’t buy them any!
In affirmative imperative sentences, the reflexive pronoun comes immediately after the verb. Note that in the second person singular te is replaced with toi:
Je me lève → Lève-toi! Levez-vous!
In negative imperative sentences, however, the word order reverts to the regular word order:
Je ne me lève pas → Ne te lève pas!
The infinitive can be used with the sense of the imperative when the addressee is non-specific, as in the case of instructions on road signs, food packaging, books and so on:
Ne pas gêner la fermeture des portes
Keep clear of doors when closing
Pour d’autres exemples, voir p. 126
For more examples, see p. 126
The simple future can be used with the sense of an imperative :
Demain tu m'aideras à descendre les valises
Tomorrow you will help me take down the suitcases
We have seen how the imperative is restricted to the first and second persons. In order to make a command in the third person, the subjunctive is used with que in a main clause :
Qu’il vienne me le dire!
Let him come and tell me that!
Que personne ne parle!
Nobody talk!
Note that this is generally only used with a personal pronoun or indefinite pronoun as subject , except for religious contexts:
Que Dieu vous bénisse
May God bless you
Any sentence can be made into an exclamation by adding comme or que in formal or everyday French, or Qu’est-ce que or Ce que in more informal French:
Comme il Qu’il fait beau!
How nice the weather is!
Ce qu’il Qu’est qu’il est charmant!
How charming he is!
In reported speech , these expression are replaced by combien:
Elle nous a dit combien il a fait beau il était charmant
She told us how nice the weather was/ how charming he was
Exclamations can be made to relate to a specific noun or noun phrase by means of quel:
Quel mauvais temps!
What bad weather!
Exclamations relating to the quantity of something can be made using que de plus noun or noun phrase :
Que de bruit!
What a lot of noise!
The subjunctive can be used to make exclamations in two types of main clause . The first, not introduced by que, is used for set expressions:
Vive la France
Long live France!
The second, which is introduced by que, is discussed in 4.3 above.
Pourvu que + the subjunctive can have the sense of let's hope (that):
Pourvu qu'il ne pleuve pas!
Let's hope it doesn't rain!