The imperative mood, or imperative, in any language expresses a request, a call to action, or an order. By the way, in German a number of other forms (fm) can be used with a similar meaning (KI and KII, infinitive, present tense and future tense Futurum I). But in this article we will look at the imperative mood as such.
Speaking in detail about the meaning of the imperative in German, we can distinguish the following meanings: request, appeal, proposal, advice, order, prescription, warning, instruction.
The imperative mood in German has three forms:
- when addressing one person on you (du): hör(e) zu! Schreib(e)!
- when addressing several persons you (ihr): hört zu! Schreibt!
- when politely addressed to you (Sie): hören Sie zu! Schreiben!
Let us consider in detail the formation of each f-we.
F-ma 2nd l. units h. (i.e. when addressing a person in thou) is formed from the base of the infinitive - the ending of the verb (verb).
Mach-en – mach(e)! Komm-en – Komm(e)! Geh-en – geh(e)!
In the above options, the ending e may be optional, i.e. 2 options are allowed. But usually verbs are used in everyday conversation. without ending: Mach! Komm! Geh!
However, in some cases the ending –e is required – if the stem is a verb. ends in -d, -t, -ig, and also in verbs. rechnen, öffnen.
Öffne die Tür bitte.
Entschuldige mich bitte!
Warte auf mich ein paar Minuten!
In verb. with a separable prefix, the prefix is placed at the end of the sentence, as in the indicative:
Anrufen – ruf mich an! Aufhören – hör auf! Aufstehen – steh auf!
In strong verbs. with an umlaut in the imperative the umlaut is lost:
Laufen – du läufst – lauf!
Tragen – du trägst – trag!
In some strong verbs. with alternation of vowels in the root, the alternation is preserved:
geben – du gibst – gib!
lesen – du liest – lies!
nehmen – du nimmst – nimm!
essen – de isst – iss!
In spoken German, k verb. In the imperative, the particle mal is often added, which in Russian corresponds to the particle –ka.
Guck mal! - Look!
Komm mal her! - Come here!
Warte mal! - Wait a minute!
It is noteworthy that the pronoun du is not usually used, since the pronoun itself gives a clear idea of who the speaker is addressing, although there are no rules prohibiting it.
ATTENTION! Since the forms of the imperative are formed from the infinitive, then the forms of auxiliary verbs. differ from the usual personal fm:
Haben – du hast – Hab /habt/ haben keine Angst!
Werden – du – wirst – Werde/ werdet/ werden bitt nicht böse!
Sein – du bist – Sei/ seid/ seien höfflich!
The form of the imperative when addressing several persons coincides with the indicative (indicative mood), but in the sentence it is placed in the first position:
Zuhören – ihr hört zu – Hört der Lehrerin zu!
Auf schreiben – ihr schreibt auf – Schreibt die Hausaufgabe auf!
Sein – ihr seid – Seid bitte morgen pünktlich!
The polite form (when addressing you) of the imperative coincides with the form of the 3rd letter. plural (indicative mood), but also placed at the beginning of the sentence:
Nehmen Sie ihre Aufgabe!
Schreiben Sie bitte ihre Adresse auf!
Kommen Sie bitte hierher!
As for the pronoun, its use here is optional, but a sentence with a pronoun is preferable, as a more polite form of address (of course, if we are talking about communicating with a person, and not an impersonal kitchen recipe or job description).
NOTES!
- When addressing several unspecified persons, the infinitive is used: Nicht an die Tür lehnen. Die Tür nicht öffnen, bevor der Zug hält.
- In clear orders that require immediate execution, past participles are used (Partizip II): Aufgestanden! Angetreten!
- For a call to action in relation to the 1st l. units (we) is a verb. lassen:
Lass uns ins Kino gehen. – if there are two interlocutors.
Lasst uns ins Kino gehen. – if there are at least three interlocutors.
- To express an energetic, appeal, order or demand in writing, an exclamation mark is used; if attention is not focused on the order, then a period is used, which is expressed in oral speech with the corresponding intonation.
First, let's figure out what inclination is. Mood is a category of verb that expresses the attitude of an action, event or state to reality. This relationship is established by the subject of speech (the speaker). To express a real action that has happened, is happening or will happen, the indicative is used. (indicative). If the subject of speech perceives an action as possible under certain circumstances, then to convey this possibility, he uses the subjunctive. (conjunctive). Imperative (imperative) is used to call, request, motivate or command.
Knock in German (German) it is used according to the same rules as in Russian.
Indicative mood in German
Indicative incl. in him. language has three tenses: past, present and future. Moreover, there are 3 past tenses, and two future tenses.
- The past tense includes:
- imperfect (Präterirum) – Ich war gestern im Theater.
- perfect (Perfekt) – Ich bin gestern im Theater gewesen.
- plusquamperfekt (Plusquamperfekt) – Ich war vorgestern im Theater gewesen.
You can read more about the meanings, formation and use of these tenses in the relevant articles on our website.
All possible meanings of the present tense in the indicative tense. expresses Präsens.
Ich gehe gerade ins Theater.
Ich gehe mehrmals wöchentlich ins Theater.
Die Erde geht um die Sonne herum.
As for the forms (fm) of the future tense, there are two of them:
- Futurum I – Ich werde ein Theaterabonnement für nächstes Jahr kaufen.
- Futurum II (little used f-ma) - Ich werde ein Theaterabonnement für nächstes Jahr gekauft haben.
You can also read about the features and subtleties of using these verb phrases in separate articles.
Subjunctive mood in German
used to express desired or possible actions. This is incl. often causes difficulties for native Russian speakers, since German. language has 2 different subjunctive moods. What we are accustomed to understand by the subjunctive mood as such is in it. language Konjunktiv II.
Ich würde gern mit dir ins Theater gehen, (wenn du Lust hättest.)
Ich wäre gestern gern mit dir ins Theater gegangen.
There is also the phrase Konjunktiv I, which in our understanding is not a subjunctive clause, since it deals with a very real action, but conveyed from the words of third parties.
Er sagt, er gehe mehrmals wöchentlich ins Theater.
Er sagte, er sei gestern ins Theater gegangen.
Imperative mood in German
expresses a demand, request, call to action or order. There are 3 imperatives:
- to contact you: Komm! Warte!
- for polite address to you: Kommen Sie! Warten Sie!
- to address multiple persons: Kommt! Wartet!
For the call addressed to the 1st l. plural, i.e. to the pronoun we, f-ma is used with the verb lassen:
Lass uns in die Disko gehen! – if only two people are meant.
Lasst uns heute zusammen arbeiten! – if more than two people are meant.
To express impersonal instructions in German, the infinitive is usually used:
Bitte zurückbleiben! – landing is over! (in transport).
To give a strict order that must be carried out immediately, the participle form can be used:
Hiergeblieben! Aufgemacht!
Since sentences with an imperative sound somewhat categorical, and sometimes even rude, German speakers often avoid it in speech, using questions or other verbal phrases instead.
Geben Sie mir bitte ihre Visitenkarte! – Könnten Sie mir bitter ihre Visitenkarte
The imperative mood in German is called imperative (der Imperativ) and is an address to encourage action, and also expresses advice, recommendation, appeal, request, warning, prohibition. There are several forms of address: confidential, polite, incentive. To construct an imperative, you need to know the verbs of the present tense. Only the form of the second person in the singular is specially formed. This is a “you” address. Other forms remain the same.
Imperative mood in German: rules of formation for the second person singular
The appeal is most often directed at a specific person. We encourage someone to act, we order, we advise. Therefore, the imperative in the second person singular is the most common.
To form it, the ending -st is removed from the present form of the verb du. So, for example, if the declarative form of a sentence sounds like “you will come in the evening” - du kommst am Abend. Then to form the imperative mood you only need to remove -st. Komm am Abend - "come in the evening!" Sometimes an additional -e is added to the stem of the verb. But this is often optional. In colloquial speech this suffix is often lost.
For verbs with an esset (-ss) at the end of the stem, the rule is different: only the ending -t is left. For example, ich esse, du isst, but: iss! (“eat”!)
If in verbs the root vowel is changed to umlaut, then it is not preserved.
When the stem ends in -ten, -den, -eln, -ieren, -gen, then the vowel -e is added to the stem. So: “work - work” - arbeiten - arbeite! “swim - swim” - baden - bade!
It is not difficult to learn the imperative mood in German. A table with examples will help you remember. In fact, there is nothing complicated in constructing an imperative; you just need to practice a little.
The imperative of verbs in the second person in plural
The imperative mood in German in 2 liters. plural is constructed according to the following rules:
- The verb form remains the same.
- The personal pronoun goes away.
Everything is very simple here: no exceptions, no additional vowels or consonants.
Examples: “you are working” - “work!”: ihr arbeitet - arbeitet!
Other forms of the imperative
The imperative mood in German is also expressed by motivation. This translates into Russian as “let’s...”. For example - gehen wir! - “Let’s go!” or “Let's go!”
To form this form, you simply need to swap the verb and pronoun. So, for example, “we are dancing” would be translated as wir tanzen. And the incentive to dance will be: Tanzen wir!
The imperative mood of a verb in German in a polite form is constructed just as simply. The word order simply changes: the verb comes first, and then the pronoun.
Compare: “You do” - Sie machen.
But: “do it!” (You) - machen Sie!
It is logically understandable why pronouns are retained for the second person in the plural and for the polite form. The verbs in this case have the same endings. Pronouns have been retained to avoid confusion.
When speaking politely, it is recommended to also add the word “please”. That is, not just, for example, “Come” (Kommen Sie), but Kommen Sie bitte. You can also say bitte mal. For the Germans, formalities and polite forms are generally very important.
The verbs sein (to be, to be), haben (to have), werden (to become) have their own special endings. Their imperative forms simply need to be memorized.
Use of the imperative in German
The imperative serves to express a request, a call to action, a command (command).
- The imperative in German has the following forms:
- 2nd person singular (when addressing one person as “you”) - Schreibe!(Write!)
- 2nd person plural (when addressing several persons, each of whom is spoken with “you”) - Schreibt!(Write!)
- The form of polite address is the same for singular and plural (used when addressing both one person and several persons, each of whom is spoken with “you”) - Schreiben Sie!(Write!)
Formation of the imperative in German
The 2nd person singular of the imperative in German is formed from the 2nd person singular of the present indicative by dropping the personal ending of the verb -st and adding the ending -e(it may be omitted).
Strong conjugation verbs with a root vowel A in the 2nd person singular imperative the root vowel is not changed.
German strongly conjugated verbs with a root vowel e change e on i or ie in the 2nd person singular imperative. These verbs do not have an e ending.
The 2nd person plural coincides in the imperative with the 2nd person plural in the present of the indicative.
The form of polite address of the imperative in German coincides with the form of polite address of the present indicative. The personal pronoun Sie is retained, but is placed after the verb.
You should remember the formation of the imperative of the auxiliary verbs haben, sein and werden, which do not obey the rules stated above.
The separable prefix in all forms of the imperative in German is separated and placed at the end of the sentence.
When forming the imperative from verbs with the reflexive pronoun sich, the forms of the 2nd person singular and plural pronouns are used, as well as the form of polite address.
Imperative of German verbs with reflexive pronoun sich
All three forms of the imperative are translated from German into Russian by the imperative mood.
The pronoun Sie in the form of polite imperative is not translated into Russian.
Other forms of the German language used to express motivation, command, order
There are also other forms of expression of will. So, for example, to express an incentive to joint action for the 1st person plural, the form is used:
To give a command, the infinitive and participle II are often used.
| Auftreten! | Stand up! (Line up!) |
| Hinlegen! | Get down! |
| Nicht gesprochen! | Don't talk! |
Imperative mood
Imperative mood in German (Imperativ) expresses a command, order or request. It is in some ways similar to the imperative mood in other European languages. This similarity is observed primarily in the fact that the formation of the imperative mood comes from the forms of the present tense verb and has three or four forms. In German: 2nd person singular, 1st and 2nd person plural, and the polite form, which is the same as the 3rd person plural. For verbs with a separable part, as in the present, this part goes to the end of the sentence (see § 31).
Forms of the 2nd person singular are formed using the suffix -e, although more and more often they simply refuse it. That is, it is not required for most words. The exception is when the stem of the verb ends in –d, -t, -ig, -chn, -ffn. This is done for convenience.
For some strong verbs, the formation of the imperative may occur slightly differently, but very predictably. Strong verbs with alternation e/i fundamentally get –i(e) as in present, but they do not have a suffix -e. However, verbs with –a-, -au- And -o- are fundamentally left without an umlaut. In the same way, other strong verbs do not change anything.
The forms of the imperative for the 2nd person plural and the polite form almost always coincide with the forms of the present, only in the 2nd person there is no personal pronoun, and with polite address it remains and comes after the verb in the imperative.
For the 1st person plural there is also nothing fancy. This form copies the present form, but the pronoun wir comes after the verb. This form assumes that the speaker himself is included in the circle of those who are subject to the order or request (this is inclusiveness). Often the form from this person is found in construction with the verb wollen.
The imperative mood is formed completely differently in the irregular verbs haben and sein. They use the infinitive rather than the present as the basis for the imperative.
When addressing an indefinite circle of people (the public as a whole), the infinitive is often used. Such phrases can be found on inscriptions, signs, you can hear similar things at train stations or in other crowded places.
There are other ways to express motivation in a sentence. Among them, the infinitive and second participle are increasingly used. Both of them in some way express a categorical order that must be carried out immediately. Wed:
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Also often the present and future tenses express motivation. This can be discovered contextually, even without knowing such a function of these tenses. Russian has this too.
- Du bleibst hier. Er verschwindet.- You stay here. He fails.
- Sie werden hier bleiben!- You will stay here!
There are still many ways to express a request, command or order. Among them: designs haben/sein + zu+ Infinitiv, modal verbs, passive and subjunctive mood in the present tense. They all usually serve a different function, but in the context of speech, the meaning they express can be interpreted as a call to action.
| Previous lesson: 31. Verbs with separable and inseparable parts |
32. Imperative mood | Next lesson: 33. Forms of the future tense |
