The impératif in French

L'impératif, known as the 'imperative' in English, is a grammatical mood which we use to give orders or instructions, or to make a request or suggestion.

The imperative only conjugates in three persons: second person singular (tu), first person plural (nous), and second person plural (vous). You can’t use the imperative form with the third person singular (on), even when referring to ‘we’/’us’. Remember that for formal or polite requests to strangers, elders or people in positions of authority, you should use the second person plural (vous) even in the singular.

The imperative conjugates the same way as the présent de l'indicatif. However, when we use the imperative mood, we do not use subject pronouns.

What does this mean in practice? Let’s take a look at a few sentences.

Tu manges cette pomme. - You (sg) eat the apple.

Nous allons faire du shopping. - We go shopping.

Vous finissez vos devoirs. - You (pl) finish your homework.

If we wanted to change these into commands, rather than statements, they would look as follows:

Mange cette pomme ! - Eat that apple!

Allons faire du shopping ! - Let’s go shopping!

Finissez vos devoirs ! - Finish your homework!

In the examples above, we turned these sentences from statements into commands by removing the subject pronoun.

The conjugations of the verbs stay the same - with one exception. In the first sentence, the verb ‘manges’ becomes ‘mange’ when used as an imperative. This applies to -er verbs only. Find out more in Lesson 11 of the Complete French Course.

For a more polite request, you can use the verb vouloir in the imperative followed by an infinitive. For example:

Veuillez patienter. - Please wait.

When using a negation with the imperative, the order 'ne + verb + pas' also applies. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Ne revenez pas avant ce soir. - Don’t come back until this evening.

Ne perdons pas de temps. - Let’s not waste any time.

For more information on the use of negation with the imperative, please refer to Lesson 28 of the Complete French Course.

When conjugating a reflexive verb in the imperative, the reflexive pronoun is replaced with a stressed pronoun. The stressed pronoun comes after the verb and is connected to it with a hyphen, as in the following examples:

Baignons-nous ! - Let’s swim!

Habillez-vous, les enfants ! - Get dressed, children!

For more on reflexive verbs in the imperative mood, including how to turn them negative, check out Lesson 22 of The Complete French Course.