Language/French/Grammar/Easy-way-of-generating-the-imperative-mood

An easy way of generating the imperative mood

Endings

For all verbs (with four exceptions - see below) take the second person singular tu form, the second person plural vous form and the first person plural nous form of the present tense, delete the subject and the final -s of any verb which ends in -es or -as.

Examples

For example:

Infinitive	Present tense	Imperative
donner	tu donnes	donne!
	vous donnez	donnez!
	nous donnons	donnons!
aller	tu vas	va!
	vous allez	allez!
	nous allons	allons!
finir	tu finis	finis!
	vous finissez	finissez!
	nous finissons	finissons!
dormir	tu dors	dors!
	vous dormez	dormez!
	nous dormons	dormons!
vendre	tu vends	vends!
	vous vendez	vendez!
	nous vendons	vendons!
recevoir	tu reçois	reçois!
	vous recevez	recevez!
	nous recevons	recevons!

NB: The final -s which disappears from second person singular verbs ending in -es or -as reappears where the pronouns y or en follow the imperative:

Infinitive	Imperative
aller	Va!	Vas-y!
Parler	Parle!	Parles-en!

Four exceptions:

Infinitive	Present tense	Imperative
être	tu es	sois!
	vous êtes	soyez!
	nous sommes	soyons!
avoir	tu as	aie!
	vous avez	ayez!
	nous avons	ayons!
savoir	tu sais	sache!
	vous savez	sachez!
	nous savons	sachons.1
vouloir	tu veux	veuille
	vous voulez	veuillez
	nous voulons	not used

(Both veuille and veuillez mean 'please'.)

NB: Although vouloir has irregular imperative forms, the related verb en vouloir à qn 'to hold a grudge against sb' has regular forms:

Present tense	Imperative
Tu ne lui en veux pas	Ne lui en veux pas!
Vous ne lui en voulez pas	Ne lui en voulez pas!
Nous ne lui en voulons pas	Ne lui en voulons pas!

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Related Lessons

• Use of en with numerals and quantifiers
• Use of neutral le where no equivalent exists in English
• Verbs with intransitive and transitive uses
• Plurals of nouns ending in –al
• Regular plurals in French
• The indirect object complement
• Emphasizing me, te, se, nous, vous by adding a pronoun + même
• Superlative forms of adjectives
• Irregular plurals for nouns ending in –ail
• Omission of the article in lists
• Position of y and en with negative infinitives
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English hundreds thousands millions billions
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Ordinal number abbreviations
• Conjugation group 3
• Agreement of the past participle when using “avoir” with a preceding direct object