Imperative (Commands)
Imperative (Commands)
French drops the subject pronoun for commands, just like English commands do ('Eat!' not 'You eat!') — but French also quietly drops a letter from -er verbs, a small spelling quirk worth knowing upfront.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Formed from the present tense, minus the pronoun
Tu manges → Mange ! / Nous mangeons → Mangeons ! / Vous mangez → Mangez !
You eat → Eat! / We eat → Let's eat! / You eat → Eat!
The imperative simply reuses the tu, nous, and vous forms of the present tense with the subject pronoun dropped — no new conjugation to learn. This matches English, which also drops the subject for commands ('Eat!'), though English has no separate 'nous' command form — French's Mangeons! ('Let's eat!') does the job English covers with 'let's' + verb. The one wrinkle: -er verbs (and a few -ir verbs like ouvrir) drop the final -s from the tu form — Mange!, not Manges!
Reflexive imperatives: pronoun position flips
Lève-toi ! (Get up!) but Ne te lève pas ! (Don't get up!)
Get up! but Don't get up!
In an affirmative command, the reflexive pronoun moves after the verb and attaches with a hyphen, and te becomes toi: Lève-toi!, Asseyez-vous! In a negative command, the pronoun moves back to its normal position before the verb: Ne te lève pas!, Ne vous asseyez pas! English has no equivalent pronoun-shuffling, since 'get up' has no separate reflexive word to move around.
Irregular imperatives: être and avoir
Sois sage ! (Be good!) / Aie confiance ! (Have confidence!)
Be good! / Have confidence!
être and avoir don't use their normal present-tense forms for the imperative — they borrow forms from the subjunctive instead: sois, soyons, soyez (être) and aie, ayons, ayez (avoir). These have to be memorized separately since they don't follow the regular 'present tense minus pronoun' rule — much like English 'be' itself is irregular in the imperative compared to its usual conjugation (is/am/are → be).
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Mange ! | mahnzh | Eat! (informal) |
| Finis ! | fee-NEE | Finish! (informal) |
| Attends ! | ah-TAHN | Wait! (informal) |
| Allons-y ! | ah-lohn-ZEE | Let's go! |
| Levez-vous ! | luh-vay VOO | Stand up! (formal/plural) |
| Assieds-toi ! | ah-syay TWAH | Sit down! (informal) |
| Ne parle pas ! | nuh parl PAH | Don't speak! (informal) |
| Sois sage ! | swah sahzh | Be good! (informal) |
| Ayez confiance ! | ay-yay kohn-fee-AHNS | Have confidence! (formal/plural) |
| Écoute ! | ay-KOOT | Listen! (informal) |