We know what Imperatives are : it is used to ask or tell someone to do something. When these are written, it often ends with an exclamation mark, and when it is used in a real life, of course, with a sprinkle of yelling or serious face.
When I first learned imperative in French, I thought it was simple by excluding the subject, but why do you think I am writing them here? Have a little guess before we start this short post.
Just a heads up, I'm not a professional teacher, but rather another learner. The information I share might not be entirely accurate.
1. This time we start with examples
I will spice things up here, let us start from examples before the explanation.
Let’s imagine there is a couple prepping for a dinner crêpe party:
Va au supermarché, s’il te plaît ! Nous avons besoin de lait pour les crêpes. Ils sont maintenant dans un supermarché. "N'oubliez pas de mettre du lait dans notre panier !" Il est 20 heures et ils ont enfin commencé à faire des crêpes. Sophie aide Jean et ce dernier demande : "Verse du lait et mélange-les pour moi s'il te plaît." “Ajoute encore un peu de lait, c’était trop peu.” Les invités sont arrivés et ils ont dit : "Venez, pourquoi êtes-vous encore en train de cuisiner ? Buvez du vin et détendez-vous !" Jean demanda à Sophie : "S'il te plaît, viens." "Ils sont tous brûlés, alors mets-les au réfrigérateur pour les cacher. Quand tu seras prête, commande des plats à livrer."
Translation: Go to the supermarket, please! We need milk for crêpes. Now they are in a supermarket. "Don't forget to put milk in our basket!" It is 8pm and they are finally started to make crêpes. Sophie is assisting Jean, and Jean asks “Pour the milk and mix them for me please." Add a little bit of the milk, it was too little. The guests arrived and they say “Come! why are you still cooking? Drink some wine and relax!” Jean asked Sophie, “Please come” “They are all burnt, so put them in the fridge to hide. When you are ready order some delivery."
2. The moment of truth!
Did you have a question or no? When I come across using imperatives I had a question like : sometimes there is an ‘s’ as usual but sometimes I get rid of an ‘s’? Do I have to guess like I have to guess like gender? Fortunately, there is a rule for it!
French verbs they have endings like : -er -re -ir
With only the -er endings the ‘s’ is removed.
Va au supermarché! (tu vas) - aller
Verse du lait et mélange-les pour moi. (tu verses) - verser
Ajoute encore un peu de lait. (tu ajoutes) - ajouter
Commande des plats à livrer. (tu commends) - commander
With -re and -ir verbs the ‘s’ remains.
S'il te plaît, viens. (tu viens) - venir
Mets-les au réfrigérateur pour les cacher. (tu mets) - mettre
Wait.. why did you only use ‘tu’ for the examples above?
3. What about other forms of the subject, such as, nous, vous, ils etc?
Let us use the famous -er verb aller
je vais
tu vas
il/elle/on va
nous allons
vous allez
ils/elles vont
Here, there are two verbs that ends with s : tu vas & nous allons
However, there is one more thing to remember, only with tu the ‘s’ is removed, and with nous it remains as is.
Nous achetons le lait → Achetons le lait : let’s buy the milk
Nous ajoutons le lait → Ajoutons le lait : let’s add the milk
Nous préparons la pâte → Préparons la pâte : let’s prepare the dough
In conclusion, ‘-er’ verb that is conjugated ‘tu’ → ‘s’ tail is removed.
As we all know in French there are many exceptions. This one as well can also be considered another exception for learners, even though this is a “regular” imperatives. 💀I believe as we make more mistakes and get corrections the more we acquire.
I also found in recipes imperatives are used frequently. Here is a crêpe recipe in French for you! You can read how the vous form of imperatives are used here :)
https://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr/recette/333415-recette-de-crepes-la-meilleure-recette-rapide
Good stuff from a fellow French learner!
Merci beaucoup 😀