The imperative mood is used to formulate commands or make requests. Its two tenses are the present imperative and the perfect imperative (the latter is not used in everyday speech). Each tense has three forms (second person singular, first person plural, second person plural):
Allons danser.
(Let's go dancing!)
Soyez gentils! (Be nice!)
Present Imperative
| se repentir (to repent) [reflexive] |
aimer (to love) |
finir (to finish) |
répondre (to answer) |
| repens-toi | aime | finis | réponds |
| repentons-nous | aimons | finissons | répondons |
| repentez-vous | aimez | finissez | répondez |
Perfect Imperative
The perfect imperative is formed with avoir or être + past participle:
| aimer (to love) |
finir (to finish) |
| aie aimé | aie fini |
| ayons aimé | ayons fini |
| ayez aimé | ayez fini |
In an affirmative command, the object pronoun comes directly after the verb and is attached to it by a hyphen. The pronouns me and te change to moi and toi after the verb.
Dépêchez-vous! Aidez-moi! (Hurry up! Help me!)
With two object pronouns, the placement order is as follows:
| moi | ||||
| le | toi | |||
| verb + | la + | lui | + y | + en |
| les | nous | |||
| vous | ||||
| leur |
Envoyez-les-nous. (Send them to us.)
Note: Moi + en becomes m'en; toi + en becomes t'en.
Donnez-m'en. (Give me some.)
See Also: