Imperative

The imperative (in French, l'impératif — the imperative mood) is the verb form you reach for whenever you want someone to do something. In English you simply use the bare verb: Listen! Eat! Be quiet! Let's go! French works the same way.

A mood is not a tense. A tense tells you when (past, present, future); a mood tells you the attitude of the verb — here, that it is an order, instruction, request or piece of advice rather than a statement of fact. So the imperative does not sit on the past/present/future timeline the way other forms do; it is about getting an action to happen.

You will meet the imperative used for:

Use	French	English
A direct order	Arrête !	Stop!
An instruction	Tournez à gauche.	Turn left.
A request (polite)	Entrez, s'il vous plaît.	Come in, please.
Advice	Repose-toi bien.	Rest well.
A 'let's…' suggestion	Allons au cinéma !	Let's go to the cinema!
A recipe / how-to step	Ajoutez le sucre.	Add the sugar.

The key difference from English. English has only one command form (Eat!). French has three, because French distinguishes who you are talking to:

• tu — one person you know well (a friend, a family member, a child).
• vous — one person you don't know well (politeness), or more than one person (plural).
• nous — we, used for suggestions meaning "let's…".

Worked mini-example. Imagine telling a friend, then a stranger, to come in. To the friend: Entre ! (Come in!). To the stranger or a group: Entrez ! (Come in!). Same verb, different audience — and choosing the wrong one in the Speaking exam can sound rude, so this tu vs vous choice really matters.

The imperative is wonderfully easy to build: take the present-tense form for tu, nous or vous, and simply remove the subject pronoun. There is just one small spelling tweak for -er verbs.

The rule in two steps:

1. Start from the present tense (tu parles, nous parlons, vous parlez).
2. Delete the pronoun → Parle !, Parlons !, Parlez !

The -er spelling rule. For -er verbs (and the verb aller — to go), the tu form loses its final -s. So tu parles → Parle ! (not Parles). For -ir and -re verbs the -s stays, because it was always there: tu finis → Finis !, tu attends → Attends !

Here are the three regular families side by side:

Verb (type)	tu	nous (let's…)	vous
parler (-er, to speak)	Parle !	Parlons !	Parlez !
manger (-er, to eat)	Mange !	Mangeons !	Mangez !
finir (-ir, to finish)	Finis !	Finissons !	Finissez !
choisir (-ir, to choose)	Choisis !	Choisissons !	Choisissez !
attendre (-re, to wait)	Attends !	Attendons !	Attendez !
prendre (-re, to take)	Prends !	Prenons !	Prenez !

(Manger keeps its 'e' in mangeons to keep the g soft — man-ZHON — exactly as it does in the present tense.)

Aller (to go) — an -er pattern for the tu form. Even though aller is irregular, its imperative follows the -er rule of dropping the -s: tu vas → Va ! (Go!), Allons ! (Let's go!), Allez ! (Go! / Come on!).

Worked mini-example. You want to write a sign telling visitors (vous) to push the door, pousser (to push). Present: vous poussez. Drop the pronoun → Poussez. (Push.) The opposite, tirer (to pull): vous tirez → Tirez. (Pull.) These two words are on every French door.

Most verbs behave exactly as above. But four common verbs have their own imperative forms that you simply have to learn by heart. The good news: they appear in very useful fixed expressions, so they are easy to drill.

Verb	tu	nous	vous	Typical meaning
être (to be)	sois	soyons	soyez	Be…
avoir (to have)	aie	ayons	ayez	Have…
savoir (to know)	sache	sachons	sachez	Know / be aware…
vouloir (to want)	—	—	veuillez	(Please) be so kind as to…

1. être (to be) → sois / soyons / soyez. Used constantly to tell someone how to behave:

• Sois sage ! (sois = swa) — Be good/well-behaved! (to a child)
• Soyez prudent. — Be careful. (formal)
• Sois à l'heure ! — Be on time!

2. avoir (to have) → aie / ayons / ayez. Most often in the phrase "don't be afraid / be patient":

• N'aie pas peur ! (aie = eh) — Don't be afraid! (literally 'don't have fear')
• Ayez de la patience. — Be patient. (literally 'have patience')

3. savoir (to know) → sache / sachons / sachez. Means "know" or "be aware that":

• Sachez que c'est important. — Be aware that it's important.

4. vouloir (to want) → veuillez (vous form only, in practice). This is a very formal, polite way of saying "please" + verb, common on signs and in letters:

• Veuillez patienter. — Please wait. (on a phone line)
• Veuillez vous asseoir. — Please take a seat.

Worked mini-example. A parent reassures a nervous child before the first day of school: N'aie pas peur, sois courageux et sache que je t'aime. (Don't be afraid, be brave, and know that I love you.) In one sentence you see the imperative of avoir (n'aie pas), être (sois) and savoir (sache) — the three irregulars you most need.

To tell someone not to do something, you make the imperative negative. The rule is simple and identical to the present tense: put ne before the verb and pas after it.

ne + verb + pas

Positive	Negative	English
Parle !	Ne parle pas !	Don't speak!
Mangez !	Ne mangez pas !	Don't eat!
Touchez !	Ne touchez pas !	Don't touch!
Cours !	Ne cours pas !	Don't run!
Sois en retard !	Ne sois pas en retard !	Don't be late!

Elision still applies. Remember that ne becomes n' before a vowel or silent h: N'oublie pas ! (Don't forget!), N'aie pas peur ! (Don't be afraid!).

Other negative words slot into the pas position: Ne parle jamais ! (Never speak!), Ne dis rien ! (Don't say anything!), Ne bouge plus ! (Don't move any more / Stop moving!).

Worked mini-example. A French road sign or instruction often uses the negative imperative: Ne pas fumer (No smoking) and Ne pas se pencher (Do not lean out). On impersonal signs French frequently uses the infinitive wrapped in ne … pas (Ne pas fumer) rather than a personal command — recognise both: the personal Ne fumez pas ! (Don't smoke!) and the sign-style Ne pas fumer (No smoking).

This is the part of the imperative that examiners love to test, so take it slowly. When a command involves an object or reflexive pronoun (me, te, le, la, lui, nous, vous, les, leur, etc.), the pronoun's position depends on whether the command is positive or negative.

Positive command → pronoun AFTER the verb, joined by a hyphen.

• Donne-moi le livre ! — Give me the book!
• Regarde-le ! — Look at it/him!
• Écoutez-moi ! — Listen to me!
• Asseyez-vous ! — Sit down! (reflexive s'asseoir)

Two pronouns change form here: me → moi and te → toi when they land at the end:

• Lève-toi ! — Get up! (from se lever; te → toi)
• Dépêche-toi ! — Hurry up!

Negative command → pronoun BEFORE the verb (its normal place), no hyphen.

• Ne me donne pas le livre ! — Don't give me the book!
• Ne le regarde pas ! — Don't look at it!
• Ne te lève pas ! — Don't get up! (here toi changes back to te)
• Ne vous asseyez pas là. — Don't sit there.

So the pronoun jumps behind the verb in a positive command and returns in front in a negative command — and moi/toi revert to me/te once they are back in front.

Reflexive verbs (which always carry a pronoun) follow exactly this pattern:

Verb	Positive (tu)	Negative (tu)	English
se lever (to get up)	Lève-toi !	Ne te lève pas !	Get up! / Don't get up!
se dépêcher (to hurry)	Dépêche-toi !	Ne te dépêche pas !	Hurry up! / Don't hurry!
s'asseoir (to sit down)	Assieds-toi !	Ne t'assieds pas !	Sit down! / Don't sit down!

Worked mini-example. Turn "Give it to me!" into French. Positive command of donner with le (it) and moi (me): the order is verb + direct object + indirect: Donne-le-moi ! Now make it negative — pronouns go back in front in their normal order: Ne me le donne pas ! (Don't give it to me!). Notice moi becomes me again once it is in front.

The imperative is one of the most common forms in everyday written French, which makes it superb exam material. Once you can spot it, whole categories of text open up.

Recipes are almost entirely imperatives (usually vous form):

Préchauffez le four. Mélangez la farine et le sucre. Ajoutez les œufs. Versez dans un moule et faites cuire trente minutes. (Preheat the oven. Mix the flour and sugar. Add the eggs. Pour into a tin and bake for thirty minutes.)

Directions use the imperative too:

Continuez tout droit, puis tournez à gauche. Prenez la deuxième rue à droite. (Carry straight on, then turn left. Take the second street on the right.)

Signs and public instructions:

French	English
Poussez / Tirez	Push / Pull
Compostéz votre billet	Validate your ticket
Veuillez patienter	Please wait
Ne pas se pencher	Do not lean out
Attachez votre ceinture	Fasten your seatbelt

Friendly advice and encouragement (often tu):

Repose-toi bien, bois beaucoup d'eau et ne travaille pas trop. (Rest well, drink lots of water, and don't work too much.)

Worked mini-example. A Paper 2 Reading text gives instructions for a school trip: Arrivez à huit heures, n'oubliez pas votre passeport et soyez polis. (Arrive at eight o'clock, don't forget your passport, and be polite.) Three imperatives — a regular -er (arrivez), a negative (n'oubliez pas) and an irregular être (soyez) — packed into one realistic sentence. Spotting them tells you exactly what the students are being told to do.