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    L'Impératif: Do Something. "Negative Commands," Which Tell Someone Not To Do Something, Are

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    letty
    The document discusses the French imperative verb mood. It is used to give orders, express desires, make requests, offer advice, and recommend actions. Imperative conjugations are relatively simple, with only three grammatical persons - tu, nous, and vous. Verbs follow standard conjugation patterns except for a few irregular verbs like avoir, être, savoir, and vouloir. Word order differs between affirmative and negative imperatives, with pronouns following the verb in affirmatives and preceding in negatives.

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    L'Impératif: Do Something. "Negative Commands," Which Tell Someone Not To Do Something, Are

    Uploaded by

    letty
    428 views4 pages
    The document discusses the French imperative verb mood. It is used to give orders, express desires, make requests, offer advice, and recommend actions. Imperative conjugations are relatively simple, with only three grammatical persons - tu, nous, and vous. Verbs follow standard conjugation patterns except for a few irregular verbs like avoir, être, savoir, and vouloir. Word order differs between affirmative and negative imperatives, with pronouns following the verb in affirmatives and preceding in negatives.

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    NOTES L'IMPERATIF

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    The document discusses the French imperative verb mood. It is used to give orders, express desires, make requests, offer advice, and recommend actions. Imperative conjugations are relatively simple, with only three grammatical persons - tu, nous, and vous. Verbs follow standard conjugation patterns except for a few irregular verbs like avoir, être, savoir, and vouloir. Word order differs between affirmative and negative imperatives, with pronouns following the verb in affirmatives and preceding in negatives.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    428 views4 pages

    L'Impératif: Do Something. "Negative Commands," Which Tell Someone Not To Do Something, Are

    Uploaded by

    letty
    The document discusses the French imperative verb mood. It is used to give orders, express desires, make requests, offer advice, and recommend actions. Imperative conjugations are relatively simple, with only three grammatical persons - tu, nous, and vous. Verbs follow standard conjugation patterns except for a few irregular verbs like avoir, être, savoir, and vouloir. Word order differs between affirmative and negative imperatives, with pronouns following the verb in affirmatives and preceding in negatives.

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    The passage discusses the imperative verb mood in French and how it is used to give commands, make requests, and offer advice. It covers the conjugations of different verb types in the imperative as well as the word order rules for affirmative and negative commands.

    The passage discusses affirmative commands, which tell someone to do something, and negative commands, which tell someone not to do something. Affirmative commands use the verb conjugation while negative commands use ne and the appropriate negative adverb.

    For negative commands, the word order is the same as other verb conjugations, with any object pronouns preceding the verb. For affirmative commands, any pronouns follow the verb and are connected with hyphens.

    L'IMPÉRATIF

    The imperative, called l'impératif in French, is a verb mood which is used to:

    ● give an order
    ● express a desire
    ● make a request
    ● offer advice
    ● recommend something

    Unlike all other French verb tenses and personal moods, the subject pronoun is not
    used with the imperative:

       Fermez la porte. Close the door.

       Mangeons maintenant. Let's eat now.

       Ayez la bonté de m'attendre. Please wait for me.

       Veuillez m'excuser.   Please excuse me.

    The above are called "affirmative commands," because they are telling someone to
    do something. "Negative commands," which tell someone not to do something, are
    made by placing ne in front of the verb and the appropriate negative adverb after
    the verb:

       Ne parle pas ! Don't speak!

       N'oublions pas les livres. Let's not forget the books.

       N'ayez jamais peur. Never be afraid.

    French imperative conjugations are relatively simple. There are only three
    grammatical persons that can be used in the imperative: tu, nous, and vous, and
    most of the conjugations are the same as the present tense - the only difference is
    that the subject pronoun is not used in the imperative.

    -ER verbs (regular, stem-changing, spelling change, and irregular)


    The imperative conjugations for nous and vous are the same as the present
    indicative, and the tu form of the imperative is the indicative minus the final s
    parler
       (tu) parle
       (nous) parlons
       (vous) parlez

    lever
       (tu) lève
       (nous) levons
       (vous) levez

    aller
       (tu) va
       (nous) allons
       (vous) allez

    Verbs which are conjugated like -ER verbs (meaning that in the indicative
    the tu form ends in -es), such as ouvrir and souffrir, follow the same rules as -ER
    verbs.

    ouvrir
       (tu) ouvre
       (nous) ouvrons
       (vous) ouvrez

    -IR verbs and -RE verbs


    The imperative conjugations for all regular and most irregular -IR and -RE verbs
    are the same as the present indicative conjugations.

    finir
       (tu) finis
       (nous) finissons
       (vous) finissez

    attendre
       (tu) attends
       (nous) attendons
       (vous) attendez

    faire
       (tu) fais
       (nous) faisons
       (vous) faites
    Except for verbs conjugated like -ER verbs and the following four irregular
    imperative verbs:

    avoir
       (tu) aie
       (nous) ayons
       (vous) ayez

    être
       (tu) sois
       (nous) soyons
       (vous) soyez

    savoir
       (tu) sache
       (nous) sachons
       (vous) sachez

    vouloir
       (tu) veuille
       (nous) n/a
       (vous) veuillez

    The order of words in a French sentence can be very confusing due to affirmative
    and negative imperative constructions and object and adverbial pronouns. This
    lesson will teach you exactly how to order your sentences when using the
    imperative. Remember that there are two kinds of imperatives, affirmative and
    negative, and the word order is different for each of them.

    Negative imperatives are easier, because their word order is the same as that of all
    other simple verb conjugations: any object, reflexive, and/or adverbial pronouns
    precede the verb and the negative structure surrounds the pronoun(s) + verb:

    Finis ! Finish!
       Ne finis pas !  Don't finish!
       Ne le finis pas !  Don't finish it!

       Lisez !  Read!
       Ne lisez pas !  Don't read!
       Ne le lisez pas !  Don't read it!
       Ne me le lisez pas !  Don't read it to me!
    Affirmative commands are more complicated, for several reasons.

    1. The word order is for affirmative commands is different from that of all other
    verb tenses/moods: any pronouns follow the verb and are connected to it and to
    each other with hyphens.

       Finis-le !  Finish it!


       Allons-y !  Let's go!
       Mangez-les !  Eat them!
       Donne-lui-en !  Give him some!

    2. The order of the pronouns in affirmative commands is slightly different from all
    other verb tenses/moods (see table at the bottom of the page):

       Envoie-le-nous !  Send it to us!


       Expliquons-la-leur !  Let's explain it to them!
       Donnez-nous-en !  Give us some!
       Donne-le-moi !  Give it to me!

    3. The pronouns me and te change to the stressed pronouns moi and toi...

       Lève-toi !  Get up!


       Parlez-moi !  Talk to me!
       Dis-moi !  Tell me!

       ...unless they are followed by y or en, in which case they contract to m' and t'

       Va-t'en !  Go away!
       Faites-m'y penser.  Remind me about it.

    4. When a tu command is followed by the pronouns y or en, the final s is not


    dropped from the verb conjugation:

       Vas-y ! Go away!
       Parles-en.  Talk about it.

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