Of course, you do this unconsciously in your native language. Unfortunately, there are some exceptions. Take this one for instance. Imperative of the verb gehen. (fragen/deine Lehrerin) [Ask your teacher.] (A relatively polite form. Learning German becomes fun and easy when you learn with movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talks. It may not come naturally to use the imperative regularly at first. The imperative form is very common in German language. Once you’re warmed up with the imperative, keep building on your conversational skills with a few casual slang words. Usually formed by taking the stem of the verb in present tense and dropping the “st.”, Du gibst mir das Buch. When the stem of the present form ends with a consonant + “m”/”n”, you always add an “e”. Okay, so German may not be the classic language of love. But how much easier (and more natural) to simply say: For longer explanations or lists, the imperative form really comes into its own. Not so much an exception as a variation, you might see an extra -e added to the end of the imperative form for du at times. German also expresses commands or requests in ways intended to sound less imperious. Examples: Call me tomorrow! The imperative for the second person plural (“ihr”) is its finite form of the verb, just without a pronoun. So, let’s just start right ahead with the basics of the German imperative. In the same way, when addressing an individual or group formally, once again you use the present tense form. Okay, so German may not be the classic language of love. (Give me the book!). Good luck and… auf Wiedersehen! Formation of the German imperative sentence. is the imperative form of kommen meaning Come! (sich wegdrehen/nicht) [Don’t turn away!] Even if you don’t have a German Fido around, getting the hang of the imperative verb form is an essential step on your path to German fluency. But in every-day language you often leave that “e” out. First, there is no vowel change from ‘a’ to ‘ä’ in the German imperative. Dog trainers figured this out long ago! Komm! These are probably the most satisfying opportunities you’ll have to apply the imperative—or conversely the most frustrating if you don’t know how to use it! So, let’s come to the central aspect of this article about German imperative. Don’t despair, it gets easier! The conjugation of gehen in the imperative is: gehe (du), gehen wir, geht ihr, gehen Sie. Well, an example would be: “, Third, if the verbs end in ‘ein’ or ‘ern’, we should always add an ‘e’. Note: You can also use the verb lassen (to let, or to leave) to give an imperative direction to a collective “we.” In this case, it works just like the du form that we looked at already, coupled with the infinitive version of the particular action verb. (And, more importantly, the imperative verb!?). retten conjugation Now, as we have talked about the context is which you can use the German imperative, let’s go the most important parts of this article and look at its definition and usage. Also, the plural form works the same. In the following, we will try to clear up in which contexts you can use the German imperative. When to Use the German Imperative. But did you know a number of the classics in English have German counterparts? Well – *cough* – I know that German might not be the language of love. Obviously, it depends on the context. Well, we just use the infinitive form + “Sie”. FluentU is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Depending on the circumstances, you can also say halt’s Maul, meaning “shut your mouth” for a little more emphasis!). (Water the plants every two days. However, the personal pronoun Sie (you) now comes after the verb. You could say: Du solltest das machen. You can also tell someone to sit by simply stating Sitz!. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe, Get regular language learning tips, resources and updates, starting with the "Complete Guide to Foreign Language Immersion" e-book, Sign up for our weekly blog newsletter for a chance to win a free FluentU Plus subscription (value $240). If you happen to be in a German-speaking country, chances are there’ll be some German-speaking dogs in your neighborhood. The imperative form of the second-person singular. So, this first form of the German imperative is quite easy to form. The endings -e, -en, -t, -en are appended to the stem. “, Second, in case the stem of the present tense form ends in ‘d’ or ‘t’, just add ‘e’. (Collect the mail daily. Need some life guidance? In that simple sentence, you’ve already used four imperative verb constructions. (Download). “. Or, you can also express an order including yourself. (You (all) give me the book.). The imperative is formed with the stem of present tense geh. and Spiel! By the way, in case you want to go deeper into future tenses, have a look at this excellent article on Wikipedia. So far we’ve looked at examples of forming the imperative for du, i.e. - Gib (formal: geben Sie) mir das Buch! 2. You might be surprised at the number of situations you’re likely to encounter where you want to react spontaneously and quickly with an imperative expression. This used to be the way the form was written, and is still valid in written German, though these days no longer spoken. (lesen/langsamer) [Read slower!] Even if you don’t have a German Fido around, getting the hang of the imperative verb form is an essential step on your path to German fluency.. Just like three forms of address, there are 3 forms of imperative for “you” in German. Please, keep in mind that the German imperative mood is quite common in the German language. Well, on the other hand, you have to consider that German is simply a rather direct language. In the following, we will list some situations where the usage of German imperative is absolutely right. Examples:Call me tomorrow! Die Konjugation des Imperativs im Deutschen. And here’s a few basic commands to get you and your Hund started! In the following you will see some phrases that you should complete with the correct terms. So: These three commonly used verbs behave irregularly and deserve a closer look here, as follows: These tend to be given in the infinitive form instead of the imperative, for example: Bitte nicht rauchen. This "-e" ending is usually dropped in spoken German and quite often in written German as well. ), Geben Sie mir das Buch! Definition und Anwendung des Imperativs im Deutschen. Give them the money! The imperative is formed in different ways depending on the subject and the type of verb. When addressing a group of people informally, the imperative form stays the same as the present tense. Fortunately, they all tend to follow relatively simple rules. A faster and more convenient way: We associated each character with a number from 1 to 4, whereas. (You give me the book. Actually, we form the imperative of “du” by removing the ending ‘-en’ from the infinitive. Use numbers 1 to 4 to add vowels and special characters. Well, that’s because of its ‘attributes’ – it’s simply the most efficient way to express something. - Gib (formal: geben Sie) ihnen das Geld! So, German imperative mood is not really difficult, as long as you keep on practicing! Other Forms of the Imperative. So, let’s just start right ahead with the basics of the German imperative. But this is not the case when this consonant is an “m, n, l, r” or “h” (but not “ch”). In case the stem of the present form ends in “d”/”t”, you always add an “e”.