The Imperative in German- On How To Boss Someone Around Auf Deutsch
- Jens Olesen
- Apr 28, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 27, 2023
The imperative in German is used when giving instructions or orders. There are three forms, each of which is used in different situations corresponding to how we use the personal pronouns. In this post, I explain this grammar topic and give examples.
As I explained elsewhere, we use âduâ for people we know well (family, friends, and increasingly, in very informal professions like the music business), âihrâ for a group of people we know well since itâs just the plural of âduâ, and âSieâ when we are addressing one or more people we donât know very well or in formal situations like the office.
Accordingly, there are three imperative forms- one for each of the pronouns. Letâs start with the easiest- the imperative of âSieâ. You simply start with your sentence with the conjugation of âSieâ, followed by the pronoun âSieâ and bitte, to sound less bossy.
SchlieĂen Sie bitte die TĂŒr.
(Please close the door)
Setzen Sie sich bitte.
(Please sit down)
Another easy form is the imperative âihrâ because you simply start your sentence with the conjugation of the pronoun.
Nehmt euch einen Stuhl.
(Grab a chair)
Wenn ihr Durst habt, nehmt euch bitte soviel Wasser wie ihr wollt.
(If youâre thirsty, take as much water as you want)
More complicated is the last imperative- the one for âduâ. Here, we need to distinguish between regular and irregular verbs. Generally, use the second or third person singular conjugation of your verb of choice and remove the ending. So for regular verbs, you would have
Du kaufst- Kauf!
Du machst- Mach!
Du arbeitest- Arbeite!
As the imperative of âarbeitenâ shows, there are some verbs that end on an -e. These are verbs with the stem ending on -d, -t, -ig. Other exceptions are the verbs ârechnenâ und âöffnenâ as their imperative would otherwise be difficult to pronounce.
Ăffne bitte die TĂŒr
(Please open the door)
Rechne bitte nach, wie viel Geld ich dir schulde.
(Please calculate how much I owe you)
Rede bitte mit deiner Schwester.
(Please talk to your sister)
With regard to irregular verbs, we follow the same logic as above, except when the second person singular stem has an umlaut, then we drop it.
Fahr bitte nicht so schnell.
(Please donât drive so fast)
Nimm bitte deinen Laptop mit.
(Please take your laptop with you)
Lies bitte den Artikel.
(Please read the article)
So the most important decision regarding the imperative is whom you are addressing.
On our German Language Blog "Auf Deutsch, bitte!", you will find posts on how modal verbs can help you speak German, as well as besuchen vs. besichtigen. We also cure your German grammar phobia with our posts explaining adjective ending rules in German, the difference between viel and viele, the German cases, rules on German genders, weak nouns in German, when to use Ă in German, the Konjunktiv 2 in German, German word order, and many other topics. Just scroll through our blog and learn more about the language.
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