The French Imperative

This week we’re going to show how to conjugate the French imperative. This mood is used to give orders, make requests and recommendations, express desires, and offer advice.

Conjugating the Imperative

The imperative only exists in tu, nous, and vous forms. The conjugations are mostly identical to their simple present tense counterparts, with some exceptions that we’ll note below. Unlike other tenses and moods, subject pronouns are not used in conjunction with the imperative.

–ER Verbs and –IR Verbs Conjugated like –ER Verbs

The nous and vous imperatives of regular, stem-changing, and spelling change –ER verbs are the same as the simple present forms. The tu form is based on the simple present but loses the final –s in the imperative. Irregular –IR verbs that follow regular –ER conjugation rules in the simple present also follow –ER rules in the imperative.

–IR Verbs and –RE Verbs

Except for a handful of irregular verbs (see below) and those irregular –IR verbs that are conjugated like regular –ER verbs (see above), most regular and irregular –IR and –ER verbs follow regular present tense conjugation rules in the imperative.

Irregular –IR and –RE Imperatives

The following verbs are irregular in the imperative: