Imperative Mood Explanation and Examples
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Imperative Mood Explanation and Examples
Mood in English grammar is the verb form that tells us the way we should regard or understand the context of an action. For example, is the action part of a statement or question, or does it involve a command or a preference?
English uses the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods to establish these contexts. This review will focus on the imperative mood.
What Is the Imperative Mood?
We use the imperative mood to issue a command, such as requests, orders, warnings, advice, or instructions.
Examples
Stay there.
Wait before you call her back.
Turn right at the corner.
Imperative Mood: Person
With the imperative mood, the omitted but understood sentence subject is almost always the singular or plural second person (you).
Examples
(You) stay there.
(You) wait before you call her back.
(You) turn right at the corner.
The exception is when we include ourselves in the imperative mood to express a suggestion in the form of the first-person plural let’s (let us).
Examples
Let’s (Let us) meet at the restaurant at seven p.m.
Let’s (Let us) see the movie this weekend.
Let’s (Let us) paint the fence red.
Imperative Mood: Verb Form
The imperative mood is typically formed with the verb’s infinitive without the inclusion of to: to stay > to stay > stay there. This is also the verb form that accompanies the second-person you in the present tense: you stay.
The exception to this is the verb to be, which maintains its infinitive form: to be > to be > be kind to all. Compare this form with the verb in the second person: to be > to are > are kind to all. You can see how this would no longer be a command, but rather the predicate of a statement in the indicative mood (they are kind to all).
English grammar further offers us ways to express different tones of the imperative mood in writing. Consider the effect of each statement:
Be kind to all.
Be kind to all!
Please be kind to all.
The first treatment speaks as a general directive or a mild command. Including an exclamation point gives the second approach more force. The third version comes across as a softer command by using the politeness marker please.
Imperative Mood: Negation
So far we’ve discussed the positive form of the imperative mood (e.g., stay, turn, be). To form a negative command in the imperative mood, we add do not or its contraction, don’t.
Positive imperative mood: Stay there.
Negative: Do not stay there. Don’t stay there.Positive imperative mood: Turn right at the corner.
Negative: Do not turn right at the corner. Don’t turn right at the corner.
For let’s (let us), we include only not after the verb.
Positive imperative mood: Let’s (Let us) paint the fence red.
Negative: Let’s (Let us) not paint the fence red.
Imperative Mood: Objects
Because the imperative mood functions almost exclusively in the second-person you, the only reflexive object pronouns we would use would be yourself or yourselves. We would use regular object pronouns for the singular and plural first and third persons.
Correct: Give yourself extra time to finish the work.
Correct: Give yourselves extra time to finish the work.Incorrect: Give myself extra time to finish the work.
Incorrect: Give themselves extra time to finish the work.Correct: Give me extra time to finish the work.
Correct: Give them extra time to finish the work.
Related Topic
What Is an Imperative Sentence?
Pop Quiz
Identify any instances of the use of the imperative mood in the following sentences.
1. Slow down! If you were a cartoon character, you’d be Speedy Gonzales.
2. That team always wins because management drafts and develops players well.
3. Let’s visit the museum later. I want to go to the aquarium first.
4. Talk yourself out of buying that, or you’ll spend what’s left of your inheritance.
5. I couldn’t hear what you said. Please repeat yourself.
Pop Quiz Answers
1. Slow down! If you were a cartoon character, you’d be Speedy Gonzales.
2. That team always wins because management drafts and develops players well.
3. Let’s visit the museum later. I want to go to the aquarium first.
4. Talk yourself out of buying that, or you’ll spend what’s left of your inheritance.
5. I couldn’t hear what you said. Please repeat yourself.
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
I assume that sentences such as “Go wash your hands,” “Go jump in the lake,” and “Let’s go to the fair” are also in the imperative mood—but if so, what role does “go” play? Is it acting as a kind of auxiliary verb? I’m curious about this construction and whether it has a (grammatical) name. Thank you.
Constructions such as “go wash your hands” and “go jump in the lake” contain two imperative statements with an omitted but understood “and”:
Go (and) wash your hands.
Go (and) jump in the lake.
In a construction such as “let’s go to the fair,” the primary verb is the first-person plural “let us” and the infinitive phrase “go to the fair” is the direct object of the verb:
Let’s (Let us) [imperative statement] go to the fair [infinitive phrase as object of the action].
Very helpful! Those darn “omitted but understood” elements always seem to trip me up. Thank you for your explanation.