Imperatives in English.

The basics - structure of the imperative:

The infinitive of the verb is used to form the imperative in English. We omit the second person subject pronoun you:

Sit down!

Come here!

Go away!

Tell me what happened.

Mix the ingredients for five minutes.

The form of the imperative never changes when we refer to people in singular or plural:

Help me! (Talking to a friend.)

Help me! (Talking to a group of people.)

Negative form of the imperative.

To make the negative of the imperative, we use do not when using formal English, for example, on a written notice:

Do not walk on the grass. (in a park)

Do not speak to the driver. (on a bus)

These orders can sound friendlier if we put please before at the beginning:

Please do not leave litter. (sign on the beach)

In informal English, do not is contracted to don't:

Don't do that, Johnny! You'll break it!

Don't sit there; the paint is wet!

Please don't talk loudly! I need to study.

Use of the imperative.

We use the imperative to give orders or instructions to explain a process, in a manual, etc:

Open your books and do exercise 1 (order from a teacher).

Get out of the car and show me your driving licence, please (order from a policeman).

First switch on the computer and then open the programme (instructions in a manual about how to use a computer).

Softening the imperative - suggestions.

To soften (make friendlier) the imperative, we can use let's + infinitive. This structure also includes the speaker:

Let's open our books and do exercise 1. (This means: you and the others.)

Let's go to the cinema tonight. (You and the others.)

Let's not watch television this evening. (You and the others.)

A way to make suggestions that do not include the speaker, is the use of why don't you + infinitive:

Why don't you sit down and have a rest?

Why don't you ask the teacher?

Perhaps the best way to soften an imperative is with would you or would you like to + infinitive:

Would you like to sit down?

Would you help me with my homework?

Imperatives with the subject pronoun.

The imperative is also softened by including the second person pronoun you. This is not a real imperative but is common when giving verbal instructions on how to do something:

First, you switch on the computer. Then, you open this programme here. After that, you create a file.

Also see:
The imperative with question tags...

The imperative with reported speech...

Exercises: the imperative...