Der Imperativ

The Imperativ is the mood of direct commands, requests, instructions, and warnings. Komm her. (Come here.) Mach das Fenster zu. (Close the window.) Seien Sie bitte ruhig. (Please be quiet.) German has three address forms (du, ihr, Sie) and a fourth wir-construction for “let’s” suggestions, and the conjugation is almost identical to the present tense. The harder part is the tone. A bare German imperative lands more abruptly on an English ear than the same words would in English, and learners who translate give me the salt word for word as Gib mir das Salz are often surprised by the response. The politeness lives in small particles (bitte, doch, mal) and in the choice between du and Sie.

The four forms

Three of these correspond directly to the way a speaker would address the listener in normal conversation: du with one friend or child, ihr with several friends or children, Sie with a stranger or a superior. The wir-form is grammatically a question word order (verb + wir) and translates as let’s go, let’s eat. It belongs in writing and speeches more than in everyday talk; in casual German you’ll hear Wollen wir gehen? (shall we go?) or Lass uns gehen (let us go) instead.

How to form the du-imperative

Take the present-tense du-form of the verb and remove the -st ending. What’s left is the imperative.

The bare stem is the default. Older grammar books prescribe an extra -e at the end (komme, schreibe, mache), but in modern spoken German the -e is dropped on almost every verb. You will see it in nineteenth-century literature and in deliberately formal writing.

E-insertion for stems ending in -t, -d, -m, -n

A handful of verbs do still take the -e, because the bare stem would be unpronounceable. If the stem ends in a consonant cluster that needs a vowel for clarity (-t, -d, or -m/-n after another consonant), keep the -e.

You’d never say arbeit! or öffn!. The vowel is functional, not stylistic.

Strong verbs with e → i / ie

If the verb changes its stem vowel from e to i or ie in the present du-form, the imperative keeps that change.

These are the imperatives you hear most often in dialogue (gib mir das, nimm das, iss dein Brot) and they are also the ones learners most often get wrong by reverting to the infinitive stem. The rule: if the du-form changes the vowel, the imperative changes it too.

Strong verbs with a → ä DROP the umlaut

This is the counter-intuitive case. Some strong verbs add an umlaut in the present-tense du-form (du fährst, du läufst, du trägst). The imperative does not keep the umlaut. It reverts to the infinitive vowel.

So fahr schneller (drive faster), not fähr schneller. Schlaf gut (sleep well), not schläf gut. The reason is historical: the umlaut in the present tense is a vowel-fronting that only happens when an -st or -t ending follows. With the imperative ending stripped, there is nothing to trigger the umlaut, so the original vowel returns.

How to form the ihr-imperative

This one is the easiest. The ihr-imperative is identical to the present-tense ihr-form. You drop the pronoun and keep the verb.

No vowel changes, no umlaut tricks. Whatever the present tense does, the imperative does too.

How to form the Sie-imperative

The Sie-imperative is built like a question with the pronoun retained. Verb first, Sie second.

No stem changes, no umlauts dropped. Sie always uses the infinitive form. The pronoun is mandatory; without it the sentence would be a plain statement.

Sein, haben, werden

The verb sein (to be) is the only meaningfully irregular imperative.

So: Sei still! (Be quiet!) Seid vorsichtig! (Be careful!) Seien Sie so freundlich. (Be so kind.)

Haben is regular: hab, habt, haben Sie. Werden is regular: werde, werdet, werden Sie. Only sein requires memorisation.

Separable-prefix verbs

When a separable verb appears in the imperative, the prefix detaches and goes to the end of the clause, exactly as it does in the present tense.

Mach die Tür auf. Open the door.

Hör mir zu. Listen to me.

Steh auf. Get up.

Komm rein. Come in.

The verb stem is at position one, the prefix at the end, and any objects sit between them. This is the same word-order behaviour as in the indicative: Ich mache die Tür auf. See wortstellung for the broader pattern.

Word order and softening particles

The imperative verb sits in first position. Anything else (objects, time expressions, modal particles) follows.

Komm bitte morgen früh. Please come early tomorrow morning.

The four softeners that do most of the work in spoken German:

• bitte (please). The most direct softener. Can sit in first, middle, or end position. Bitte komm. / Komm bitte. / Komm bitte mit mir.
• doch (untranslatable particle, roughly do, go on). Adds gentle encouragement. Komm doch! (Come on, just come!) Setz dich doch. (Do sit down.)
• mal (untranslatable, roughly once, for a moment). Reduces the weight of the request. Hör mal. (Listen a sec.) Schau mal. (Take a look.)
• doch mal. The combined particle is the workhorse of casual polite German. Komm doch mal vorbei. (Come on by sometime.) Probier doch mal. (Just try it.)

A bare Komm her is direct, almost terse. Komm doch mal her is friendly and casual. The grammar is identical; the temperature changes completely.

Negation

Negate by adding nicht. It sits where it would in any other clause: usually after the verb and any direct object.

Komm nicht zu spät. Don’t come too late.

Mach das nicht. Don’t do that.

Sei nicht traurig. Don’t be sad.

For nouns with kein (no, none), use kein: Mach keine Witze (Don’t make jokes).

Substitutes for the imperative

Native speakers regularly avoid the bare imperative when the situation calls for politeness. Three common workarounds.

1. Present tense as a command

Used by parents, teachers, and bosses. The indicative present plus the right tone of voice does imperative work, often more menacingly than the imperative would.

Du kommst jetzt mit. You’re coming with me now.

Ihr macht das sofort. You’re doing this immediately.

This is the German equivalent of an English parent’s you are going to bed right now.

2. Modal verbs

Müssen (must) and sollen (should) carry the obligation while the main verb stays in the infinitive. This is the standard polite alternative in formal contexts.

Sie müssen hier warten. You have to wait here.

Du sollst nicht so schnell sprechen. You shouldn’t speak so quickly.

See modalverben for the full system.

3. Conditional politeness with Konjunktiv II

The polite tool of choice for asking a stranger or a superior. Könnten Sie (could you) plus an infinitive at the end of the clause is the German equivalent of English would you mind.

Könnten Sie bitte das Fenster schließen? Could you please close the window?

Würden Sie mir bitte helfen? Would you please help me?

For the formation of these forms, see konjunktiv-ii. The point here: a German speaker who wants to be polite reaches for könnten Sie far more often than for bitte attached to an imperative.

How writers use it

Imperatives cluster in dialogue, and the German books in the Storica catalog vary widely in how often they reach for the form.

Spyri’s Heidi is the densest source for the du-imperative at A1. Heidi and her grandfather speak almost entirely in short commands and observations: komm, schau, bleib, geh. Spyri uses no softeners; the bare form is enough because the relationship is warm and the sentences are short. Twenty pages of Heidi will teach the du-imperative without any conscious effort.

The Brothers Grimm are the textbook source for the imperative as plot engine. Their tales are built on commands: a king tells his sons to seek a treasure, a witch tells a child to enter the oven, a stepmother tells her daughter to fetch water from a well. Every story contains a stack of bare imperatives. Geh, bring, hol, lauf, sag. The phrase Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand is a vocative rather than an imperative, but the queen’s actual instruction to the huntsman in Schneewittchen is the canonical pattern: prefix-stripped du-form, accusative object, no politeness.

Goethe’s Faust uses the imperative at a higher register, often without the modern softeners. Faust’s wager hinges on a single du-form: Verweile doch! The line addresses not a person but a moment in time, and the doch is the only softener Goethe allows. The same elevated tone runs through Faust’s monologues, where the imperative is used as invocation rather than request. A learner who can recognise verweile as the imperative of verweilen (to linger) has read the most quoted imperative in German literature.

Kafka uses the imperative sparingly and almost exclusively in dialogue inside Der Process and Das Schloss. The interrogation scenes contain the brusque administrative imperatives of officials: Setzen Sie sich. Antworten Sie. Folgen Sie mir. The Sie-form turns up far more than du, because Kafka’s bureaucracy never gets familiar with anyone. Reading Kafka is one way to drill the Sie-imperative in its natural register.

What you don’t need to do

You don’t need the old written -e ending on the du-imperative. Komm and schreib are correct in modern German. Komme and schreibe will read as nineteenth-century. Save yourself the effort.

You don’t need to memorise the irregular vowel changes from a list. The e → i / ie and a → ä patterns come from the present-tense conjugation, which you have to learn anyway. Once you know that du gibst takes gibst, the imperative gib falls out automatically. Once you know the imperative drops the umlaut on fahren, you have the rule for the whole a → ä group.

You don’t need to use the bare du-imperative on strangers. Default to könnten Sie + infinitive when asking anyone you don’t know. Reach for the imperative only with friends, family, children, animals, and people in a service role you’ve been on first-name terms with for years.

You don’t need the wir-imperative in conversation. Gehen wir and Essen wir sound stilted in casual speech. Use Wollen wir gehen? or Lass uns gehen instead. The wir-form belongs in slogans (Bleiben wir ruhig, Let’s stay calm) and in writing.

You don’t need to translate English please with German bitte every time. Bitte is correct, but a softer doublet like könnten Sie bitte or würden Sie bitte is what a native speaker would use in most polite contexts.

Common confusions

• The umlaut drops in the imperative for a → ä verbs. Fahr not fähr. Lauf not läuf. Schlaf not schläf. This is the most common mistake among learners who have just memorised the present tense.
• The vowel change stays for e → i / ie verbs. Gib not geb. Nimm not nehm. Iss not ess. The opposite rule from the a → ä case, and worth practising side by side.
• The Sie-imperative keeps its pronoun. Kommen Sie needs the Sie. Drop it and you have a question (kommen Sie?) or an indicative statement, not a command.
• The ihr-imperative drops its pronoun. Kommt! not Kommt ihr! The pronoun returns the moment the sentence becomes a question.
• Sein has its own imperative paradigm. Sei, seid, seien Sie. Not bist, not seist. This is the only verb that requires actual memorisation.
• Separable prefixes go to the end. Mach das Fenster zu. not Zumach das Fenster. The prefix behaves exactly as in any other main clause.
• A bare imperative is brusque. Gib mir das Salz sounds harsh in a restaurant. Könnten Sie mir bitte das Salz geben is the polite equivalent. Beginners under-use the softeners and over-use the bare form.

Where you’ll meet it in the library

The imperative is the dialogue verb. For first encounters in increasing difficulty:

• Heidi (A1). Bare du-imperatives on every page of dialogue. The cleanest possible exposure to the form in its informal register.
• Grimms Märchen (A1). Imperatives as plot engine. Geh, bring, hol, sag, lauf. Witches, kings, and stepmothers issue commands across two hundred pages.
• Die Verwandlung (A2+). Kafka’s family dialogue contains the everyday du-imperatives between Gregor’s parents and sister. Short, repetitive, drawn from the same domestic vocabulary.
• Der Process (B1). The interrogation scenes are a sustained drill in the Sie-imperative. Setzen Sie sich. Antworten Sie. Folgen Sie mir. The form learners need most for formal contexts, used in its natural setting.
• Faust (B2). Imperative as invocation, often without modern softeners. Verweile doch! is the single most quoted line in the German literary canon.