The Imperative

The imperative is the form you reach for when you want someone to do something — Kom! (Come!), Sit! (Sit down!), Luister! (Listen!). In Afrikaans this is the simplest verb form in the whole language: you take the dictionary verb, strip away any subject, and that is the command. There is nothing to conjugate. This page covers the everyday command — the bare stem and how to soften it — plus the friendly kom ons / laat ons ("let's") that pulls you into the action too. For telling someone not to do something, you need a special negative word, moenie, which has its own page: negative commands with moenie.

The bare stem is the command

Here is the entire rule for a basic command: drop the subject pronoun and use the verb on its own. Afrikaans does not add an ending the way some languages do, and it does not keep the jy (you) in front. The naked verb is the imperative.

This feels almost identical to English — Come here! Sit! Listen! — and that is good news for English speakers. The one habit you have to break is the temptation to keep saying you. English drops the subject in commands too (you is understood, not spoken), and Afrikaans does exactly the same. Saying jy kom turns it back into a plain statement, "you come / you're coming," not a command.

The same form for one person or many

English speakers sometimes wonder whether commanding a crowd needs a different verb. It does not. The Afrikaans imperative does not change for number: you use the very same bare stem whether you are talking to one child or a roomful of guests.

So Kom in! works for a single visitor at your door and for a tour group waiting on the step — the form is identical. There is no separate plural command in everyday Afrikaans. (At a more advanced level there are register variants — a politer command, an inclusive "let's" — and those are gathered on plural, polite and inclusive imperatives. For now, the takeaway is simply: one bare form covers every addressee.)

Separable verbs split in the imperative too

This is the detail that rewards you for understanding Afrikaans word order. A separable verb such as toemaak (to close), oopmaak (to open) or aansit (to switch on) is written as one word in the dictionary, but its stressed particle breaks off and travels to the end of the clause in a main clause. A command is a main clause — so the particle splits in the imperative exactly as it would in a statement.

Look at what happens: the stem (maak, sit, trek) comes first because there is no subject pushing it to second position, then the object slots in, and the particle (oop, aan, uit) closes the command at the very end. So a command built on a separable verb is a little bracket — verb at the front, particle at the back, object snug in the middle. This is the same end-position rule you meet everywhere in Afrikaans, and seeing it operate in a one-breath command is the clearest possible demonstration of it.

Softening with asseblief

A bare command can sound brusque — the same way "Give me the salt" sounds in English. The standard softener is asseblief (please). It can sit at the end (most common and most natural), or at the very front for a little extra weight.

Asseblief is genuinely versatile: drop it into almost any command and you have turned an order into a polite request. (For a fuller toolkit of polite requests — kan jy, sal jy, sou jy omgee om — see making requests.)

"Let's" — pulling yourself into the command

When you want to suggest doing something together, you do not use a bare command (which points at the other person) — you use an inclusive form built with kom ons or laat ons plus the verb. Literally these are "come we …" and "let us …", and they correspond exactly to English let's.

Two things to notice. First, this is two or three words, never one: there is no single-word "let's" in Afrikaans the way English contracts let us into let's. You always say the full kom ons or laat ons and follow it with the plain verb. Second, kom ons is the warm, everyday choice you will hear in any kitchen or office, while laat ons is a touch more formal and frequent in writing, sermons, and speeches. They are interchangeable in meaning. The fuller story of when to pick which — and the polite u-command — lives on plural, polite and inclusive imperatives.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• A command is the bare verb stem with no subject — Sit. Kom hier. Luister. Keeping jy makes it a statement.
• The same bare form addresses one person or many; Afrikaans has no separate everyday plural command.
• A separable verb splits in a command just as in any main clause: Maak die deur *oop, Sit die lig aan*.
• Add asseblief (usually at the end) to turn a command into a polite request — see making requests.
• "Let's" is the inclusive kom ons / laat ons
  • verb — always two or three words, never one: Kom ons gaan.
• For not doing something, you need moenie, covered on negative commands.