L'Impératif: Overview of the French Imperative

The impératif is the mood of direct address — telling someone what to do, what not to do, or what we should all do together. In French it has just three forms (tu, nous, vous), no separate first-person singular or third-person forms, and a system that is mostly built from pieces you already know from the present indicative. For the everyday work of giving instructions in a kitchen, calling for help in a crisis, encouraging a friend, or marshalling a group of children, the imperative is the verb form you reach for first.

That said, the imperative carries register weight. A bare imperative — Viens! (Come!) — is direct, and direct can be either friendly or rude depending on who is speaking and to whom. French speakers spend a great deal of conversational effort softening or routing around the imperative, swapping it for a polite question (Tu pourrais venir?), a polite conditional (Je voudrais que tu viennes), or an il faut construction (Il faut que tu viennes). This is not because the imperative is forbidden — it is because the imperative reserves itself for moments when the directness is welcome (warnings, recipes, encouragement) and is generally swapped out in adult-to-adult social interaction.

This overview page introduces the three imperative forms, the functions they serve, the pronoun rules that catch every learner, and the boundary cases. The dedicated subpages cover the formation paradigms (Imperative Formation), the pronoun-position rules in detail, and the softening strategies for adult conversation.

What is the imperative, and what does it do?

The imperative is one of the four moods of French, alongside the indicative (the mood of fact), the subjunctive (the mood of non-asserted reality), and the conditional (the mood of hypothesis and politeness). It marks a sentence as a directive — an utterance whose primary function is to get someone to do (or not do) something.

In practice, French speakers use the imperative for:

1. Direct commands to friends, family, children, or pets — Viens ici!, Mange tes légumes!, Couche-toi!
2. Suggestions to a group including the speaker (the nous form) — Allons au cinéma! (Let's go to the movies!), Partons! (Let's leave!).
3. Polite requests with s'il vous plaît — Aidez-moi, s'il vous plaît. Adding the politeness phrase converts a bare command into a courteous request.
4. Recipe and instructional writing — Mélangez la farine et le sucre (Mix the flour and sugar). Recipes and how-to texts use the vous form by default; product manuals and ingredient labels often use the vous form for the same reason.
5. Warnings and safety alerts — Attention! (Watch out!), Méfie-toi! (Be careful!), Sors! (Get out!).
6. Encouragement and exhortation — Allez! (Come on!), Tiens bon! (Hang in there!), Courage! (Be brave!).
7. Routine ritual phrases — Tiens! (Here, take this!), Regarde! (Look!), Écoute! (Listen!).

The three forms — and only the three

A central thing to internalize: the imperative has only three forms, and they correspond to the three persons you can directly address (or include yourself with). There is no first-person singular imperative (you cannot command yourself), and there are no third-person imperatives in French (commands directed at il / elle / ils / elles are routed through the subjunctive — Qu'il vienne! "Let him come!").

The tu form is what you use with friends, family members, children, pets, intimate partners, and (in many workplaces and social settings) close colleagues. The vous form is the default for strangers, customers, public-facing interactions, formal business contexts, and any situation where you would not be on a first-name basis. The nous form is the proposal — Let's eat, Let's go, Let's not argue — and is the only first-person imperative French has.

How the forms are built

The headline rule, with full paradigms on the formation page:

• Tu form = the tu form of the present indicative, minus the final -s for -er verbs (tu parles → parle; tu manges → mange). For -ir and -re verbs, the -s is kept (finis, vends).
• Nous form = the nous form of the present indicative, unchanged (nous parlons → parlons; nous finissons → finissons).
• Vous form = the vous form of the present indicative, unchanged (vous parlez → parlez; vous finissez → finissez).

So three of the cells of the present indicative paradigm — tu, nous, vous — supply the imperative directly, with the single tweak of dropping the -s on the tu form for -er verbs.

There are exactly four verbs with irregular imperatives that build their forms from the subjunctive stems instead of the indicative: être, avoir, savoir, vouloir. Of these, vouloir is the most distinctive — its vous form veuillez is the high-formal "please" that you will see on signs, in business letters, and in customer-service emails.

The pronoun-position rule — the trap that catches every learner

The single most distinctive feature of the French imperative — and the one that catches every English-speaking learner — is the pronoun-position rule: object pronouns (me, te, le, la, les, lui, leur, y, en, nous, vous) appear after the verb in affirmative imperatives but before the verb in negative imperatives.

Affirmative: pronouns after the verb, joined with hyphens

In an affirmative imperative, the object pronouns follow the verb and are joined to it with a hyphen.

When two pronouns appear together, both are appended with hyphens: Donne-le-moi (Give it to me), Dis-le-lui (Tell him), Va-t'en (Go away — note the apostrophe before en).

Negative: pronouns before the verb, no hyphens

In a negative imperative, the pronouns return to their normal pre-verbal position. The hyphens disappear, and the pronouns me and te return to their clitic forms (instead of the moi / toi used in the affirmative).

The asymmetry — Donne-le-moi! affirmative, Ne me le donne pas! negative — is one of the most reliable tells of a French speaker's fluency. Get it wrong and your French sounds like a textbook English speaker.

The -s drop — and the -s restoration before y / en

The detail that confuses every learner: the tu imperative of -er verbs drops the final -s (tu parles → parle), but if the next word is y or en, the -s is restored for euphony — to avoid the awkward hiatus between two vowels.

The same rule applies to aller (va → vas-y) and to all -er verbs (donne → donnes-en, parle → parles-en, cherche → cherches-en). The restored -s is purely a written and phonetic convention; it does not change the meaning. It is sometimes called the -s euphonique (the "euphonic s").

Functions in detail

Recipes and instructions

French recipes and instructional texts default to the vous form, which functions as a polite, generalized "you." Reading a French recipe is reading the imperative in perhaps its most concentrated form.

The tu form appears in more casual recipe books or in cookbooks aimed at children: Mélange la farine, ajoute le sucre, etc. Tu recipes feel intimate and personal; vous recipes feel professional.

Warnings and signs

Signs and safety warnings often use the imperative, frequently in vous form for public spaces.

Encouragement and exhortation

The most affectionate use of the imperative is encouragement — Allez!, Vas-y!, Tiens bon!, Courage!. These are the words you shout at a sports event, a friend taking a hard exam, or a child trying something new.

Routine speech-act phrases

A few imperatives are so frequent that they function almost as discourse markers: Tiens! (Here / Look!), Regarde! (Look!), Écoute! (Listen!), Attends! (Wait!), Dis! (Hey, say!).

Politeness: when not to use the imperative

In adult-to-adult social interaction, French speakers often avoid the bare imperative because it can sound abrupt. Instead they reach for one of several softening strategies:

• Conditional question: Tu pourrais m'aider ? (Could you help me?), Tu voudrais venir ? (Would you like to come?). See Voudrais and Pourrais Politeness.
• Subjunctive with il faut que: Il faut que tu m'aides (You need to help me).
• Yes/no question: Tu m'aides ? (Will you help me? — direct but framed as a question).
• Adding s'il te plaît / s'il vous plaît: Aide-moi, s'il te plaît. The bare imperative becomes acceptable with the politeness phrase.
• Veuillez
  • infinitive: the high-formal "please" — Veuillez patienter (Please wait).

In casual contexts (between friends, in family settings, with children), the bare imperative is fine and welcomed. In customer-service interactions, asking favors of strangers, or formal correspondence, prefer the softened versions.

The two sentences mean the same thing; the choice depends on who you are speaking to.

What lives on the subpages

The imperative is shallow but wide — there is not a lot of conceptual depth, but there are many small details to internalize. The detailed pages cover:

• Imperative Formation — full paradigms, the four irregular verbs, the -s drop and restoration.
• Pronoun Position: Affirmative — hyphenated post-verbal pronouns, moi / toi shifts.
• Pronoun Position: Negative — back to pre-verbal position, me / te return.
• Recipes and Instructions — register conventions in instructional writing.
• Softening Strategies — when to avoid the bare imperative in adult speech.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Keeping the -s on the tu imperative of -er verbs.

Mistake 2: Forgetting to restore the -s before y / en.

Mistake 3: Using the clitic me / te in an affirmative imperative.

Mistake 4: Putting object pronouns after the verb in a negative imperative.

Mistake 5: Treating the bare imperative as the default for adult-to-adult requests.

Key takeaways

• The imperative has only three forms: tu (familiar singular), nous (let's), and vous (formal singular or plural).
• Forms come from the present indicative, with one tweak: -er verbs drop the -s on the tu form (parle, not parles).
• The -s is restored before y / en for euphony: vas-y, manges-en.
• Four irregular imperatives use subjunctive-style stems: être (sois, soyons, soyez), avoir (aie, ayons, ayez), savoir (sache, sachons, sachez), vouloir (veuille, veuillons, veuillez).
• Pronoun position is the make-or-break rule: pronouns go after the verb (with hyphens) in affirmative imperatives, before the verb (no hyphens) in negative imperatives. Me / te become moi / toi after the verb.
• The bare imperative is fine in casual contexts (with friends, family, children, recipes, warnings, encouragement). In adult-to-adult formal contexts, soften it with a conditional question, s'il vous plaît, or veuillez.