Clitics With the Imperative

Greek weak pronouns — μου, σου, το, τα, μας and the rest — almost always sit in front of the verb: μου το δίνει (he gives it to me), σε βλέπω (I see you). The positive imperative is the one corner of the language where they do the opposite: they hop behind the verb and glue on to it. Command a Greek speaker to do something and the pronoun follows: Πες μου (tell me), Δώσε το (give it), Άκουσέ με (listen to me). This page is about that flip — the order the pronouns come in, the extra accent it can force, the fast contracted forms, and the crucial fact that a negative command flips them right back to the front.

The positive imperative sends the pronoun to the back

Linguists call the front position proclisis (pronoun leans on what follows) and the back position enclisis (pronoun leans on what precedes). Modern Greek uses proclisis everywhere — indicative, subjunctive, negative commands — except after a bare positive imperative, where it switches to enclisis. See proclisis vs enclisis for the full picture; here we just apply it to commands.

Notice Άκουσέ με already carries a second accent — more on that in a moment.

Two pronouns: indirect first, then direct

When both an indirect object (the person) and a direct object (the thing) are pronouns, they cluster together after the verb, in a fixed order: indirect (genitive) before direct (accusative) — the reverse of English "give it to me."

The choice between accusative and genitive for the person, and the full logic of why the indirect pronoun is genitive, belong to the pronoun pages — this cluster order is spelled out in pronoun clusters.

The second accent, explained

You have seen it twice now: Άκουσέ με, Δώσε μού το. Greek allows a word to be stressed only on one of its last three syllables. When the pronouns attach, they become part of the same phonological word — and if the original stress ends up more than three syllables from the end, a second accent is added to pull a stress back inside the window. Two situations trigger it:

• A penult-stressed imperative + two pronouns. Δώσε (stress on δώ) plus μου plus το would be δώ‑σε‑μου‑το, four syllables with the stress on the fourth from the end — illegal. The first pronoun takes the extra accent: Δώσε μού το. Likewise Φέρε μάς το, Στείλε μού το.
• An antepenult-stressed imperative + one pronoun. Άκουσε (stress on ά) plus με is ά‑κου‑σε‑με, again four syllables. Here the imperative's own last syllable takes it: Άκουσέ με. Likewise Διάβασέ το (read it), Σήκωσέ τα (pick them up).

Fast speech: the apostrophe contraction

In relaxed, everyday speech the final -ε of a two-syllable imperative is often dropped before a pronoun, marked in writing with an apostrophe: Δώσε → Δώσ', Πάρε → Πάρ', Φέρε → Φέρ'. This is squarely (informal) — you would not write it in a formal notice, but you will hear it constantly.

Because the contracted imperative is now a single syllable, the phonological word shrinks and often needs no second accent: Δώσ' μου το is only three syllables (δώσ‑μου‑το), stressed on the first — perfectly legal as written, with a plain μου.

The negative command flips the pronoun back to the front

Here is the payoff, and the single most common error zone. A Greek negative "command" is not a real imperative at all — it is μη(ν) + subjunctive (see negative commands). And since the subjunctive behaves like every other non-imperative clause, the pronoun goes back in front of the verb, exactly where it started.

So the same idea splits cleanly in two: Πες μου (positive, pronoun behind) but Μην μου πεις (negative, pronoun in front). The positive/negative flip is the fingerprint of this construction — drill both halves together.

English speakers, take note

English has nothing like this alternation. In English the pronoun sits after the verb in both a positive and a negative command — "tell me" / "don't tell me" — and never changes place. Greek moves it, and moves it only for the positive command. The instinct to say ×Μου πες (mirroring the English word order of the negative, where the pronoun does come first) is a direct transfer error, and it is wrong exactly where a Greek ear expects enclisis.

Common Mistakes

1. Putting the pronoun in front of a positive command. After a bare positive imperative the pronoun must follow.

2. Getting the cluster order wrong. The person (genitive) comes before the thing (accusative), never the reverse.

3. Leaving the pronoun stuck behind a negative command. With μη(ν) the pronoun must move back to the front.

4. Dropping the obligatory second accent. When two pronouns follow a penult-stressed imperative, the first one must carry an accent.

Key Takeaways

• After a positive imperative the weak pronoun goes behind the verb and attaches: Πες μου, Δώσε το, Άκουσέ με.
• With two pronouns the order is indirect (genitive) then direct (accusative): Δώσε μού το, Φέρε μάς το.
• A second accent is obligatory when the attached pronouns push the stress past the last three syllables — on the first pronoun (Δώσε μού το) or on the imperative's last syllable (Άκουσέ με).
• The (informal) contraction Δώσ' / Πάρ' / Φέρ' shortens the verb and usually needs no second accent (Δώσ' μου το).
• A negative command is μη(ν) + subjunctive, so the pronoun flips back to the front: Μην μου πεις, Μη μου το δίνεις.