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Ferme la porte et garde le secret !

Ferme la porte et garde le secret !
Close the door and keep the secret!
From Lesson 67:The imperative mood·French

Breakdown of Ferme la porte et garde le secret !

et
and
fermer
to close
la porte
the door
garder
to keep
le secret
the secret

Questions & Answers about Ferme la porte et garde le secret !

Why is it ferme and garde instead of fermes and gardes?
In French, when you give an order to a single person using the informal tu form, regular verbs ending in -er drop the final s. So, the normal statement Tu fermes (You close) becomes the command Ferme ! (Close!). The same happens with garder becoming garde !.
Where is the word for 'you' in this sentence?
In the imperative mood (used for commands), the subject pronoun like tu, nous, or vous is left out. The verb form itself tells us who is being spoken to. Because we are using ferme and garde, we know this command is directed at one person we would address as tu.
If I wanted to tell a group of people to close the door, how would the sentence change?
You would use the vous form of the imperative. The verbs would change to fermez and gardez, making the sentence: Fermez la porte et gardez le secret !.
Do I pronounce the e at the end of ferme and garde?
No, the e at the end of these words is silent. You stop pronouncing the word on the consonant before it. So ferme sounds like 'ferm' and garde sounds like 'gard'.

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