Imperative in German

Imperative in German are usually followed by an exclamation mark, when giving orders and instructions.

However, they do not require an exclamation mark if they are not being used to give an order or instruction.

For example, they can also be used where we might say Can you… or Could you … in English.

Lass ihn in Ruhe! Leave him alone!
Sagen Sie mir bitte, wie spät es ist. Can you tell me what time it is please?

 There are three main forms of the Imperative in German that are used to give instructions or orders to someone.

These correspond to the three different ways of saying you: du, ihr and Sie. However, it is only in the Sie form of the imperative that the pronoun usually appears – in the du and ihr forms, the pronoun is generally dropped, leaving only the verb.

Hör zu!  Listen!Hören Sie zu! Listen!

 Most weak, strong and mixed verbs form the present tense imperative in the following way:

Pronoun  Form of Imperative  Verb Example  Meaning 
du (singular)  verb stem (+ e)  hol(e)!  fetch! 
ihr (plural)  verb stem + t  holt!  fetch! 
Sie (polite singular and plural)  verb stem + en + Sie  holen Sie!  fetch! 

 Note that the -e of the du form is often dropped, but NOT where the verb stem ends, for example, in chn-, fn-, or tm-. In such cases, the -e is kept to make the imperative easier to pronounce.

Hör zu! Listen!
Hol es! Fetch it! 
BUT:Öffne die Tür! Open the door!
Atme richtig durch! Take a deep breath!
Rechne nochmal nach! Do your sums again!

 Weak verbs ending in -eln or -ern also retain this -e, but the other -e in the stem itself is often dropped in spoken German.

Verb  Meaning  Imperative  Meaning 
wandern  to walk  wand(e)re!  walk! 
handeln  to act  hand(e)le!  act! 

 Any vowel change in the present tense of a strong verb also occurs in the du form of its imperative and the -e mentioned above is generally not added. However, if this vowel change in the present tense involves adding an umlaut, this umlaut is NOT added to the du form of the imperative.

Verb  Meaning  2nd Person Singular  Meaning  2nd Person Singular Imperative  Meaning 
nehmen  to take  du nimmst  you take  nimm!  take! 
helfen  to help  du hilfst  you help  hilf!  help! 
laufen  to run  du läufst  you run  lauf(e)!  run! 
stoßen  to push  du stößt  you push  stoß(e)!  push! 

 Note also that the verb sein (meaning to be) is a strong, irregular verb. Its imperative forms are also irregular and the du, Sie and less common wir forms are not the same as the present tense forms of the verb.

Sei ruhig! Be quiet! Seid ruhig! Be quiet! Seien Sie ruhig! Be quiet!