French Imperative Mood

French imperative conjugations are relatively simple. There are only three grammatical persons that can be used in the imperative: tu, nous, and vous, and most of the conjugations are the same as the present tense - the only difference is that the subject pronoun is not used in the imperative.


-ER verbs (regular, stem-changing, spelling change, and irregular)
The imperative conjugations for nous and vous are the same as the present indicative, and the tu form of the imperative is the indicative minus the final s (but see item 4 on this page):

parler
   (tu) parle
   (nous) parlons
   (vous) parlez

lever
   (tu) lève
   (nous) levons
   (vous) levez

aller
   (tu) va
   (nous) allons
   (vous) allez


Verbs which are conjugated like -ER verbs (meaning that in the indicative the tu form ends in -es), such as ouvrir and souffrir, follow the same rules as -ER verbs.

ouvrir
   (tu) ouvre
   (nous) ouvrons
   (vous) ouvrez


-IR verbs and -RE verbs
The imperative conjugations for all regular and most* irregular -IR and -RE verbs are the same as the present indicative conjugations.

finir
   (tu) finis
   (nous) finissons
   (vous) finissez

attendre
   (tu) attends
   (nous) attendons
   (vous) attendez

faire
   (tu) fais
   (nous) faisons
   (vous) faites

*Except for verbs conjugated like -ER verbs and the following four irregular imperative verbs:

avoir
   (tu) aie
   (nous) ayons
   (vous) ayez

être
   (tu) sois
   (nous) soyons
   (vous) soyez

savoir
   (tu) sache
   (nous) sachons
   (vous) sachez

vouloir
   (tu) veuille
   (nous) n/a
   (vous) veuillez


Page 1: Introduction to the French imperative
Page 2: Imperative conjugations
Page 3: Imperative word order

Quiz on the French imperative

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