How to do the the imperative mode in french.? ▼ [Mettez a l'imperatif ]

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on August 13, 2012 at 8:41pm

The imperative is used when you don't use the pronoun ahead of the verb .

For example ,instead of "you do"  you say "do!" - that is you are giving  a kind of order or a wish.

In French the form of the verb is normally the same when you use it this way  but ,as in English, you drop the pronoun  (you or we).

So ,for example"vous faites" becomes "faites!" 

 

Coming to your questions...

1:           Nous  (a misprint on your part) Vous visitez la France  becomes Visitez la France !

 

2:         "Nous pouvons choisir nos places" probably becomes  "Choisissons nos places!" since it seems strange to say "let us be able to choose our places" and so I have shortened it and dropped the pouvoir part of the sentence.

 

3:         " Défense de faire de fautes. "I would change to "!" (I have changed the "Défence" construction to a second person construction.)

 

4:         "Tu dois être à l'heure" becomes "Sois à l'heure!" (note that with être the imperative has an irregular form  -it is sois ,soyons , soyez  for   be,  let us be and be in the plural or polite form)

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on August 13, 2012 at 11:17pm

Note that in (3), "Défense de..." wouldn't usually be classed grammatically as an 'imperative' (though pragmatically, that's the purpose of course).

So I think they're expecting you to change "Défense de faire des fautes" to "Ne faites pas de fautes".

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Permalink Reply by Anand.Ram on August 14, 2012 at 1:49pm

Thanks a lot, George   !

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