Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to form affirmative and negative commands in French, including with reflexive verbs and object pronouns.

Lesson Explanation

The French imperative uses the present tense forms of tu, nous, and vous — no je, il/elle, or ils/elles imperative exists, since commands only make sense addressed to “you” or “we”: Parle! (Speak! – tu), Parlons! (Let’s speak! – nous), Parlez! (Speak! – vous).

A genuinely important spelling detail: for -er verbs, the tu imperative drops the final -s that the present tense normally has: present tu parles → imperative Parle! (not “Parles!”) This exception does not apply to -ir/-re verbs, where the imperative and present tu-forms are identical.

Être and avoir have genuinely irregular imperative forms, unrelated to their present tense: Sois sage! (Be good!), Soyons patients! (Let’s be patient!), Aie confiance! (Have confidence!)

Object and reflexive pronouns (Part 2, Lesson 6 and Part 3, Lesson 2) attach AFTER an affirmative command with a hyphen, exactly as previewed earlier: Lève-toi! (Get up! — “toi,” the stressed form, not “te.”) But BEFORE a negative command, in the normal position surrounding ne…pas: Ne te lève pas! (Don’t get up!) — a genuinely important placement difference between affirmative and negative commands.

Practice Questions