French grammar · Beginner
Giving Orders in French: The Imperative and Its Alternatives
French gives orders with the imperative, a stripped-down verb form that has only three persons and no subject pronoun at all: parle, parlons, parlez. Because a bare imperative can sound abrupt, the language also has a set of gentler structures — the conditional, the future, veuillez plus an infinitive — that give the same instruction without sounding like a command.
Prenez la deuxième rue à droite.
Take the second street on the right.
What it is
An imperative is a conjugated verb with its subject pronoun removed. Attends means wait and is aimed at one person you are on tu terms with; attendez is the same order to a group or to someone you address as vous; attendons means let's wait. Those three forms are the whole imperative, and everything else French uses to give orders is borrowed from another tense.
Écoute-moi. Écoutez-moi. Écoutons-le. — Listen to me. Listen to me (formal). Let's listen to him.
How to spot it
Look for a conjugated verb with nothing in front of it. If a French sentence opens on a verb and there is no pronoun in sight, it is almost certainly an order.
- Viens ici. — Come here.
- N'oublie pas tes clés. — Don't forget your keys.
- Asseyez-vous, je vous en prie. — Do sit down.
- Ne bougeons pas. — Let's not move.
The one thing that looks similar is an inverted question, viens-tu, where the pronoun has moved behind the verb rather than disappeared.
Giving Orders Quick Reference
Six ways to tell someone what to do, from bluntest to most formal
| Structure | Register | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Imperative, tu | familiar and direct | Attends ! — Wait! |
| Imperative, vous | polite or plural | Attendez ici. — Wait here. |
| Imperative, nous | let's | Allons-y. — Let's go. |
| Future tense | instruction, softened | Vous signerez en bas. — You'll sign at the bottom. |
| Conditional question | request | Tu pourrais m'aider ? — Could you help me? |
| Veuillez + infinitive | formal and written | Veuillez patienter. — Please wait. |
| Que + subjunctive | order to a third person | Qu'il parte ! — Let him leave! |
Common Giving Orders Examples in French
Orders across the registers French actually uses:
The Three Imperative Persons
- Range ta chambre.
- Tidy your room.
- Rangez vos affaires.
- Put your things away.
- Rangeons tout avant midi.
- Let's tidy everything up before noon.
- Sois patient.
- Be patient.
There is no imperative for je, il, or ils. Those persons have to be reached with que plus the subjunctive.
With Object Pronouns Attached
- Donne-moi la clé.
- Give me the key.
- Dis-le-lui.
- Tell him about it.
- Ne me le dis pas.
- Don't tell me.
- Assieds-toi.
- Sit down.
Affirmative orders hang the pronouns off the back of the verb with hyphens, and me becomes moi. Negative orders send them back in front, in their ordinary order and their ordinary shape.
Softer Ways to Say the Same Thing
- Tu pourrais fermer la fenêtre ?
- Could you shut the window?
- Vous signerez en bas de la page.
- You'll sign at the bottom of the page.
- On y va ?
- Shall we go?
- Veuillez patienter quelques instants.
- Please wait a few moments.
Not one of these is an imperative, and all four are heard as instructions. In French, politeness is carried by the structure you choose rather than by adding words.
Orders Aimed at Someone Else
- Qu'il attende dehors.
- Let him wait outside.
- Qu'elle vienne me voir.
- Have her come and see me.
- Que personne ne bouge !
- Nobody move!
Que plus the subjunctive is the only route to the third person. It is common in stage directions, official announcements, and irritated parents.
How French Imperatives Are Built
Three forms, one deletion, one restoration, and a pronoun rule that flips with the negative.
The Subject Pronoun Disappears
You take the present tense and remove the pronoun. Tu fermes becomes ferme, vous fermez becomes fermez, nous fermons becomes fermons. Nothing is added; something is taken away.
Ferme la porte.
Close the door.
Present tense minus the pronoun.
-er Verbs Lose the Final S
In the tu form of -er verbs the written -s goes too, so tu regardes gives regarde. Aller behaves like an -er verb here and gives va. This is spelling only: the -s was silent anyway.
Regarde ce tableau.
Look at this painting.
tu parles → parle.
The S Comes Back Before Y and En
When y or en follows, the -s is restored so that the two words link together in speech. Va becomes vas-y, mange becomes manges-en. Without the -s there would be an awkward gap between the vowels.
Vas-y, manges-en un peu.
Go on, have some of it.
vas-y, manges-en, parles-en.
Pronouns Change Sides with the Negative
In an affirmative order the object pronouns follow the verb, joined by hyphens, and me and te are replaced by moi and toi. Add a negative and everything reverts: the pronouns move back in front of the verb and take their ordinary forms.
Donne-le-moi, mais ne le donne pas à Paul.
Give it to me, but don't give it to Paul.
Behind when affirmative, in front when negative.
Four Verbs Borrow Their Imperative from the Subjunctive
Être, avoir, savoir, and vouloir do not use their present tense at all. Their imperatives are sois, aie, sache, and veuille, all taken from the subjunctive, which is why they look nothing like tu es or tu as.
Sois sage et aie confiance en toi.
Be good and have confidence in yourself.
sois, aie, sache, veuillez.
Common Mistakes with Giving Orders
Incorrect: Parles plus fort. — Speak up.
Correct: Parle plus fort. — Speak up.
The tu form of an -er verb loses its written -s in the imperative. The -s survives only when y or en follows, as in parles-en.
Incorrect: Vous asseyez-vous. — Sit down.
Correct: Asseyez-vous. — Sit down.
An imperative has no subject pronoun. Leaving vous at the front turns the sentence back into a statement, and the reflexive -vous at the end is the only pronoun the order needs.
Incorrect: Ne donne-moi pas ça. — Don't give me that.
Correct: Ne me donne pas ça. — Don't give me that.
Hyphenated pronouns behind the verb belong to affirmative orders only. Under a negative the pronoun goes back in front and reverts from moi to me.
Incorrect: Es gentil avec ta sœur. — Be nice to your sister.
Correct: Sois gentil avec ta sœur. — Be nice to your sister.
Être does not build its imperative from the present tense. Sois, soyons, and soyez come from the subjunctive, and avoir does the same thing with aie, ayons, ayez.
The Complete Imperative Tables
The imperative exists in three persons only, so the rows for je, il, and ils are permanently empty. Seeing the gaps laid out is the quickest way to remember why que plus the subjunctive is necessary.
The three regular families
Present-tense forms with the pronoun removed, and with the -s dropped in the tu form of -er verbs only.
| Pronoun | parler | finir | vendre |
|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | — | — | — |
| tu | parle | finis | vends |
| il / elle / on | — | — | — |
| nous | parlons | finissons | vendons |
| vous | parlez | finissez | vendez |
| ils / elles | — | — | — |
Finis and vends keep their -s because they are not -er verbs. Only the -er family loses it.
The four subjunctive-based irregulars
Être, avoir, and savoir take their imperative from the subjunctive. Aller is included because its tu form, va, is irregular in a different way: it is short one letter rather than borrowed.
| Pronoun | être | avoir | savoir | aller |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | — | — | — | — |
| tu | sois | aie | sache | va |
| il / elle / on | — | — | — | — |
| nous | soyons | ayons | sachons | allons |
| vous | soyez | ayez | sachez | allez |
| ils / elles | — | — | — | — |
Sachez que… is a common formal opening meaning be aware that…, and it is one of the few places the imperative of savoir turns up.
Short irregulars you will use constantly
Faire and dire have an unexpected vous form, faites and dites, with no -ez ending. Vouloir exists mainly in its vous form, veuillez.
| Pronoun | faire | dire | venir | vouloir |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| je / j' | — | — | — | — |
| tu | fais | dis | viens | veuille |
| il / elle / on | — | — | — | — |
| nous | faisons | disons | venons | veuillons |
| vous | faites | dites | venez | veuillez |
| ils / elles | — | — | — | — |
Veuille and veuillons are almost never heard. Veuillez, on the other hand, appears in every formal letter and every recorded announcement.
Turning the Volume Up and Down
The imperative is a single setting. Everything above and below it is done with other structures.
Softening: conditional, future, and s'il te plaît
To take the edge off an order, French either swaps the imperative for a conditional question or leaves it in place and adds a politeness formula.
- Tu pourrais me passer le sel ?
- Could you pass me the salt?
- Vous voudriez bien signer ici ?
- Would you mind signing here?
- Ferme la porte, s'il te plaît.
- Close the door, please.
S'il te plaît attaches to a genuine imperative. The conditional replaces the imperative altogether, which is why it sounds gentler still.
Formal written orders: veuillez and prière de
Letters, notices, and public signs avoid the imperative because it addresses a specific person. Veuillez plus an infinitive and prière de plus an infinitive do the job impersonally.
- Veuillez remplir le formulaire.
- Please fill in the form.
- Veuillez trouver ci-joint le document.
- Please find the document attached.
- Prière de ne pas fumer.
- Please do not smoke.
Veuillez is literally be willing to, from vouloir. It is considerably more formal than s'il vous plaît and is standard in business correspondence.
Strengthening: shorten rather than lengthen
A sharper order in French is a shorter one. Drop everything optional, and let the exclamation mark and the intonation carry the force.
- Sortez !
- Get out!
- Allez, on y va !
- Come on, let's go!
- Ne bougez plus !
- Freeze!
Note the space in front of the exclamation mark, which is standard French typography rather than a slip.
Giving Orders FAQs
- How do you give an order in French?
- Use the imperative: take the present tense and drop the subject pronoun. Tu écoutes becomes écoute, vous écoutez becomes écoutez, nous écoutons becomes écoutons. For -er verbs the tu form also loses its -s, so tu parles gives parle.
- Why is there no s on parle in the imperative?
- Because the -er family drops it. The -s was never pronounced, and French spelling removed it from this one form. It reappears only when y or en follows, purely so the words can link in speech: vas-y, parles-en.
- How do you give a negative order in French?
- Wrap ne and pas around the verb and put any object pronouns back in front of it: ne me téléphone pas, don't call me. This is the one thing that changes structurally in the negative — the pronouns that follow an affirmative imperative move to the other side.
- Is the French imperative rude?
- Not in itself, but a bare imperative to a stranger sounds brusque, much as it does in English. Adding s'il vous plaît, or replacing the imperative with a conditional question such as vous pourriez fermer la porte, is what most speakers do with people they do not know.
- How do you tell a third person what to do?
- With que plus the subjunctive, since the imperative has no third-person form: qu'il attende, let him wait, or qu'elle m'appelle, have her call me. It sounds slightly theatrical, which is why it turns up in announcements and in exasperated speech.