The imperative (Parle! Parlons! Parlez!)

The whole thing in one sentence

The imperative has no subject. Take the tu / nous / vous forms of the present, delete the subject pronoun, and that's it — there are only these three forms.

💡 The intuition: only three forms, because you only give instructions to people who are there — you, you-plural — plus the "let's" that includes the speaker. There is no third-person imperative.

🏠 The nous form isn't an order: Allons-y! is "let's go", an invitation rather than a command.

The three groups: cut straight out of the present

Apart from the four irregulars below, there is no second conjugation to learn — if you know the present, you know the imperative.

⚠️ The nastiest one: -er verbs lose the s in the tu form

Present: tu parles. Imperative: Parle, no s. This covers every -er verb, aller included (tu vas → Va!), and the -ir verbs that conjugate like -er ones (tu ouvres → Ouvre!).

But the s comes back before y and en, purely so the liaison works:

• Vas-y ! (Go on!) · Parles-en à ton professeur ! (Talk to your teacher about it!) · Strawberries? Manges-en !
• If the y (or en) belongs to the infinitive that follows, the s stays away: Va y réfléchir. (Go and think it over.)

🔑 finis, attends and prends have an s of their own — the rule never touches them. It only applies to -er verbs.

The four irregulars

• The être and avoir forms are borrowed from the subjunctive, which is why they look nothing like the present (not es, not as).
• Of vouloir only veuillez is really used, and almost only in formal writing: Veuillez trouver ci-joint… (Please find attached…)

Negation: ne … pas wraps around the verb

• Ne parle pas si vite ! (Don't talk so fast!)
• N'oubliez pas votre carte. (Don't forget your card.)
• Ne partons pas tout de suite. (Let's not leave right away.)

Spoken French usually drops the ne (T'inquiète pas !), but in writing it has to be there: Ne t'inquiète pas.

Pronoun placement: behind when affirmative, in front when negative

This is the one place where the imperative reshuffles the word order. Pronouns normally sit before the verb; in the affirmative imperative only, they move behind it with a hyphen.

Two things to hold on to:

1. Affirmative takes a hyphen, and me becomes moi, te becomes toi (the stressed forms): Donne-moi, Lève-toi.
2. The negative is business as usual — the pronoun goes back in front, and moi / toi revert to me / te.

With two pronouns the affirmative puts the direct object first: Donne-le-moi ! The full ordering is in Object pronouns; for reflexive verbs see Pronominal verbs.

When to use it — and when to say it another way

⚠️ The imperative is neither rude nor polite in itself: the person you address and what you put around it set the tone. Using tu with a stranger is where the rudeness lives, and a single s'il vous plaît turns Fermez la porte into an ordinary request.

The mistakes that show up most

One line to remember

No subject, three forms (tu, nous, vous); -er verbs drop the s in tu — unless y or en follows; ne … pas wraps the verb, and pronouns go behind when affirmative (moi, toi), in front when negative.