Imperatives and Directions
Imperatives Imperatives are used in French to give commands. There are two types of imperatives, depending on whether you would speak to the person using ‘tu’ or ‘vous’.
‘vous’ For people you address as ‘vous’, simply take the ‘vous’ form of the verb in the present tense, and delete the ‘vous’ from the beginning: e.g. manger vous mangez mangez! (eat!)
Buy! e.g. acheter vous achetez achetez! Buy more vegetables! (‘plus de’ behaves like ‘pas de’) achetez plus de légumes!
Swim! e.g. nager vous nagez nagez! Swim faster! nagez plus vite!
Listen! écoutez!
Don’t smoke! ne fumez pas!
Don’t sing!! Ne chantez pas!
Drink! Buvez!
Read the book! Lisez le livre!
Say hello to the teacher! Dites bonjour au prof!
Do exercise! faites de l’exercice!
traverser = cross cross the bridge - traversez le pont cross the park - traversez le parc cross the street - traversez la rue
tout droit = straight on continue straight on continuez tout droit
Take the second road on the left prenez la deuxième rue à gauche
Take the first road on the right prenez la première rue à droite
as far as = jusqu’à la/au etc Go as far as the hospital allez jusqu’à l’hôpital Continue until the post office continuez jusqu’à la poste Go as far as the stadium Allez jusqu’au stade
Imperatives Imperatives are used in French to give commands. There are two types of imperatives, depending on whether you would speak to the person using ‘tu’ or ‘vous’. For people you address as ‘vous’, simply take the ‘vous’ form of the verb in the present tense, and delete the ‘vous’ from the beginning: e.g. manger vous mangez mangez! (eat!)
For people you address as ‘tu’: Take the ‘tu’ form of the present tense and delete the ‘tu’. e.g. do your homework! fais tes devoirs!
Take (prendre) the bus! prends le bus!
Drink your orange juice! Bois ton jus d’orange!
Finish your book! finis ton livre!
For ‘er’ verbs, you need to do one final step: take the ‘s’ off the end: e.g. go to see the doctor (aller) va voir le médecin!
Play hockey! joue au hockey!
Listen to the teacher! écoute le prof!
traverser = cross cross the bridge - traverse le pont cross the park - traverse le parc cross the street - traverse la rue
tout droit = straight on continue straight on continue tout droit
Take the second road on the left prends la deuxième rue à gauche
Take the first road on the right prends la première rue à droite
as far as = jusqu’à la/au etc Go as far as the hospital va jusqu’à l’hôpital Continue until the post office continue jusqu’à la poste Go as far as the stadium va jusqu’au stade
For people you address as ‘tu’: Take the ‘tu’ form of the present tense and delete the ‘tu’. e.g. do your homework! fais tes devoirs! For ‘er’ verbs, you need to do one final step: take the ‘s’ off the end: e.g. go to see the doctor (aller) va voir le médecin! eat more vegetables! mange plus de légumes!