AKA: command

Examples

Sit down!

Wait!

Let’s go!

Let d be distance.

🧾Definition

The imperative, or command form of the verb, is used to tell the listener or reader to do or imagine something.

🔬Discovery

✅Form

The imperative is generally the bare infinitive of the verb: do your homework! eat your greens! get dressed! The negative imperative is formed with don’t (or, less commonly, do not) plus the bare infinitive (don’t forget! don’t talk with your mouth full!).

We also use let for some commands:

• to include the speaker in the action (let’s eat! = we will eat now)
• to define a term in mathematics or physics (let AB represent a line connecting A and B)

💬Functions

Imperatives are most likely to be found in texts that Narrate, especially in dialogue. However, they occur in nonfiction texts that Explain or Inform in an attempt to engage the reader (imagine a puck sliding across the ice). In texts that Argue, an imperative could be a call to action (stop polluting the oceans! let’s make our school more inclusive!), but often this is too direct, and other rhetorical devices are used. For example:

• Modal and semi-modal verbs: We must reduce our use of fossil fuels.
• Adjectives and nouns that express modality: It is essential to …