der Imperativ

"der Imperativ" is the German grammatical name for the command form.

It is used to give commands, requests, or advice.

German, like English, can encode politeness or rudeness based on the form of the imperative you use, so getting it right is important!

Start with the verb in the du-form.

Drop the du and the -st ending.

That's all!

Verbs with stems that end in -s, -ss or -z keep those in the imperative.

Verbs with vowel changes usually keep those in the imperative also.

e.g. lesen - du liest - lies!

Verbs with the vowel change a->ä, however, don't keep the vowel change.

e.g. fahren - du fährst - fahr!

Separable prefix verbs work quite regularly in the imperative.

aufmachen - to open

Du machst (die Tür) auf.

Mach (die Tür) auf!

Just as English uses "please" to soften their commands, German uses bitte.

Bitte can go almost anywhere in a du-command form sentence, as long as it doesn't break up a prepositional phrase.

Geh bitte nach Hause!

Geh nach Hause bitte!