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43/ . Imperative Sentences

Imperative sentences express commands, prohibitions, requests, invitations and warnings. Imperatives are constructed with the help of the Imperative Mood verb form that coincides with the base verb form.

14.1.4.1. Imperative Sentence without a Subject

Imperative sentences are mostly elliptical, i. e. they usually have no subject:

Sit down.

Stay here.

Be happy!

Imperative sentences are pronounced with a falling intonation; in writing they end in a full stop or an exclamation mark.

The imperative verb has no tense distinctions. The progressive form is rare, the perfect form is not usually admitted:

Be listening to me next time.

Have read this paper by the time I am back.

Passive forms are possible, particularly get-passive:

Be guided by my words.

Get dressed this moment.

Get lost!

The imperative can be softened by adding a tag-element with will/ would or can/could you and a rising intonation:

Sit down, will you?

Shut up, can't you?

Be quiet, could you?

The imperative can be made more emphatic by putting do before the imperative verb form:

Do forgive me.

Do try to be more polite with your Granny.

14.1.4.2. Imperative Sentence with a Subject

Although imperative sentences usually have no explicit subject, you is sometimes used before the imperative verb form to suggest irritation/anger or insistence and is always heavily stressed:

You be quiet.

You mind your own business.

To give emphasis or to avoid ambiguity, a pronoun or noun may be used as subject of the imperative sentence:

Nobody move!

Somebody fetch me a glass of water.

Women with children go to the fire exit first.

Care should be taken not to confuse the vocative (addressee) and the subject of the imperative sentence. Cf.:

Peter, stay here or Stay here, Peter, (vocative)

Peter stay here, (subject)

Vocatives may take initial, final or medial position and are always set off by commas. The difference between the vocative and the imperative subject is confirmed by their possible co-occurrence, as in You, Peter, stay here.

14.1.4.3. Negative Imperatives

Negative Imperatives are constructed with do not (or don't) placed in the initial position:

Do not open the door.

Don't be silly.

Don't you try to do it again.

Don't anybody answer the phone.

14.1.4.4. Imperatives with let

First and third person imperatives can be formed by the imperative let followed by a personal pronoun in the objective case or a noun in the common case. Imperative let denotes an offer, order, instruction, or wish:

Let me do it.

Let her /him I them have a look at it. Let us I Let's think about it again. Let the best man win.

Imperatives with let us can be negated in two ways: a) with informal don't, and b) with not before the infinitive (more formal):

Don't let us speak about it any more, (informal)

Let us not speak about it any more, (formal)

The negative third person imperative let him /her I them is rarely used in Modern English. The modal verb must or the modal expression be + to-infinitive are usually used instead:

He/She I They must not speak about it any more.

They are not to do it again.

A tag element shan't we may be added to a let's sentence:

Let's split the difference, shan't we?