What is Imperative Mood
Mood is a grammatical feature of a verb that indicates modality. Mood expresses how the verb should be considered. That is, whether the sentence is a command, wish, statement, etc. There are three main moods in English grammar. They are indicative, subjunctive and imperative. In this article, we are going to discuss imperative mood in detail.
Let us first see what imperative mood is. The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms commands, requests, and instructions. The main verb of an imperative sentence will be in the imperative mood. Imperative mood indicates that the speaker desires for the action expressed in the sentence to take place.
We usually form the imperative by using the second person with the unspoken subject you. The base form of the verb is used at the beginning of the verb. It is then followed by the adverbial. The subject is not directly stated in an imperative sentence, but the second person (singular and plural) personal pronoun you is implied.
Examples of Imperative Mood
Bring me the cane!
Be very careful
Don’t forget to close the door.
Close your eyes and count to ten.
Don’t worry about her, she’ll be safe.
Turn off the television now.
Install the program, and then restart the computer.
Shout if you see somebody coming.
Help me with cooking, Mary.
Don’t disturb her.
You can add please at the end or beginning of the sentence to soften the sentence and make it more polite.
Please be quiet.
Shut the door, please.
Help me, please.
Please take your shoes off.
If you want to include yourself in the suggestion or request, you can use the let’s construction. This is equivalent to a first person plural imperative.
Let’s go out.
Let’s not go there.
Usage of Imperative Mood
As mentioned above, imperative mood can be used to indicate,
Orders
Get out!
Put down the gun!
In written language, orders are generally punctuated with exclamation marks. (!)
Requests
Pass me the salt, please.
Close the door, please.
Advice
Don’t go near the water.
Don’t panic, just stay still.
Instructions
Stop the bleeding first, and then cover the wound with a piece of gauze.
Add 100 grams of sugar and stir well.
In addition, we can also use the imperative to indicate wishes, apologies, invitations, permissions, invitations, etc.
Come with us – invitation
Go with them if you want – permission
Pardon me – apology
Have a nice time! – wish
Imperative Mood – Summary
- There are three main moods in English grammar: imperative, indicative and subjunctive.
- Imperative mood is used with commands, requests, advice, and instructions.
- We usually form the imperative by using the second person with the unspoken subject you.
- The base form of the verb is used at the beginning of the verb.
