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The imperative mood in English is used for commands and permissions, with the subject implied. The verb form is the bare infinitive, except for “to be”. Negative sentences use “do not”. Indirect speech acts using the indicative mood are often used for requests instead of the imperative, which can be seen as rude.
The English language contains several modes for verbs, which indicate the attitude of the speaker or writer towards the recipient of the message. The imperative mood is used to indicate a command, or to grant permission. Sentences in the imperative mood are almost always in the second person, which means that the speaker or writer is addressing someone directly.
Unlike other second-person sentences that explicitly state the subject word “you”, the imperative form does not use a subject. Instead, the subject is implied and referred to as the “understood subject.” The main exception is the first person plural imperative clause, which contains the subject “we do” or “we do”.
The other exception involves the speaker imposing that an action be performed by a third party. In this case, the verb “let” begins the sentence, followed by the third person subject, “he”, “she”, or “they”. In this case, the “Read the letter” command would become “Make him read the letter”. However, imperative sentences using the first person plural or third person are rarer than second person imperative statements.
Under English morphology, the verb form of the imperative mood is just the bare infinitive. This form is the same as the conjugation of the second person indicative, except for the verb “to be”. In the imperative form, sentences that use the verb “to be” do not use “are”, they simply use “be”, as in the command “Be quiet!”
As mentioned, the imperative mood can convey indications, prohibitions, orders, permissions and suggestions. Statements like “Come in,” “Include a check with your order,” or even “Behave!” are all examples of sentences that use this mood. To form a negative sentence in the imperative mood, the sentence uses the auxiliary verb “do” and the negative particle “not”. Thus, the negative form of “Shut the door!” becomes “Don’t close the door!”
Many statements that could be made in the imperative are often made instead in the indicative form. For example, most people will say, “Could you come here for a minute?” rather than “Come here for a minute!” The reason for this is that the imperative mood can appear rude, depending on the context and situation.
Speech acts directed with the imperative can be interpreted as encroachment on a person’s personal territory. Therefore, indirect speech acts using the indicative mood are more often used for requests. The imperative mood, when used to convey a request instead of an order, is often followed by the word “please” to denote respect for the audience.
