The German Imperative: du, ihr and Sie Forms

German has three imperatives because it has three ways of saying you. The du form is the bare verb stem (Komm!), the ihr form is identical to the present tense without the pronoun (Kommt!), and the Sie form is the infinitive with Sie stuck after it (Kommen Sie!). There is also a wir form for suggestions, built the same way as the Sie form (Gehen wir! = let's go). That is the whole system, and you can learn the mechanics in an afternoon.

The part that takes longer is social. A bare imperative in German lands harder than its English equivalent. "Send me the file" is ordinary office English; Schicken Sie mir die Datei is an order. The normal way to ask an adult you do not know well for something is not the imperative at all - it is Konjunktiv II plus bitte: Könnten Sie mir bitte die Datei schicken? Learn the forms below, then learn when not to use them.

The three forms at a glance

Notice what is missing: the pronoun. Du kommst becomes Komm!, ihr kommt becomes Kommt!. Only the Sie and wir forms keep their pronoun, and it comes straight after the verb. The verb is always in first position, which is why an imperative sentence looks like a yes/no question with the pronoun deleted.

Reflexive verbs keep their pronoun, and it changes with the person: Setz dich! / Setzt euch! / Setzen Sie sich! Separable prefixes go to the end, exactly as in a normal main clause: Ruf mich an!, Macht die Tür zu!, Steigen Sie bitte ein!

The du form: the -e and the vowel change

The du imperative is the present-tense stem with nothing on it. du gehst gives Geh!, du machst gives Mach!. Three details decide whether learners sound native here.

The -e is usually optional and usually dropped. Geh! and Gehe! are both grammatical; spoken German almost always takes the short one. The written -e sounds formal or literary. Do not force it.

Except when the stem demands it. Stems ending in -d, -t, -ig, or in -m/-n after a consonant keep the -e because you cannot pronounce them otherwise: Arbeite!, Rede!, Warte!, Entschuldige!, Atme!, Öffne!, Rechne!

The e to i/ie verbs change, the a to ä verbs do not. This is the single most common imperative mistake, and it is worth memorising as a closed list. If the du-form of the present tense has i or ie, the imperative has it too, and it never takes an -e:

• nehmen: Nimm!
• geben: Gib!
• lesen: Lies!
• sehen: Sieh! (or Sieh mal!)
• essen: Iss!
• helfen: Hilf!
• sprechen: Sprich!
• vergessen: Vergiss!
• werfen: Wirf!
• treffen: Triff!

But verbs with an umlaut change in the present tense drop it in the imperative. Du fährst but Fahr!. Du läufst but Lauf!. Du schläfst but Schlaf!. Du hältst but Halt! There is no Fähr! in German. If you want these drilled with audio rather than read once and half-remembered, the strong-verb sets live in /library.

sein, haben, werden and the negative

sein is the only verb whose imperative you simply have to know cold: Sei! / Seid! / Seien Sie! The Sie form is irregular in a way nothing else is - it is not Sind Sie!. You meet it constantly in fixed expressions: Sei still!, Seid vorsichtig!, Seien Sie so nett!, Sei nicht so streng!

haben and werden are regular but common enough to name: Hab keine Angst!, Habt Geduld!, Haben Sie Verständnis!, Werde gesund!

The negative imperative is just nicht or kein in the usual place: Mach das nicht!, Vergiss das nicht!, Machen Sie sich keine Sorgen! German has no auxiliary equivalent to don't, so the verb stays where it is.

One more form worth recognising even if you never produce it: the wir imperative for proposals. Gehen wir!, Fangen wir an!, Machen wir eine Pause! It sounds slightly brisk and decisive. The everyday spoken alternative uses lassen: Lass uns gehen to one person, Lasst uns gehen to a group.

The politeness ladder

Here is the honest version of what a bare imperative means. Between friends, family, colleagues you are on du terms with, and anyone you would call du at all, the plain imperative plus a softening particle is completely normal and not rude: Komm doch mal vorbei, Gib mir bitte das Salz, Mach mal langsam. The particles mal, doch, schon and bitte do most of the politeness work, and dropping them is what makes a sentence sound curt.

Where English speakers go wrong is with Sie. Translating "Could you send it today?" as Schicken Sie es heute! produces an instruction from a superior. The German default for a request to a stranger, a colleague, an official, or anyone in a service exchange is Konjunktiv II.

In a bakery you say Ich hätte gern zwei Brötchen, not Geben Sie mir zwei Brötchen. In an email you write Könnten Sie mir bitte Bescheid geben. If you learn only three frames in your first months, learn Könnten Sie...?, Würden Sie...? and Ich hätte gern... - they cover most of daily life. The forms behind them are in the Konjunktiv II guide, and the question of whether you are on du or Sie terms in the first place is in duzen or siezen.

Where bare imperatives really do belong

German is not uniformly indirect. Imperatives are the standard register in instructions, recipes, advertising, sports coaching, warnings and anything addressed to a general public:

• Recipes: Die Zwiebeln fein hacken und in der Pfanne anbraten. Cookbooks and manuals often use the infinitive imperative - the plain infinitive at the end of the clause, addressed to nobody in particular.
• Signs: Nicht rauchen!, Bitte anschnallen!, Tür schließen!
• App interfaces and ads: Jetzt registrieren, Entdecken Sie unser Angebot.
• Emergencies and safety: Ruf einen Krankenwagen!, Bleiben Sie ruhig!

So the rule is not "never use the imperative". It is that person-to-person requests across a Sie boundary usually take a modal in Konjunktiv II, while impersonal, public and urgent language takes the imperative freely. That distinction is worth more than any conjugation table.

What to actually practise

The conjugation is small enough that reading this page once probably covers it. What does not stick from reading is the vowel-change list and the reflex of reaching for Könnten Sie instead of a command when you are under time pressure in a real conversation. Both are recall problems, which means spacing them out beats drilling them once.

On merke.me, the imperative sits inside the grammar library with audio for every form, nimm, gib, lies and the rest appear as their own review items rather than as a footnote to the infinitive, and the polite request frames are taught as collocations - whole phrases you can say, not patterns you have to assemble. Verbs themselves live in /vocab, and you can see how the A1 to C2 sequence is put together on the decks page. Start with the free levels and check pricing only when you know the schedule works for you.