The imperative (du, ihr, Sie forms)

The imperative is the form you use to tell someone to do something — "Come here!", "Wait!", "Please sit down." This article covers the three main imperative forms used to address someone directly, one for each way of saying you: du (informal, one person), ihr (informal, more than one), and Sie (formal). All three are built directly from the present tense you already know.

Quick shortcut: du-form = stem (+ -e), no pronoun; ihr-form = present-tense ihr form, no pronoun; Sie-form = present-tense Sie form, verb first, Sie stays.

The du-form: just the stem

To give a command to one person you'd normally say du to, drop du entirely and use the verb stem, often with no ending at all:

• Mach das! (Do that!) — from machen, stem mach-
• Komm her! (Come here!) — from kommen, stem komm-
• Warte! (Wait!) — from warten, stem wart- + -e (the same spelling rule as the present tense: stems ending in -t/-d need the extra -e to stay pronounceable)
• Arbeite! (Work!) / Öffne! (Open!) — a few other stems also need the extra -e for pronunciation, the same ones that need it in the present-tense du form

Adding the -e is optional for most other verbs (Mach!/Mache! are both fine), but where the stem needs it for pronunciation — like warten, arbeiten, or öffnen — the -e isn't optional. In the neutral, everyday form, du itself is dropped; it can reappear right after the verb for emphasis or contrast (Mach du das! — "You do it"), but that's a special case, not the default.

Stem-vowel-changing verbs: e → i / e → ie carries over

Most verbs that change their stem vowel from e → i or e → ie in the du-form of the present tense keep that same changed vowel in the imperative — without the -st ending and without an added -e:

• sprechen → du sprichst → Sprich! (Speak!)
• essen → du isst → Iss! (Eat!)
• lesen → du liest → Lies! (Read!)

The a → ä stem change, by contrast, does not carry over into the imperative:

• fahren → du fährst, but the imperative is ✅ Fahr! — never ❌ Fähr!
• schlafen → du schläfst, but the imperative is ✅ Schlaf! — never ❌ Schläf!

(One later exception worth knowing: werden — its imperative is Werde!, not Wird!, even though e → i is the usual pattern for that vowel change.)

The ihr-form: same as the present tense

To give a command to more than one person you'd say ihr to, just drop the pronoun ihr and keep the present-tense ihr form exactly as it is:

• Macht das! (Do that, all of you!)
• Kommt her! (Come here, everyone!)
• Wartet! (Wait, everyone!)
• Esst! (Eat, everyone!) — the e → i stem change doesn't apply to ihr in the present tense either, so nothing special happens here

The Sie-form: keep Sie, verb first

The formal imperative is the only one that keeps its pronoun. Take the present-tense Sie-form and simply put the verb first:

• Machen Sie das! (Do that.)
• Kommen Sie her! (Come here.)
• Warten Sie! (Wait.)

Sie itself makes the request formal — it doesn't mean "please." To add real politeness, include bitte: Machen Sie das bitte!, Kommen Sie bitte her!, Warten Sie bitte!

This is the same verb-first pattern as a yes/no question (Machen Sie das?), but the two are told apart by context and punctuation — an imperative often ends with an exclamation mark, but a polite, softer request (especially with bitte) is just as commonly written with a plain period: Warten Sie bitte hier.

Sein is irregular

Sein (to be) has special imperative forms that need to be memorized, especially du and Sie:

Sei! and Seien Sie! don't come from bist/sind the way you might expect — they're built from a different root. The ihr-form, Seid!, is the one that does look regular: it's identical to the present-tense ihr seid, just without the pronoun.

Separable verbs: the prefix still goes to the end

Just like in a normal statement, a separable verb's prefix moves to the end of the imperative clause, while the conjugated part stays at the front:

• Steh auf! (Get up!) — from aufstehen
• Ruf mich an! (Call me!) — from anrufen
• Kaufen Sie bitte ein! (Please go shopping.) — from einkaufen, formal

Word order and nicht

In the basic pattern, the imperative verb form comes first in the sentence — there's no subject in front of it for du/ihr, and Sie comes right after the verb rather than before it. Common words like bitte, jetzt, or dann can come before the verb too (Bitte warten Sie!, Jetzt komm!), but the verb still leads whatever comes after it. Nicht follows the same rules you already know: it comes near the end of the sentence to negate the whole command, or right before a separable prefix:

• Mach das nicht! (Don't do that!)
• Steh nicht auf! (Don't get up!)

Common mistakes

• ❌ Du mach das! → ✅ Mach das! (drop du entirely in the neutral form — it's not placed before the verb)
• ❌ Fähr schnell! → ✅ Fahr schnell! (the a → ä stem change never carries into the imperative, only e → i/ie does)
• ❌ Sie machen das! → ✅ Machen Sie das! (the formal imperative needs the verb first, before Sie — not in normal statement order)
• ❌ Bist leise! → ✅ Sei leise! (sein's imperative isn't built from bist — it's a special irregular form)

Quick check

Which imperative form is correct?

1. Telling a friend to come here: ____ (Komm / Kommst) her!
2. Telling a group of friends to sit down: ____ (Setzt euch / Setzen euch)!
3. Telling your boss, politely, to wait: ____ (Warten Sie / Sie warten)!
4. Telling a friend to eat: ____ (Ess / Iss)!
5. Telling a friend to be careful: ____ (Sei / Bist) vorsichtig!

Key takeaways

• The du-imperative drops the pronoun and uses just the stem, sometimes with an added -e for pronounceability.
• The e → i/e → ie stem-vowel change carries over into the du-imperative, but the a → ä change never does.
• The ihr-imperative drops the pronoun and keeps the present-tense ihr form exactly as it is.
• The Sie-imperative is the only one that keeps its pronoun — the verb moves in front of Sie.
• Sein has special imperative forms: Sei!, Seid!, Seien Sie! — Sei! and Seien Sie! aren't built from bist/sind, though Seid! does match the regular present-tense ihr form.
• With separable verbs, the prefix still moves to the end of the clause, just like in a normal statement.