Giving Orders
The imperative is quite simple in German. But first, let's look at how an order or a command is given in English. You can take any infinitive (to run, to hide, to spell), drop the word “to,” and you have an imperative form:
Run to the store.Hide in the bushes.Spell the word correctly.
German is a bit different, but equally easy. We'll start with the formal command form. Begin with an infinitive: gehen. Place the pronoun Sie (formal you) behind it, and you have the German imperative: Gehen Sie! (Go!) Note that the German imperative always requires an exclamation point after it. Only one verb requires a little spelling change to form the imperative: sein. An –e is added after the letter i. Then follow the word with Sie and you have: Seien Sie! (Be!). Here are a few examples:
