Imperative

Production Rules:

Inflection Examples:

Irregulars:

* These forms are regular.

Usage Notes & Examples:

1. Take careful note that you cannot politely use any imperative form to someone of higher status or someone who is not an intimate. This is even more true than in English. Let's say I'm giving my boss or someone I don't know directions. I will say "Go left at the end of the hall, then take the first right." Both of the verbs there are imperative mood. The equivalent situation in Japanese may not use an imperative form. Ever. Period. Even with an intimate, I'm not going to use imperative form in this particular case. The take away message here is, be very careful that you have experience hearing and understand the use of these imperative forms before you ever try using them yourself.
2. The abrupt forms here come across clearly as orders. They are used frequently from bosses to subordinates, and in other cases by people of clearly higher status to people of clearly lower status, and in those cases don't display any particular rudeness or emotion, just a sense of "I'm telling you what to do and I expect you to do it." In other cases when you hear or use the abrupt forms, there is likely to be some emotion or anger involved in the situation.
3. The plain forms here are generally used in very familiar situations. They are more gentle sounding, but still require a clear superior-inferior relationship. A common use of this form is from a mother to her child, or an older sibling to a younger one.
4. In any polite conversation, when you want to instruct someone to do something, use the request forms. And depending on relative status or the situation, you may need to be even more polite (which usually means more indirect) than even those forms.
5. The ichidan imperative ending in -yo is an older, more literary form not likely to be heard in conversation. It might be found in textbooks (instructions for exercises, for example), on tests, and so forth.

Copyright © 2010-2011 Collin McCulley. All Rights Reserved.

Page cached 8/12/2020 5:28:45 AM