Imperative Mood (Russian Imperative)

Subject: verbs

Keywords: Be Fluent in Russian propaganda Russian Connection Russian grammar Николай Денисов Нина Ватолина

Look, this isn’t difficult at all. Command and order with the Russian imperative mood. The name from imperare, to order. But listen – one can also be polite with this повелительное наклонение. In those cases, it is used to express a wish, request, or advice.

You need to know just a few things to be able to do this in Russian.
Look / Please take a look.

How to form the Russian imperative

To form the imperative mood in Russian, you start with the они (they) conjugation of the verb. Remove the ending and replace it with something else.

For example, –и or –ите. In сказать (to say, to tell), the conjugation (они скажут) provides the stem (скаж-) which leads to скажи (informal) and скажите (formal or plural) for imperative forms. This immediately shows why you should not work with the stem of the infinitive here.

Three endings: й, и or ь

There are three different endings for forming the imperative mood. Or actually six, since each has an informal and a formal (or plural) version.

-й, -йте

The stem ends in a vowel. думать (to think): они думают makes дума- the stem. Imperatives: думай, думайте. Think positive: думай позитивно. Do (делать) good, the right thing: делай добро.

-и, -ите

The stem ends in a consonant, and the stress in the я-form is on the last syllable. In the example of сказать: the imperatives скажи and скажите due to я скажу́.

In помнить (to remember) and молчать (to be silent), we get the same endings (помни, помните and молчи, молчите) because of the two consonants at the end in помн- (from они помнят) and молч- (from они молчат).

-ь, -ьте

In быть (to be), the stem also ends in a consonant (буд-, from они будут), but the stress in я бу́ду gives us будь and будьте for imperatives. будь здоров, be healthy, bless you. Будьте любезны, be kind, and вежливы, polite.

This is also the case with other verbs, such as ответить and готовить: imperative forms ответь, ответьте and готовь, готовьте, due to я отве́чу and я гото́влю.

Exceptions

Verbs with an irregular imperative form include есть (ешь, ешьте), лечь (ляг, лягте), and пить (пей, пейте).

Also дать and давать. You often hear дай or дайте (give, please give), and давай (or давайте). See 10 ways to use Давай in Russian (Hack Your Russian, 2021, 23 m) and Russian Verbs || Давáть – Дать (Русский язык в контексте, 2017, 14 m).

Don’t! and No

The imperative is often seen in combination with не (don’t, no). The command then becomes a prohibition, or a negative advice. The verbs in these constructions are always imperfective.

не болтай

Don’t smoke, don’t drink: не кури, не пей (не курите, не пейте). A better nation begins with the limited individual. These kinds of exhortations are often seen on Soviet propaganda posters (Плакаты СССР). A famous example is не болтай, a Russian version of Loose lips sink ships. From the verb болтать (also seen in Болтать – врагу помогать, chatter helps the enemy). Poster from 1941, by Нина Ватолина (1915–2002) and Николай Денисов (1917–1982).

Russian Through Propaganda

Language education using the плакаты at Russian Through Propaganda. The lessons are the length of a lecture, and not for beginners. When you’re ready and can spare the time, see Forming Russian Imperatives (Russian Through Propaganda, 2020, 52 m), More on the Russian Imperative (2020, 54 m) and Reviewing Imperatives, with Aspect (2020, 37 m). Introductions to the Russian Imperative in the following videos.

Imperative mood in Russian
(Russian Connection, 2020, 6 m)