RUSSIAN IMPERATIVE MOOD (COMMAND FORM)

Imperative mood is very important in Russian!

And your first Russian word ЗДРАВСТВУЙТЕ is an imperative aspect of the verb ЗДРАВСТВОВАТЬ (to be healthy and wealthy). Did you know that?

How do we form imperatives? We need to conjugate a verb in the third person plural form and change the ending to -й (for the first group verbs) and -и (for the second group).

Here are a few examples:

1.ДЕЛАТЬ (First group verb)

ОНИ ДЕЛАЮТ —> ДЕЛАЙ

To make it formal add -те:

ДЕЛАЙ + ТЕ —> ДЕЛАЙТЕ

2. ГОВОРИТЬ (Second group verb)

ОНИ ГОВОРЯТ —> ГОВОРИ

To make it formal add -те:

ГОВОРИ + ТЕ —> ГОВОРИТЕ

Sometimes there is a soft sign instead of и or й

ВЕРИТЬ to believe – ОНИ ВЕРЯТ they believe – ВЕРЬ believe (imperative informal) – ВЕРЬТЕ believe (imperative formal)

БРОСИТЬ to throw – ОНИ БРОСЯТ (they’ll throw) – БРОСЬ throw (imperative informal) – БРОСЬТЕ throw (imperative formal)

Imperfective and perfective imperative are formed according to the same rule, but their functions are different! See the attached photo! And let me know if there are any questions left!

Use imperative in real life conversations with Russian in Russia! Come to Petrozavodsk winter course. Enroll now