Imperative Mood - Morphology

Morphology

Formulation of the English imperative simply uses the bare infinitive form of the verb. The infinitive form usually corresponds to the second-person present indicative form, with the exception of the verb be. The subject of these sentences is usually understood as you (the second person) except in the case of "Let's" which implies first person and at least a second person. Other languages such as Latin, French and German have several inflected imperative forms, which can vary according to grammatical categories such as:

• Distinct conjugation patterns;
• Grammatical number;
• Distinct grammatical persons.

For instance, Latin regular forms can exist:

• amā (singular); amāte (plural) ← from infinitive amāre, to 'love'
• monē (singular); monēte (plural) ← from monēre, to 'advise' or 'warn'
• audī (singular); audīte (plural) ← from audīre, to 'hear'
• cape (singular); capite (plural) ← from capĕre, to 'take'
• rege (singular); regite (plural) ← from regĕre, to 'reign'.

Some consider this richness of forms useful for a better understanding, particularly because no subject pronoun normally specifies with the imperative.