imperative mood
- noun
- /ɪmˈpɛrətɪv muːd/
- Specialized
:
modo imperativo
- He limited himself to the imperative mood, the realm of injunction and command; the kinds of statements that required no answer, that left no opening for discussion or rejoinder.
Examples
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When a foreign policy imbroglio threatened, she was ever ready to ply those prime ministers with letters and telegrams of advice, often couched in the imperative mood.
Academic text (1997) -
The teacher asked the students to write sentences using the imperative mood for their grammar exercise.
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Recall for a moment the discussion of the imperative mood, an illocutionary indicator.
Academic text (2006) -
Then, we could make it completely bossy by putting it into the imperative mood: "Don't come with me."
Blog text (31) -
The imperative mood that predominates places them outside of sequential time and gives them the suggestion of ever-recurrent vividness.
Academic text (1990) -
Imperatives include all the negative propositions in the imperative mood, though the category covers different illocutionary acts (request, order, expression of sympathy, etc.):
Academic text (2003) -
To give clear instructions, you should always use the imperative mood when writing tutorials.
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In English, the imperative mood allows us to tell someone what to do, like "Close the door."
Synonyms
7
6.0
A verb form used to give a command or request
A verb form used to give a command or request
A verb that tells someone to do something, like 'Sit' or 'Be quiet'
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'imperative' denotes commands or orders and 'mood' denotes a grammatical category, so together they denote the grammatical category for commands. This is a conventional, cross-linguistic grammatical label, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
The term imperative mood comes from an old Latin word meaning 'to command', so imperative relates to 'order'. That's why we use the imperative mood for sentences like 'Sit down!' when we tell someone to do something.