[34] bossing people around – imperative

A step back...

What is the imperative? The imperative commands or requests of others to do a particular act. Imperatives are verbs. Examples are go! sit! and eat!

The imperative explained with examples

Creating the imperative form in Arabic is easy -- it's getting the person to do what you want that's a little trickier! First of all you can only use the imperative in the second person singular or plural: inta, inti, and intu(um). Nothing else. Third person imperatives won't work. Only in the second person can we directly command others. Notice below the alif is written without a hamza for the imperative. Also, the alif is always with a kasra in the imperative unless the verb has a damma in the middle radical in the indicative. MSA/Classical has a dual and plural feminine imperative as well.     Examples: 0-1  0-2 0-3 رَجَعَ --- يَرْجِعُ --- اِرْجِعْ سَمَعَ --- يَسْمَعُ --- اِسْمَع كَتَبَ --- يَكْتُبُ --- اُكْتُبْ   An example of the imperative for the verb daxal (he entered).       إحنا iḥna     أنْتَ تَدْخُلُ اُدْخُلْ     إنْتَ تِدْخُلْ اِدْخُلْ  1  inta tidxul id/xul - enter!   أنْتُمْ تَدْخُلونَ اُدْخُلوا إنْتُمْ تِدْخُلوا اِدْخُلـُوا 2 intu(m) tidxulu  id/xu/lu - enter! 3    أنْتِ تَدْخُلينَ اُدْخُلي 2-1 أنْتُما تَدْخُلانِ اُدْخُلا 3-1 إنْتِ تِدْخُلي اِدْخُلـي  3  inti  tidxuli  id/xu/li - enter!   أنْتُنَّ تَدْخُلْنَ اُدْخُلْنَ                 هو howwa     هم homma     هي hiyya

Be careful...

The imperative is derived from the present tense verb after removing the prefixes and leaving the suffixes. Also, if the first letter in the verb begins with a sequoun, after removing the prefixes, add a kasra under the alif at the onset of the word to change the vowel sequence. Why? Because in Arabic we can not have a sequoun at the onset of a word.

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