KS4 · German · Year 11
Wie komme ich am besten ... ? Formal and informal imperatives
My neighbourhood: Mein Wohnort
Learn it. Recall it. Make it stick.
IllumED Slides
IllumED · 1/11
Your learning goal
I can understand and use informal and formal imperatives for giving instructions, directions and advice.
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Wie komme ich am besten ... ? Formal and informal imperatives: slides adapted from the imported teaching text; recall questions created from its keywords, learning points and common mistakes. Self-check practice, with no automatic grading or XP. Answers stay on this page and are cleared when you leave.
Original teaching resources
The original illustrated PowerPoint is available as well as the IllumED text slides. It retains the publisher’s design and credits.
Download original PowerPoint ↓What you’ll learn
I can understand and use informal and formal imperatives for giving instructions, directions and advice.
Key learning points
- Imperative verbs are used to give instructions, directions, or advice.
- For the ‘du’ imperative of weak and strong verbs, remove the ‘-st’ and the 'du'. Omit umlauts added as a stem change.
- To use the 'ihr' form of the imperative of weak and strong verbs, just remove the pronoun 'ihr'.
- To use the formal 'Sie' form of the imperative, swap the position of the verb and subject pronoun 'Sie'.
- 'Sein' is irregular in the 'du' and 'Sie' forms of the imperative. Use 'sei', 'seid' and 'Seien Sie'.
Words to know
- imperative
- a mood used to give instructions, directions or advice
- du
- subject pronoun meaning ‘you’, informal and singular
- ihr
- subject pronoun meaning ‘you’, informal and plural
- Sie
- subject pronoun meaning ‘you’, formal
Common mistakes
Always leave out the subject pronoun when using the imperative.
The 'du' and 'ihr' forms of the imperative omit the subject pronoun, but the 'Sie' form retains it.
For parents, carers and teachers
- The formation of the imperative is Higher-only grammar. Students might enjoy giving their own directions using the imperative around the classroom or school, using e.g., 'Geh/Geht/Gehen Sie' and 'Nimm/Nehmt/ Nehmen Sie'.