B-1: Du-Imperative

You learned that German has several words for you: du is the informal singular you, ihr is the informal plural you (equivalent to ‘you all’ or ‘you guys’), and Sie is the formal You, both singular and plural.

You also learned that every time when du does an action, we add the ending -st to the action, e.g. du gehst (you are going), du öffnest (you are opening), etc.

In this story, Wolfgang is addressing Roboter informally and is, therefore, using the du-form. To give informal commands, all we do is keep the du-form, but get rid of the word du and the -st ending:

Du gehst  = geh!             Du öffnest  = öffne!

you are going = go!         you are opening = open!

Keep in mind that for those tricky verbs that change e>i and e>ei with du and er/sie/es, (e.g. sehen: ich sehe → du siehst; ich nehme → du nimmst), the change is still there in the command:

sieh! nimm!

However, there is no change for those tricky verbs that change a>ä with du and er/sie/es:

waschen, ich wasche → du wäschst; wasch!

Aufgabe 1. Write the imperative form of the following verbs (write your answers as if they are complete sentences). Pay attention to the rules above.

1. sprechen
2. weggehen
3. fahren
4. lessen
5. aussteigen
6. sich duschen
7. essen
8. sich beeilen
9. einschlafen
10. helfen
11. sich umsehen
12. laufen
13. sein
14. zurückkommen
15. sich anziehen