Stop doing what you’re doing and focus on this post! If you recognized that first sentence as the imperative mood, or directive, you’ve already got a head start. Dutch also features this grammatical jewel, and we call it the gebiedende wijs. It’s quite a simple one to learn, at least the basic version of it, and it comes in handy on many occasions. Let’s see how it works!
The imperative mood exists in many languages, and it’s used to demand an action. In Dutch, it’s called the gebiedende wijs – gebieden is a somewhat archaic verb meaning to command (in biblical terms, we have the Tien Geboden, our version of the Ten Commandmends), and wijs, at least in this case, means manner, or way.
The basic imperative
In Dutch, the imperative mood is formed by simply using the stem of the verb – and then applying some basic pronunciation rules, the most important of which are:
- Single vowels can turn into double vowels when necessary for pronunciation
- Letters like z and v can turn into s and f
- When you end up with two instances of the same consonant at the end of the word, one will disappear, except in some loan words
Don’t worry about these rules too much for now, we’ll use a simple verb in which they don’t come into play.
For the verb werken (Eng: to work), the stem, and therefore the imperative mood, is werk:
werk harder! (Eng: work harder!)
This basic version of the imperative is almost always formed like this – the past tense doesn’t usually come into play (although there are versions of it in the past tense), and the amount of people you’re talking to doesn’t matter either – with one small exception, about which I’ll explain some more later.
Since the imperative is a command, it’s often experienced in a somewhat negative way, but Dutch also features a few often-used versions with a rather positive meaning:
eet smakelijk (bon appetit / enjoy your meal, literally: eat tastily)
slaap lekker (sleep well – more about lekker in this post)
Occasionally, we don’t use the stem to form the imperative, but the infinitive. These types of commands can also be phrased using the classic way described above, but the following versions are also correct:
niet praten (Eng: don’t talk – alternatively: praat niet)
links aanhouden (Eng: keep left – alternatively: houd links aan)
This can technically be done for every imperative, but it’s most used in situations where it’s meant slightly less polite than a question, but more polite than an actual command – you’ll often find a.u.b. written after it, meaning: alstublieft, or simply: please.
The plural imperative
As stated before, the basic version of the imperative always has the same form, regardless of how many people you’re addressing. This hasn’t always been the case, though. There used to be a proper plural imperative, which was created by using the stem and adding a -t to it. While this is quite archaic, it’s still used in some well-known phrases:
komt allen (Eng: come all)
makkers, staakt uw wild geraas (Eng: comrades, cease your wild noise) (this is a line in a Dutch Sinterklaas song)
staakt-het-vuren (Eng: cease-fire – even English often adds the hyphen in this case, for it has been turned into a noun in both languages)
These examples are all considered very old-fashioned, and in general, the added -t doesn’t occur, not even in the plural form.
Imperatives with a subject
This always-singular, always-stem form is only the case when the sentence doesn’t contain a subject, or lijdend voorwerp in Dutch. When it does, things change, and we do use the form of the verb that corresponds with the subject, as per our general rules of verb conjugation. For example:
stoppen jullie daar eens mee! (Eng: knock it off, you guys!)
schieten jullie eens op! (Eng: hurry up, people!)
Just like English, the Dutch imperative can also be used as an invitation or a wish. Compare these, for example:
kom vanavond even langs! (Eng: swing by tonight!)
geniet ervan! (Eng: enjoy it!)
Long story short
The imperative mood is very useful, whether you’re trying to get a specific action out of somebody, or you’re simply inviting or allowing them to do something. The basic Dutch version of it is quite easy to use, although there are some different ways to use it that are a bit more difficult to wrap your head around.
Still, it will come in handy to get the basics down – not in the last place because the Dutch tend to be quite direct, and you may well have versions of it flung your way quite often. For now, lees some of the other articles on DutchDabbles, probeer to improve your skills, and geniet van whatever it is you’re doing next.
