22/08/2017 - Imperative Mood by Ana Diana

On August, 22th we had, as often, a great and important English class over the "Imperative Mood". This concept was brought up to us by our beloved English teacher, who which it doesn't need presentations, Mrs. Ana Diana. So, let's talk about Imperative Mood.

By definition, the Imperative Mood is a grammatical mood that forms commands or requests, including giving permission or declaring a prohibition or any other kind of advice or exhortation.

An example of a verb used in the imperative mood is the English sentence "Please be quiet". Such imperatives imply a second-person subject (you), but some languages also have first- and third-person imperatives, with the meaning of "let's (do something)" or "let him/her/them (do something)" (the forms may alternatively be called cohortative and jussive).

Usage

Imperatives are used principally for ordering, requesting or advising the listener to do (or not to do) something: "Put down the gun!"; "Pass me the sauce"; "Don't go too near the tiger." They are also often used for giving instructions as to how to perform a task ("Install the file, then restart your computer"). They can sometimes be seen on signs giving orders or warnings ("Stop"; "Give way"; "Do not enter").

The use of the imperative mood may be seen as impolite, inappropriate or even offensive in certain circumstances. In polite speech, orders or requests are often phrased instead as questions or statements, rather than as imperatives:

• Could you come here for a moment? (more polite than "Come here!")

• It would be great if you made us a drink. (for "Make us a drink!")

• I have to ask you to stop. (for "Stop!")

Politeness strategies (for instance, indirect speech acts) can seem more appropriate in order not to threaten a conversational partner in their needs of self-determination and territory: the partner's negative face should not appear threatened. As well as the replacement of imperatives with other sentence types as discussed above, there also often exist methods of phrasing an imperative in a more polite manner, such as the addition of a word like please or a phrase like if you could.

Imperatives are also used for speech acts whose function is essentially not to make an order or request, but to give an invitation, give permission, express a wish, make an apology, etc.:

• Come to the party tomorrow! (invitation)

• Eat the apple if you want. (permission)

• Have a nice trip! (wish)

• Pardon me. (apology)

• Visit Brazil! (advertisement)

When written, imperative sentences are often, but not always, terminated with an exclamation mark.

First person plural imperatives (cohortatives) are used mainly for suggesting an action to be performed together by the speaker and the addressee (and possibly other people): "Let's go to Barbados this year"; "Let us pray". Third person imperatives (jussives) are used to suggest or order that a third party or parties be permitted or made to do something: "Let them eat cake"; "Let him be executed".

There is an additional imperative form that is used for general prohibitions, consisting of the word "no" followed by the gerund form. The best known examples are "No Smoking" and "No Parking". This form does not have a positive form; that is, "Parking" by itself has no meaning unless used as a noun when it tells that parking is permitted.

The concept of Imperative Mood is similar to Injunctive Mood, both describes an objective way to give an instruction in order to get a specific result or action.

Afterwards, Diana gave us a sheet containing, as an example, The 30 Do's and Don'ts of Classroom Etiquette for Teachers and for Students, and asks us to add, at least one "Do and Don't" sentence, for teachers as well as students. You can have this sheet just clicking on the link above.

She ends the class presenting us a Beatle's song named Hey Jude and asks the classmates to fulfill the gaps (words/expressions) of the song lyrics on this exercise as follow.