Verbs: Imperative Mood

01

Building the Forms

Start from the third person plural of the present tense and take off its ending. What is left is the imperative stem, and the three forms are built on it.

• dělají - dělej, dělejme, dělejte
• koupí - kup, kupme, kupte

• Dělej si, co chceš.

  Do what you like.

• Kupte si noviny.

  Buy a newspaper.

If the stem ends in a single consonant, the ty form is that stem bare and the others add -me and -te. If it ends in a cluster of consonants that would be hard to say, an -i appears, and the endings become -ěme and -ěte.

• Počkej chvíli.

  Wait a moment.

• Řekni mi to.

  Tell me.

02

The Polite and the Shared Form

The vy form does double duty: it commands several people and it is also the polite way to ask one person for something. The -me form includes you in what you are proposing.

• Pojďte dál.

  Come in.

• Pojďme do kina.

  Let's go to the cinema.

03

Negative Commands

Add ne- to the front, written as one word. A negative command also takes the imperfective verb, even where the positive command would have taken the perfective, because you are forbidding an activity rather than cancelling one finished act.

• Nedělej to!

  Don't do that!

• Nekuřte tady.

  Don't smoke here.

04

Reflexive Verbs

Se and si follow the imperative rather than preceding it, and they stay separate words.

• Posaď se.

  Sit down.

• Dejte si kávu.

  Have a coffee.

05

Irregular Imperatives

A handful of common verbs have imperatives you cannot derive from the rule.

• být - buď, buďme, buďte
• jít - jdi, jděme, jděte
• mít - měj, mějme, mějte
• jíst - jez, jezme, jezte

• Buď zticha.

  Be quiet.

• Mějte se hezky.

  Have a nice time.

06

Stems That Shift

A number of verbs shorten the vowel of their stem before the imperative endings, and a final t, d or n softens to ť, ď or ň. The written form changes, and so does the sound.

• koupit - kup
• vrátit - vrať
• zapomenout - zapomeň

• Vrať mi to.

  Give it back to me.

• Zapomeň na to.

  Forget about it.

07

Inviting Rather Than Ordering

For a suggestion, Czech very often reaches for pojď (come!) and its forms - a word of its own, not the imperative of jít - and puts a second verb after them in the infinitive. It is warmer than the plain -me form and extremely common in speech.

• Pojďme si zaplavat.

  Let's go for a swim.

• Pojď se podívat.

  Come and have a look.

08

Softening the Order

A bare imperative is direct, and among strangers it can sound brusque. Adding prosím turns it into a request; the word may stand at the front, at the end, or tucked in after the verb, and none of the three is more polite than the others.

• Zavřete prosím okno.

  Please close the window.

• Prosím, pojďte dál.

  Please come in.