Bonjour ,

The imperative mood is the sergeant major mood. He gives orders and it's imperative that you follow them! The imperative mood is giving orders, making polite requests and suggestions. 

• Come here!👇 Do this! 👉 Don't do that! 👈  Eat your broccoli! 🥦! Don't drink too much!🍹 Ne bois pas trop!
• Please pass me the peanuts cacahuètes. 🥜  Please start again Recommencez s'il vous plaît. 🎬 
• Let's go to the beach. Allons à la plage! 🏖️ Let's eat! 🍽️, Mangeons! Or in the words of David Bowie 'Let's dance!' 🕺🏽  💃🏿  Dansons!

The beauty of learning a language like French when you're a speaker of English is that sometimes there are massive similarities compared to learning a language like say Japanese. 🇯🇵

The imperative in French and English are very similar. 

In English we may make a statement like - 'You eat the broccoli' but if we want to tell someone to eat the broccoli 🥦 and we want to tell them that in no uncertain terms, we drop the word 'you' 'Eat the broccoli!' And it's the same in French - Mange les brocolis! or Mangez les brocolis! The subject pronouns for 'you' tu/vous are dropped in French too. 

You can soften the order with a s'il te plaît/s'il vous plaît to make it into a polite request. 🙇

In English to make a suggestion we have a funny way of doing it - 'Let's do this/that or the other.' 

'Let's' - meaning 'let us' sounds so strange when you pause and think about it - it sounds so old fashioned and like you're a 🤴 king giving permission to the court to have fun - 'Let us drink!'

Anyhow, there's no 'Let us/Let's' in French. All you have to do is use the nous conjugation in the present tense but drop the subject pronoun nous. 'Buvons!' 🍷

You'll get plenty of practise in this course so that you get the repetition needed for the imperative to feel more natural to you in French. Plenty of practical examples and daft associations to make the tricky French as sticky as honey. 🍯

'Cecile’s approach to teaching the French conversation class is friendly, relaxed and very supportive. I’ve enjoyed the opportunities to practise speaking using idioms and everyday expressions, as well as revising grammatical structures. I also feel I’ve ‘tuned in’ more to the language and have learned more about French language and culture. My pronunciation has improved too! The classes have been very enjoyable and informative. Cecile helped to give me the confidence to have a go at speaking French in a variety of situations when I was there recently. Merci beaucoup Cecile. Sheila

What you get:

• Over 3.5 hours of video in total (you can revisit them as often as you need to) 📹
• Written summaries (you don't even have to lift a pen if you don't want to) 📄
• Practice questions with the answers (to see what you've remembered and where the gaps are) ✍🏾
• French songs (with lyrics and translations - powerful way to learn) 🎶
• Games (to make learning fun - it's not just kids who benefit from playing!) 🎲

You've probably heard the expression 'Vive la France!' 🇫🇷  which is translated often as 'Long live France!' - This expression is in the imperative mood. It's the kind of kingly/queenly exclamations such as, 'Vive le roi!' 'Vive la reine!'. 👸

Another way in English is saying things like - 'May she live a long and 🍐 fruitful life!' or in a 💒 wedding speech, 'May they be happy together!' Qu'ils soient heureux ensemble! (Lit. 'That they be happy together!')

In the examples above the 3rd person singular & plural are used without the subject pronouns il/elle/ils/elles. 

The imperative mood is useful for rousing the audience and the crowds. 📣

With every course you're building your ability to converse and understand French. You're layering on the French like an artist layers on the paint of a 🖼️  painting. You've done the base coats - the foundations. You've added a layer 🎨  of past here and there to give your French some perspective. You've even added some important details 🖌️ with the conjunctions, prepositions & pronouns. More recently you've brought the painting into the present and with this course you're adding some bold colours to capture some attention and stamp your authority. 🤜🏻

Sometimes to get what you want you have to just come straight out with it with the imperative! So learn the imperative to make progress with your French!

Bring out your inner control freak - put on your bossy boots and tell the world what you want them to do! 👢

CécileBB :-)

P.S. When you've done the course you'll deserve your sergeant major's virtual medal - something to look forward to! 🎖️