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Impératif passé
To give an order for something to be done before something else or by a certain time, you can use the French past imperative.
Par exemple…
| Aie fini le travail quand j’arrive. | Have the work finished when I arrive. | |
| Soyons rentrés avant minuit. | Let’s be back home by midnight. |
The past imperative is very rare – you can generally use the regular imperative for a very similar meaning. Nonetheless, you should be able to recognize the conjugations.
Past imperative conjugations
The past imperative is a compound verb form, which means its conjugation has two components:
| verb | conjugation | |
| 1. | auxiliary (avoir or être) | imperative |
| 2. | main verb | past participle |
Like the imperative, the past imperative has conjugations for only three grammatical persons:
Par exemple…
Avoir verb: donner (to give)
| (tu) | aie donné | |
| (nous) | ayons donné | |
| (vous) | ayez donné |
Être verb: sortir (to go out)
| (tu) | sois sorti(e) | |
| (nous) | soyons sorti(e)s | |
| (vous) | soyez sorti(e)(s) |
Pronominal verb: s’habiller (to get dressed)
| (tu) | te sois habillé(e) | |
| (nous) | nous soyons habillé(e)s | |
| (vous) | vous soyez habillé(e)(s) |
Past participle agreement
As in all compound conjugations, the past participle in the past imperative may need to agree in gender and number with the word it modifies – learn more.
Related lessons
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