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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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Interesting.
Aie fini quand j’arrive
Ou
quand j’arriverai
Quand j’arrive le matin au boulot, il est toujours en train de bosser.
C’est l’indicatif car ça montre une habitude.
Cependant, je crois que l’on utilise le futur pour la première phrase puisque vous parlez du moment où vous arriverez.
Peut-être bien que je me goure… je sais pas…
Aie fini quand j’arrive. It’s a matter of concordance des temps – you can’t use a past tense and a future tense in joined clauses.