Past Imperative

French past imperative
Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

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

 Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

French past imperative

Questions about French?

 Visit the Progress with Lawless French Q+A forum to get help from native French speakers and fellow learners.

More Lawless French

 Subscribe to my twice-weekly newsletter.

Support Lawless French

  This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.

If you love it, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation.

Your support is entirely optional but tremendously appreciated.

Leave a Reply