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The Imperative or How to order people around The
imperative is the form of verbs used to give commands or to forbid
something (in the negative). In Gaelic it corresponds to the
citation form of verbs, i.e. the form of a the verb you will find in a
dictionary. To give a command to more than one addressee, the
suffix -(a)ibh [ɪv]
If a basic verb phrase includes a preposition, this is usually dropped in the imperative, e.g.
Emphasis is expressed by using the emphasized personal pronouns, e.g.
There are also imperative forms for the first and third persons singular and plural. These carry a sense of encouragement or request, best translated as 'let ...' - also referred to as subjunctive forms. The third person is always followed by a personal pronoun. Thus the full paradigm of suffixes is:
Examples (NB: 'let' in the imperative does not carry the meaning of 'give permission' but more like a suggestion or encouragement, like in English 'let's go!' or à la Marie Antoinette 'let them eat cake!')
The negative is formed by putting na in front of the imperative forms. Na prefixes h- to a verb beginning with a vowel, e.g.
There are a few verbs which are only used in the imperative:
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