Day 24 of 30
0 / 4sub-lessons done
Day 24 Premium
Getting things done — the imperative. the imperative
The imperative is the tense of commands, instructions and requests. 'Vai!' (go!), 'Senta, scusi' (excuse me — to a stranger), 'Aggiungi il sale' (add the salt). On Day 3 you learned a few formal direction commands; today you systematize the whole thing — informal (tu) for friends, formal (Lei) for officials, the negative, and how pronouns attach to the verb. It's the difference between 'Dammi la penna' (give me the pen — to a friend) and 'Mi dia la penna' (the polite version).
Pick a lesson to start
01Informal commands
Tell a friend, flatmate or classmate what to do: 'Vai!' (go!), 'Prendi!' (take it!), 'Senti!' (listen!), 'Guarda!' (look!).
8–10 min
02Formal commands
Give a polite command to a stranger, official, professor or shopkeeper: 'Vada' (go), 'Prenda' (take it), 'Senta, scusi' (excuse me), 'Aspetti' (wait), 'Mi dica'…
8–10 min
03Commands and pronouns
Stick a pronoun onto a command.
8–10 min
04Following instructions
Read and follow real Italian instructions — a recipe, a set of directions, an assembly guide.
8–10 min
Hindi gives commands the same way — including the negative
The Italian negative command 'non + infinitive' maps almost exactly onto Hindi 'mat': 'mat jao' → 'non andare', 'mat chhuo' → 'non toccare'. Gluing a pronoun onto a command (dammi, dimmi) feels like Hindi attaching postpositions onto a word, so 'dammi' is less alien than it looks. And a recipe in Hindi is the same chain of commands — 'namak daalo, milao' = 'aggiungi il sale, mescola' — so reading an Italian ricetta will feel instantly familiar.
Open Day 24 cheat sheet 1-page PDF