Besuch deine Freunde in Berlin! The Imperative

The imperative is the verb form for a command. To form a command we must put the verb in the first position. With second person familiar (du) the verb appears as verb stem only, blunt and without ending.

Mach eine Pause.

Sing!

Lach!

There are some exceptions, for example when the verb stem ends with a -t.

Arbeite jetzt.

Warte!

With second person formal (Sie), the word order in imperative is the same but the verb is followed by Sie.

Machen Sie eine Pause!

Singen Sie!

With ihr we drop the personal pronoun.

Macht eine Pause!

The verb sein changes for first person singular, familiar (du-people).

Sei ruhig! (be quiet)

Second person formal (Sie-people).

Seien Sie nett. (be nice)

First person plural, familiar (ihr-people)

Seid nicht so böse. (don't be so nasty)

The verb combined with the word “doch” the command turns into a suggestion.

Was soll ich machen?

Besuch doch deine Freunde in Berlin.

Your friends are visiting you in Berlin. They have no idea what to do. Here is a list of possible activities. Choose five activities and write them as suggestions. In addition, you can make your own suggestion.

For example:

a) Geh doch ins Berghain.

b) das Brandenburger Tor fotografieren

c) E-Mails schreiben

d) Freunde einladen (separate verb!)

e) Abendessen kochen

f) im Tempelhof-Park Würstchen grillen

g) nach Potsdam fahren

h) im Tiergarten spazieren

i) Champagner im KaDeWe trinken

j) ein BVG-Ticket kaufen

k) ein Fußballspiel besuchen

l) eine Party feiern

m) im Club zu elektronischer Musik tanzen