English Lessons
Welcome to a free English lesson from Maltalingua. Today you will be focusing on the Imperatives. A simple idea with so many different uses – You have probably used or heard imperatives before, in your language or in English. If you’ve been to an English school, like Maltalingua, your teacher probably used them many times: “Open your book”, “Go to page 6” and so on. We can use imperatives to give orders, but not only – find out more in this free English lesson on imperatives and how to use them! This lesson is aimed at students learning English at Pre-Intermediate level or above.

Imperatives have a very simple form. All you need to do is to take any verb in English that you want to use as an imperative and remove ‘to’. For example, if you want someone to open their book or to listen to you:
  • To open —> “Open your book.”
  • To listen —> “Listen to me.”
If you want to form a negative imperative (something you don’t want someone to do) simply add ‘don’t’ before the verb. For example, if you want someone not to speak or not to shout:
  • To (not) speak —> “Don’t speak, I’m talking to you.”
  • To (not shout —> “Don’t shout, the baby’s asleep.”
We can use imperatives for many different things, not only for orders. We can use them to do the following:
  • To give directions: Turn left, Take the second right. / Cross the road.
  • To give advice/suggestions: Don’t watch that movie. / Take an umbrella with you, it’s raining!
  • To ask someone to do something: Come in, sit down. / Listen to this.
  • To wish someone something: Have a lovely day. / Enjoy your holiday.
  • To make offers: Make yourself at home. / Have some juice (or some cake).
Discover more of Maltalingua’s free English lessons. Explore more about -ed endings here. Check out our other brilliant free English lessons here.