Imperative Mood
Inflected imperative forms exist only for the second person. The other persons use periphrastic constructions. All regular verbs, regardless of conjugation, form the imperative mood in the same way:
- Stems ending in a vowel (which include all third-conjugation verbs) use the thematic (semi)vowel й (/j/) between the stem and the personal endings. These verbs usually do not have a stress shift, they keep the stress of the present tense, unless it is on the thematic vowel, in which case it moves on the preceding syllable, since /j/ is not a vowel and cannot be stressed.
- Stems ending in a consonant use the thematic vowel и (/i/) in the singular form and the vowel е (/ɛ/) in the plural form. The stress is always on the thematic vowel.
| Conjugation | Citation form |
Stem | Imperative mood | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Second person | ||||
| Singular | Plural | |||
| First | пиша /ˈpiʃə/ |
пиш- /piʃ/ |
пиши /piˈʃi/ |
пишете /piˈʃɛt̪ɛ/ |
| пея /ˈpɛjə/ |
пе- /pɛ/ |
пей /pɛj/ |
пейте /ˈpɛjt̪ɛ/ |
|
| Second | говоря /ɡoˈvɔrʲə/ |
говор- /ɡoˈvɔr/ |
говори /ɡo̝voˈri/ |
говорете /ɡo̝voˈrɛt̪ɛ/ |
| стоя /st̪oˈjɤ/ |
сто- /st̪o/ |
стой /st̪ɔj/ |
стойте /ˈst̪ɔjt̪ɛ/ |
|
| Third | искам /ˈiskəm/ |
иска- /ˈiskə/ |
искай /ˈiskəj/ |
искайте /ˈiskəjt̪ɛ/ |
| стрелям /ˈstrɛlʲəm/ |
стреля- /ˈstrɛlʲə/ |
стреляй /ˈstrɛlʲəj/ |
стреляйте /ˈstrɛlʲəjt̪ɛ/ |
|
Some verbs, most notably stems ending in з (/z/) from the first class of the first conjugation, and a few other frequently used ones, use only the bare stem without a thematic vowel:
| Citation form |
Stem | Imperative mood | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second person | |||
| Singular | Plural | ||
| вляза /ˈvlʲazə/ |
вляз- /vlʲaz/ |
влез* /vlɛs/ |
влезте* /ˈvlɛst̪ɛ/ |
| държа /d̪ɐrˈʒɤ/ |
държ- /d̪ɐrʒ/ |
дръж /d̪rɤʃ/ |
дръжте /ˈd̪rɤʃt̪ɛ/ |
* The yat vowel changes to е (/ɛ/).
Read more about this topic: Bulgarian Conjugation, Finite Forms
Famous quotes containing the words imperative and/or mood:
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—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“The child ... stands upon a place apart, a little spectator of the world, before whom men and women come and go, events fall out, years open their slow story and are noted or let go as his mood chances to serve them. The play touches him not. He but looks on, thinks his own thought, and turns away, not even expecting his cue to enter the plot and speak. He waits,—he knows not for what.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)