Improve your English in the Reading Rooms
Listen and write
Red Level
Lesson Four
Commands
Also known as the imperative form, commands are very easy to use. Begin the sentence with a verb and end with an object, a person or a thing.
Tell someone to do something:
* Answer the phone, please.
* Drive to the post office.
* Help me find this information.
The subject in each of these sentences is “you,” but it doesn’t sound correct to use the subject.
* You answer the phone, please.
* You drive to the post office.
* You help me.
Tell someone not to do something:
* Don’t do that. (The subject is “you.”)
* Don’t hit him.
* Don’t drive a car without a seat belt.
In each sentence above, the present tense is used and the subject is “you.
The polite form of a command uses the word “please.”
* Please give that to me.
* Pass the potatoes, please. (Use the word “pass” when you sit at a table with other people and eat food.)
If someone doesn’t do what you wanted him or her to do, use the word “tell.” For examples, click here.