The imperative is used when giving a direction, an order or telling someone to do something. On the surface that may sound like it’s a rather stern aspect of Irish grammar but it’s not. The imperative just indicates things like general directions, instructions, recipe notes or anything that requires instructive manuals. To do this we use the root of the verb.
One simple example (which was also explored in my post on directions), is cas ar dheis (turn right). The word cas is the instruction we’re giving but it’s important to note that the infinitive form is only referring to one person. If I were to instruct multiple people, for example, I would use casaigí.
Below are some more examples of the imperative at play (with one person in mind):
| Siúil! | Walk! |
| Cas! | Turn! |
| Tiomáin! | Drive! |
| Brostaigh! | Hurry! |
| Éist! | Listen! |
As mentioned, if I were to give these same directions to a group of people I would add different endings to the infinitive of the verb depending on its conjugation. To do this we take the infinitive and we would use the ending -aigí -aígí and -igí -ígí depending on whether the infinitive (root form) is broad or slender.
For one-syllable verbs, we generally add the ending to the infinitive itself. To find the correct form for verbs of more than one syllable we usually remove the ‘-aigh/-igh’ ending from the infinitive before adding the appropriate ending. Single syllable slender verb examples:
| Suigh síos! (telling one person to sit down) | Suígí síos [telling more than one person to sit down] |
| Rith! (telling one person to run) | Rithigí [telling more than one person to run] |
| Stop! (telling one person to stop) | Stopaigí [telling more than one person to stop] |
Multiple syllable broad verb examples:
| Brostaigh! (telling one person to hurry) | Brostaigí [telling more than one person to hurry] |
| Ceannaigh é! (telling one person to buy it) | Ceannaigí é [telling more than one person to buy it] |
| Bailigh leat! (telling one person to move along) | Bailígí libh! [telling more than one person to move along] |
There are a few exceptions to the rules. Firstly, for Two-syllable verbs that end with (a)il, (a)in, (a)it or (a)is, we drop the (a)i part and replace it with aígí or ígí (depending on if you have a broad or slender ending).
Also worth noting that certain verbs in the Second Conjugation are syncopated and the relevant ending is added. For example, we can break inis and ceangail down as follows:
| Ceangail (to tie) | Ceangl- + aigí | Ceanglaígí XYZ [telling more than one person to tie] |
| Inis (to tell) | Ins- + ígí | Insígí [telling more than one person to tell] |
In one-syllable verbs that end in -igh, we replace the -igh with igí for more than one person. For example:
| Nigh do lámha (telling one person to clean their hands) | Nígí [telling more than one person to clean] |
When giving a negative command, you begin with ná in front of the verb and if it begins with a vowel, you prefix that with an h-.
| Ná hosclaígí XYZ | Don’t open XYZ [telling more than one person not to open something] |
| Ná déan sin | Don’t do that / Stop that (to one person) |
| Ná himrígí XYZ | Don’t play XYZ [telling more than one person not to play something] |
| Ná habair | Don’t say (to one person) |
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