Imperative mood in Russian

In Russian, the imperative mood (повелительное наклонение) is used to give commands, requests, or advice. It is formed differently depending on the verb conjugation and the level of politeness.

Forming the Imperative Mood

There are two main forms: informal (singular) and formal/polite/plural.

1. Informal (Singular) Imperative

For most verbs, remove the present/future tense ending and add:

• -и (if the stem ends in a consonant cluster or ж, ч, ш, щ)
• -ь (if the stem ends in a vowel or a single consonant)

Verb (Infinitive)	Present Stem	Imperative (Singular)
говорить (to speak)	говор-	говори́! (Speak!)
писать (to write)	пиш-	пиши́! (Write!)
читать (to read)	чита-	чита́й! (Read!)
делать (to do)	дела-	де́лай! (Do!)
закрыть (to close)	закр-	закро́й! (Close!)

2. Formal/Polite or Plural Imperative

Add -те to the singular form:

• говори́те! (Speak! – formal/plural)
• пиши́те! (Write! – formal/plural)
• чита́йте! (Read! – formal/plural)

Irregular Imperatives

Some verbs have irregular imperative forms:

Verb	Imperative (Singular)	Imperative (Plural/Formal)
есть (to eat)	ешь!	е́шьте!
дать (to give)	дай!	да́йте!
идти́ (to go)	иди́!	иди́те!
лечь (to lie down)	ляг!	ля́гте!
пить (to drink)	пей!	пе́йте!

So, adding -и́ or -ь is not intuitive and requires knowing another verb form and its stress pattern, which learners might not have mastered yet. PROMT.One Conjugator is always here to help you. With one click, you can access complete conjugation tables for any Russian verb including the right Imperative forms.