Imperativ (zapovedni način)
Overview
Use the imperative for commands, requests and instructions: Читај! (Read!), Седите! (Sit down!). It addresses ти, ми (let us) or ви.
The imperative is built from the present tense, not the infinitive: take the 3rd person plural form (they-form) you already know from the lesson on the present tense, and apply one of three mechanical rules depending on its ending.
Formation - three rules from the 3rd person plural
If the 3rd plural ends in -ају, drop -ају and add -ај: читају (they read) → читај. If it ends in -ју after a vowel, drop -ју and add -ј: пију (they drink) → пиј. Everything else - a 3rd plural ending in -е or -у - drops that final vowel and adds -и: говоре (they speak) → говори, пишу (they write) → пиши.
Once you have this 2nd person singular form, the plural endings are automatic: add -мо for ми and -те for ви - говори → говоримо / говорите.
Irregular imperatives
Memorize буди (be) and реци (say): both are exceptions to the formation rules. In реци, к changes to ц before -и (реку → реци). Једи (eat) and дођи (come) follow the regular -у → -и rule (једу → једи, дођу → дођи).
Моћи (to be able to) has no imperative form at all - use another verb instead, such as Покушај! (Try!).
Negative imperative - не vs. немој(те)
Use не + an imperfective imperative for an ordinary prohibition: Не говори тако! With either aspect, немој(те) + да + present works: Немој да говориш тако! / Немој да закасниш! A bare infinitive is also possible after немој(те): Немој говорити тако!.
Bare не + perfective imperative is possible, but usually sounds like a warning: Не реци то! For an ordinary prohibition, немој(те) да + present is the safe choice with either aspect.
Softening a command - хајде, изволите
Хајде turns a command into an encouragement or a shared suggestion - Хајде, идемо! (Come on, let's go!) - and never conjugates. Изволите politely invites someone to do something (sit, enter, take an item) rather than ordering them - Изволите, седите. (Please, sit down.) Both are register tools; see the B2 lesson on register and style for the fuller formal/informal system they belong to.
Tables
| 3rd plural ending | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -aju | drop -aju, add -aj | čitaju → čitaj |
| -ju (after a vowel) | drop -ju, add -j | piju → pij |
| -e / -u (everything else) | drop the final vowel, add -i | govore → govori; pišu → piši |
Examples
Compared with…
English marks the imperative with the bare infinitive and nothing else - Speak!, „Don't speak!“ - with no distinction between commanding one person and several, and no aspect choice at all. Serbian's separate ти/ви endings and its imperfective-vs-perfective decision in negation are both genuinely new categories, not stricter versions of anything English already marks.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- Find the verb's 3rd person plural first (you already know it from the lesson on the present tense), then apply the three-way rule mechanically - the imperative almost never needs to be memorized separately for regular verbs.
- буди, једи, реци, дођи are extremely frequent - learn all four as fixed chunks; буди and реци are the true exceptions to the three-way rule, while једи and дођи just save you a step (same rule, applied to једу/дођу, which are themselves worth knowing by heart).
- Немој(те) да + present is the safe, all-purpose negative command - it accepts both aspects, so default to it whenever you're unsure which prohibition pattern fits.
- Моћи has no imperative form at all - a command to be able to do something makes no sense; reach for a different verb (e.g. Покушај!, Try!) when you need to encourage an attempt.
- A reflexive verb's се keeps the exact same second-position rule in imperative clauses as everywhere else - since the subject is dropped, се simply follows the verb: „Обуци се!“ (see the lesson on reflexive verbs). Обуци itself needs the same к→ц switch before -и as реци does: обући's 3rd plural is обуку, so the rule above would predict *обуки, but к becomes ц before -и - the same palatalization, not limited to реци alone.
Summary
Opens Focus mode: one exercise at a time, with explanations - either script accepted.