The Imperative

The Imperative, or امری in Persian, is used to give commands. It is formed with the Present stem of the verb, preceded by -ب, as well as glliding -ی-. It only has two forms, formal and informal 'you', as no others would make sense in the context of giving commands! The Imperative normally comes at the start of a sentence.

.مواظب باش دوربین را ندزدند = Be careful that the camera may not be stolen.

For the Imperative of the verb داشتن the forms of the Present Perfect are used. The Imperative forms are also common; however, they appear elevated: It should be noticed that, in the Imperative, verbs with a present stem ending in و- are pronounced as ending -ow, unless the stem is followed by ید-, in which case the -و- is prounced as -av-.

In older texts and proverbs you may also find the stressed negative prefix -م, although this is never used in Modern Persian.

To negate the Imperative, replace -ب at the beginning with -ن.