Video:Learn German: Conjugate Commands

Transcript:Learn German: Conjugate Commands

Hello, my name is Ana, and I am here for About.com from BSL. I am going to introduce to you how the commands in German are conjugated.

Expressing Commands in German

Whereas in English we only have one form to express commands, and that is the infinitive without "to," in German we have three, depending on the person. For example to say "come" in an informal way, we take the second person of the verb, for example of the verb "kommen," "to come": "du kommst," and we take away the ending, "st" and we also take away "du "Komm": "come," in an informal way.

Courtesy German Command

We also have the courtesy form, “Sie kommen”: “you come”, addressing the person in a polite way. To make the command, we invert the order: "kommen Sie." We invert the order of the “Predikat” (predikative) and the subject. Come, formal way.

German Conjugation for a Group

Then, if we refer to a group of people, so it is the second-person, plural: "ihr kommt." This is very simple: we take away the subject, and we leave the form with the "t" at the end: “kommt," "come," you group, you group of people. "Let us come," "let us go": in German we have the same structure and we do that with the word "lassen." "Lass uns kommen": "let us come." That is, mainly, how they are conjugated.

My name is Anna and I was here for About.com from BSL. I was showing to you the commands in German. For more information, go to About.com.