Imperative mood

This is the mood that you might use when you’re playing games with your dog in the park. You use this mood whenever you, or someone else, makes a demand or asks for something to be done. Be careful - asking for something to be done is a request, which is different to just asking a question. Here’s a normal question:

How tall is the Empire State Building?

There’s no imperative mood in this sentence, because it’s just a normal question. But, when you request something, then out comes the imperative mood:

Pass the salt.

Fetch the stick Fido!

Notice how if you were speaking these sentences, you would not expect anyone to say anything back, you’d just expect whatever has been asked to happen. This is different to something like:

Hey mum, can you pass the salt please?

In this case the verb is in the indicative mood because it is not part of an outright demand. This sentence is literally asking whether mum has the ability to pass the salt.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Subjunctive mood