Using the Imperative to Ask Nicely!

Using the Imperative to Ask Nicely

We said that you can soften the imperative by adding "bitte." There are other friendly little words that can make a command into a friendly suggestion. There are also some particles you can use to emphasize that you mean business with your command.

Look at the following commands:

What does this doch or doch mal mean?

Let us explain: We told you that imperatives are delicate speech acts: they boss people around. Nobody wants to be bossed around. Do you? Therefore, if you want to be a successful communicator you better try to make imperatives sound as little bossy as possible.

For this, you use the so-called flavoring particles.

Doch is one of them. It adds a kind of a friendly insistence to your request, turns it into an urgent appeal and makes it much more acceptable for the listener.

To ask in an even nicer way, add mal. It tones down your demand and you may use it together with doch:

• Ruf doch mal an!
• Gib mir doch mal deine Grammatik!

Mal and doch are also used to "flavor" questions, as we will see soon.

What if you don't want to ask nicely, or you want to know whether someone else is bossing you around? There are particles to make the imperative into an "offer you can't refuse".

Schon adds insistence to a request. It somehow tells the listener that the speaker does not expect or accept a negative answer to her/his request.

Even fiercer is ja used as a flavoring particle. It turns a demand almost into a veritable menace.

Therefore, do not use ja as a flavoring particle in imperative sentences!

As you can see, you may flavor your requests in different ways. Use these flavoring particles freely; your success as a communicator may depend on it, or your reputation as a friendly, thoughtful guest!

These flavoring particles may be also used in questions and normal sentences, but be careful, they sometimes change their 'flavor' a little bit.