Russian Classes: Imperative mood with Mayakovsky

Приветствую!
I’ve gathered some excerpts from Mayakovsky poems, which illustrate the imperative mood in Russian.

In order to form the imperative mood, follow these steps:

1. Take the 3d person plural form in the present tense for imperfective verbs, and in the future tense for perfective ones.
Cлушать - imperfective verb -> слушают
Остановить - perfective verb -> остановят

2. Then drop the ending. If the verb stem ends in a vowel, add ‘-й’ , if it ends in a consonant, add ‘-и’.
Слушают - stem ends in a vowel ‘а’ -> слушай
Остановят - stem ends in a consonant ‘в’ -> останови

3. In order to form a plural or polite imperative, add ‘-те’.
Слушай -> слушайте
Останови -> остановите

Check out more lessons in our Telegram channel, using the tag #russianclasses!

Dear readers,

Our website and social media accounts are under threat of being restricted or banned, due to the current circumstances. So, to keep up with our latest content, simply do the following:

• Subscribe to our Telegram channel
• Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter
• Enable push notifications for our website
• Install a VPN service on your computer and/or phone to have access to our website, even if it is blocked in your country

If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material.