Magic The Gathering Commander Format Explanation

In the te form post I mentioned that you can convert a verb to the て-form to make it a command - for example "食べて (tabete)" on its own just means "eat!". This is quite an informal way of asking people to do things but is sort of a halfway point between the super polite and the super demanding. However, you can customise your instructions with extra levels of politeness!!!

Command Form (Imperative¹)

Just like all good verb conjugations there are 20 different ones depending on the ending of the verb.

Godan (う) Verb Examples (You take the -u and change it to an -e)

• 会う (あう- Meet) to 会え
• 立つ (たつ- Stand) to 立て (like て-form but without the small っ)
• 割る (わる- Divide/Break) to 割れ
• 書く (かく- Write) to 書け (In te form I put 行く (Iku) in the "Irregular" section but it's only irregular for te-form its actually normal here and the command is "行け Ike!"
• 泳ぐ (およぐ - Swim) to 泳げ
• 死ぬ (しぬ - Die) to 死ね
• 遊ぶ (あそぶ - Play) to 遊べ
• 休む (やすむ - Rest) to 休め

Ichidan (る) Verb Examples (This one is actually the same hooray)

• 食べる (たべる - Eat) to 食べろ
• 起きる (おきる - Rise) to 起きろ
• 閉じる (とじる - Shut) to 閉じろ

Irregular

• 来る (くる - Come) to 来い (こい) (wtf)
• する (Do) to しろ
• くれる (Give) to くれ (I don't think this one is irregular ever again)

Usage

This form tends to be used by superiors bossing around their juniors, like teachers or your boss at work when they don't like you much. It can also be used in times where social standing doesn't really matter. Common ones that might be used as individual word commands are:

• 行け (いけ) - Go!
• 来い (こい) - Come!
• 見ろ (みろ) - Watch/Look!
• 言え (いえ) - Speak!
• 止まれ (とまれ) - Stop!

However, if you want to use a commanding verb in a casual way, such as when telling a friend to stop being a freak (wimble), you can add particles like よ to the end to casualise it. The way that it's translated would probably depend too heavily on the situation so I won't give any specific extra words.

• 行けよ (いけよ) - Go! (Slightly more casual)
• 来いよ (こいよ) - Come! (Slightly more casual)
• 見ろよ (みろよ) - Watch/Look! (Slightly more casual)
• 言えよ (いえよ) - Speak! (Slightly more casual)
• 止まれよ (とまれよ) - Stop! (Slightly more casual)

To command someone not to do something you just add な after the regular version of the verb.

• 行くな (いくな) - Don't go!
• 来るな (くるな) - Don't come! etc.

Politely Commanding

This is still actually not polite to do to those senior to you.

Godan (う) Verb Examples (Similar to Command form, -u to -i)

• 書く (かく- Write) to 書きなさい
• 立つ (たつ- Stand) to 立ちなさい

Ichidan (る) Verb Examples (Drop the る)

• 食べる (たべる - eat) to 食べなさい
• 見る (見る - look) to 見なさい

Irregular (Drop the ru and replace -u on the first character with -i)

• 来る (くる - Come) to 来なさい (きなさい)
• する to しなさい

Usage

This doesn't mean you can say it to your boss even though it's polite, as it is still a command. It is used in teacher-student and parent-child contexts or formal written instructions, for example. Compared to a request, the polite command still expects the target to follow it. To do this you append -なさい to the end of the verb.

-なさい on the end of non-verbs

なさい also appears at the end of some words as part of set phrases to convert them to more polite versions of the phrase but it is just part of a fixed expression not part of some rule.

• ごめんなさい = Sorry
• おやすみなさい = Good Night

Closing Remarks

While this reads like I copied it from the tofugu page I actually spent a lot of time reading other places to see if there was anything else that was interesting to say!