Past imperative
The main characteristic of the imperative is to exist only to the following persons: "tu", "nous" and "vous". It allows you to express an order, give advice or make a suggestion. The past imperative makes it possible to introduce a notion of anteriority before another action. As much to say it immediately, the imperative past is of a very rare use.
Aie rangé tes affaires quand j'arrive.
In order to be able to form the past of the imperative, you must know how to conjugate the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être" in the present of the imperative and know how to form the past participle. The main difficulties of the imperative past come from its rather rare use and ending with the past participle.
Here is an example of conjugated verb in the imperative past with the auxiliaries "avoir" and "être":
| Auxiliary (avoir) | Past participle (finir) |
|---|---|
| aie | fini |
| ayons | fini |
| ayez | fini |
| Auxiliary (être) | Past participle (venir) |
|---|---|
| sois | venu |
| soyons | venus |
| soyez | venus |
- We immediately see that the question of ending arises. With the auxiliary "être", the ending is made with the subject from which the "s" came because the subject is put for several people. If it's a woman who speaks, we also add an "e" to indicate the feminine : "soyez venues".
- The ending is more complex with the auxiliary "avoir" because it is necessary to make the correspondence with the complement of direct object when it is placed in front of and not with the subject.
- Imperative past is constructed from auxiliary "avoir" and "être" conjugated to subjunbctive present with the addition of the past participle.
- With auxiliary "être", there is correspondence with the subject.
- With auxiliary "avoir", the correspondence is done with the direct object complement if it is placed before the verb.