The mood of command or entreaty – the mood of volition.

The imperative, which is the mood of ascertaining of one’s will over another, is the normal mood for a command or a strong suggestion.

When the Present Imperative is used as a command or strong suggestion, it denotes an appeal to continue, or keep on doing something that is already in progress. It may express an urgency to do it now.

This use differs from the “Imperative of Command” only in the presence of the negative μή. This use employs the Present Imperative to prohibit the continuation of an action already in progress. You are to “stop doing” something.

This use of the Imperative denotes a request. It does have the force of urgency.

The third person Imperative is used to denote the desire for permission. In translation it may require an auxiliary verb “let”. The command signified by the Imperative may be in compliance with an expressed desire or a manifest inclination on the part of the one who is the object of the command, thus involving consent as well as command.

While similar to the “Imperative of Permission”, this use moves a step further to concession. This construction may have two imperatives joined together by καί when the first suggests a concessive idea. It suggests an inclination on the part of the persons addressed to do the thing mentioned.

Asyndeton is “the practice of leaving out the conjunction between coordinating sentence elements.” It is a common idiom in Greek to have an Imperative with another Imperative without a conjunction.

Imperative = Strong Suggestion or Command

(Second and Third Person Only)

Present

1^st Aorist

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