Free German Imperative Quiz

How the German imperative quiz works

You make four choices before you start, and nothing is selected for you. If you press “Start” too early, each step still missing is outlined in red, and the button says what's missing.

• Who you're talking to: du for one friend (mach), ihr for a group of friends, “you all” (macht), Sie for one or more people you speak to formally (machen Sie) and wir for “let's” (machen wir). Wir is in because grammar books count Gehen wir! as part of the imperative in German. It comes up mostly in affirmative commands, because “let's not” is usually said another way (Lass uns nicht ...), but the quiz asks a few negatives, such as Geben wir nicht auf!
• Affirmative or negative: telling someone to do something (Mach das!) or not to do it (Mach das nicht!).
• What comes with the verb: the verb alone (komm, steh auf, setz dich), one more word (ruf mich an, sei leise, öffne das Fenster) or two objects, such as a person and a thing (gib es mir, gib mir das Buch, wasch dir die Hände). A reflexive verb's own sich (sich setzen) and a separable verb's prefix (the auf of aufstehen) come with the verb, so Setz dich! and Steh auf! count as the verb alone.
• Verbs: any of these seven sets:
  • Regular: machen → mach, kommen → komm
  • e changes to i or ie: geben → gib, lesen → lies
  • No umlaut in the command: fahren → fahr, laufen → lauf
  • Keeps its -e: warten → warte, öffnen → öffne
  • sein, haben, werden, tun: sei, hab, werde, tu
  • Separable: anrufen → ruf an, aufstehen → steh auf
  • Reflexive, with sich: sich setzen → setz dich

Before you start, the quiz says how many commands match your choices. The forms come from the same Wiktionary-based tables as our German conjugation tools, which cover 600 verbs.

Each question gives the person, then the verb and the words that go with it as pieces, so for (du) geben + mir + es you type Gib es mir! A line under the question gives the meaning and what each pronoun stands for, as in “to give · mir = to me · es = das Buch.” A negative question shows nicht as a piece but not where it goes, so (du) nicht + weggehen needs Geh nicht weg! and (du) nicht + anrufen + mich needs Ruf mich nicht an!

The questions are shuffled, and each one comes up once before any repeats. If you pick more than one of the three choices for what comes with the verb, they take turns.

How the quiz marks your answers

Umlauts (the dots on ä, ö and ü) and ß count, but capitals, the exclamation mark and commas don't. Neither do bitte, mal and doch, so Komm bitte! counts as Komm! Where both forms are standard, both are right: geh and gehe, ruf an and rufe an.

If you get an umlaut wrong, the answer is marked “almost,” with a note such as “Check the umlauts: öffne, not offne.” You don't need a German keyboard, because buttons on the page type ä, ö, ü and ß.

Common slips get a note of their own, and each is marked “almost”:

• Geb mir das Buch! gets “Geben changes its e to i here, as in du gibst: Gib mir das Buch!”
• Fähr langsamer! gets “Fahren drops the umlaut in the command (du fährst, but fahr): Fahr langsamer!”
• Sind Sie leise! gets “The Sie command of sein is seien Sie, not sind Sie: Seien Sie leise!”
• Geben mir das Buch! (for Sie) gets “A Sie command needs Sie right after the verb: Geben Sie mir das Buch!”
• Wart! gets “After -t, the du command keeps its -e in writing: Warte!” You'll hear wart in speech, but written German keeps the -e.
• Siehe mich an! gets “In a command it's sieh (siehe is for cross-references, as in siehe oben, see above): Sieh mich an!”

After every answer, right or wrong, you get a one-line reason. For Gib es mir! it reads: “Geben changes e to i in the du present, and the command keeps it, with no -e: du gibst → gib. With two pronouns, the accusative es comes before the dative mir: Gib es mir!”

Your score stays on screen, and a quiz has no fixed length, so you can stop whenever you like. You'll then see a list of the commands you missed, and “Practice my mistakes” runs only those again.

Word order: separable verbs, sich and two objects

A separable verb, such as anrufen or aufstehen, splits in a command, and its prefix goes to the end: Ruf mich an! and Steh auf! Anruf mich! is marked “almost,” with the note “The prefix an goes to the end: Ruf mich an!”

Sich, the “yourself” of a reflexive verb, changes with the person and comes right after the verb, or after Sie or wir. Each question shows it with the verb, as in (du) sich setzen → Setz dich! The answer changes with the person, to Setzt euch! for ihr and Setzen Sie sich! for Sie. With an object, du takes dir in place of dich, so (du) sich waschen + die Hände needs Wasch dir die Hände! Setz dir! gets the note “Without an object, sich is accusative (dich, not dir): Setz dich!”

When two objects come together, a pronoun comes before a noun, as in Gib mir das Buch! Two pronouns put the accusative, the thing (es), before the dative, the person (mir): Gib es mir! Gib mir es! gets the note “With two pronouns, the accusative es comes before the dative mir: Gib es mir!”

Negative commands: nicht and kein

A negative question shows nicht as a piece, and placing it is up to you. Nicht comes after an object (Ruf mich nicht an!) and before a prefix at the end (Geh nicht weg!). The reason for Geh nicht weg! ends: “Nicht goes before the prefix weg at the end: Geh nicht weg!” Where nicht can go in two places, both count: Park nicht hier! and Park hier nicht!

A noun with no word for “the” or “a” in front, such as Angst, takes kein instead of nicht, so (du) nicht + haben + Angst needs Hab keine Angst! Hab nicht Angst! gets the note “Angst has no article, so the negative is keine Angst, not nicht Angst: Hab keine Angst!”

Some commands come up only as negatives (Wein nicht! Hab keine Angst!), and some only as affirmatives (Sei vorsichtig! Hab Geduld!).

The quiz, the worksheets and the guide

The quiz is for German imperative practice on screen, one command at a time. For a class, the German imperative worksheets print the same verbs and rules in four exercises, from writing the command to filling in a chart, with an answer key on a new page. To see every form and rule in one place, read the German imperative guide, which covers du, ihr, Sie and wir, the -e that some verbs keep (warte) and where nicht goes. For other tenses of the same verbs, try the German verb conjugation quiz, and to look up one verb, the German verb conjugation tables give every form of all 600. If you learn Spanish, Italian or French too, the Spanish commands quiz, the Italian imperative quiz and the French imperative quiz mark every answer “right,” “almost” or “wrong,” with the rule behind it.

Frequently asked questions

Licenses and credits

Conjugation tables come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). Verbs are ranked by Hermit Dave's FrequencyWords list, built from OpenSubtitles 2018 (CC BY-SA 4.0).