S3.E4 - The Imperative And Jussive

In this week’s episode we’ll look at the Imperative and the Jussive, which are related forms of command or request. The Imperative is the name given to a direct command: i.e. go, come, listen, stop, etc. The Jussive can be thought of as an indirect command, more along the lines of “let him eat”, “let her take”, etc. It is often phrased as a question or request: “shall we?”, “may I?”, “could you?”, etc. In Amharic, as with all verb conjugations, these command forms vary according to the person being addressed.