Giving instructions in French

Level A2

Giving instructions in French

This lesson shows how to give everyday instructions and soften them into requests in French. French marks familiar and polite address in the verb form and in tu or vous, while English commands do not mark that distinction. Learn the forms for opening, closing, putting something somewhere, and waiting.

Everyday actions: open, close, put, and wait

The action words are ouvrir (to open), fermer (to close), mettre (to put), and attendre (to wait). These are infinitives. French instructions use command forms such as “Ouvre le livre” and “Attends ici”; the verb changes with familiar tu or polite/plural vous address.

Direct instructions: familiar and polite forms

A direct instruction uses the imperative without a subject pronoun: “Ouvre le livre”, “Mets le livre sur la table” and “Attends ici.” For one familiar person, use the tu command forms; for polite address or more than one person, use the vous forms, as in “Ouvrez votre livre, s'il vous plaît.” Like ordinary English commands such as “Open the book”, French commands omit the subject pronoun. Unlike English, French changes the verb form according to whom you address. In formal instructions, especially written notices or official settings, you can use veuillez followed by an infinitive: “Veuillez mettre votre livre ici, s'il vous plaît.” This can sound courteous but also authoritative. “Veuillez patienter ici, s'il vous plaît” uses patienter, a natural verb for waiting in this setting.

Ouvre / Ouvrez objet. Ferme / Fermez objet. Mets / Mettez objet lieu. Attends / Attendez lieu. Veuillez infinitif complément.

Softened requests: ask whether someone can do it

For a familiar person, use “Tu peux” with an infinitive: “Tu peux l'ouvrir, s'il te plaît ?” The object pronoun l' comes before the infinitive. For polite address, use “Pourriez-vous” with an infinitive: “Pourriez-vous fermer le livre, s'il vous plaît ?” and “Pourriez-vous le mettre ici, s'il vous plaît ?” The body’s informal example “Tu peux le mettre ici, s'il te plaît ?” follows the same pattern. English “can” and “could” do not change for the listener; French changes both the address pronoun and the verb form.

Tu peux infinitif complément, s'il te plaît ? / Pourriez-vous infinitif complément, s'il vous plaît ?

Negative instructions: tell someone not to do it

Put ne and pas around the imperative verb: “Ne ferme pas le livre.” For polite or plural address, use the vous command form: “Ne fermez pas votre livre, s'il vous plaît.” English places “don't” before the command, but French surrounds the verb with ne and pas. In everyday speech, ne is often dropped, but this lesson teaches the full written form.

Ne verbe à l'impératif pas objet.

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