Imperative and the subjunctive

Question

Hi there I'm glad to see someone else ask the question about "ayons-en" above. I see Ron has replied but I'm still unclear as to why the subjunctive is used in the imperative of some verbs and not others. Is there a lesson on this?  Many thanks
Alison

Answer

Bonjour Allison,
Comme l'exemple, soyez prudente.  You are correct that etre uses le subjonctif in the imperative.  Let me say, that, like yourself, I am but a Kwiziq community member, i.e. a member of the group, and not part of the Kwiziq team.  I love the French language and have studied it for many years but still have a lot to learn.  This being an open forum, I simply try to answer questions that I have an educated response for.  So to that end, I have never run across in my studying or reading anything that explains the reasoning for the use of le subjonctif for etre in the imperative.  I will, therefore, leave this question to Aurélie or another Kwiziq team member to provide you with the correct response.
Bonne chance et bonne continuation dans vos études en français.

Answer

Bonjour Alison,

It's not really that the "imperative uses the subjunctive" for certain verbs, but rather that for certain verbs, the imperative and subjunctive conjugations happen to be the same.

In English, we say things like "If I were you..." - this is one of the rare occasions where we use the subjunctive. But it's not helpful to look at that and say "oh, we use the third person conjugation for the first person subjunctive" - it just so happens that those two conjugations are the same.

Does that make sense?

Answer

Yes Laura that does make sense but still left me with questions until I clicked on the link for imperative