Using "en" with affirmative commands (L'Impératif)

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.

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?

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

Bonjour Jacqui,
«take him two» is the translation for «prends-lui deux». If possible, could you include the question that you are referencing on this and resubmit it
à bientôt

The lesson concerning «lui» in affirmative commands follows:
https://french.kwiziq.com/my-languages/french/view/3180
I am unsure if this is the lesson you are referencing or not; however, let's look at this example.
Ah, les bonbons. Prends-lui deux. This scenario could be two friends talking and the one with the bonbons tells the other to take two to her brother, whom she knows.

Bonjour Ron. Thanks for the clear answer. À bientôt, Jacqui

Bonjour Steven,
Below are the imperative forms for avoir:
Impératif
Présent
aie
ayons
ayez

While the present participle and gerund are:
Participe Présent
ayant

Gérondif Présent
en ayant

As can be seen, these forms are based on the subjunctive.

Hi again,
Your question actually prompted my own: Why is the subjunctive Nous form used to make the present participle with the verb avoir when the majority of other verbs do not, they use the nous form of the present tense? However, être uses the nous form of the imparfait to form the present participle.

Bonjour Joakim !

The difference here is between negative and affirmative imperative sentences.
In affirmative commands, "en" will come after the verb with an hyphen.
In negative commands however, the object pronouns are placed just like in normal statements, meaning between the "ne" and the conjugated verb.

I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !