Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Nino Kirvalidze
55
The indicative mood presents an action as a real fact that happened in the past, is happen-
ing now or will happen in future. That’s why it is called a real mood or a fact mood. The 
indicative mood is rich in forms reflecting all grammatical categories of finite verbs (the 
categories of person and number, tense, aspect and voice). E.g.:
When I got to the station the 
train had already left.
The imperative mood actually does not give any information as to the reality of an action 
described by the verb. That’s why some linguists do not consider the imperative form to be a 
mood form, though it is traditionally included in the mood system on the ground that it 
represents a hypothetic action. An imperative typically urges the addressee to do or not to do 
something. It is used to give orders or requests, and expects some action from the addressee. 
Given this limited function, most imperative clauses are characterized by the lack of a subject 
in the surface structure (which usually implies the addressee, i.e. the second person), by the use 
of the infinitive of the verb and the absence of modals as well as tense and aspect markers:
Get off the table.
Don’t forget to send a wire to Nick.
A special type of imperative, referring to the first or third person both singular and plural, 
is formed according to the formula: let smb do or not do smth:
Let’s take a taxi.
Well, let him try this, let’s see what happens.
Although most imperative sentences are very simple, we need to take account of some 
variations that occur. Optionally, the addressee of an imperative sentence can be identified 
either by a subject pronoun 
you
or a vocative address term: 
You go home and go to sleep
. (
you
as subject) 
Melissa, take those things away
. (
Melissa 
as vocative) 
When the subject is expressed by the pronoun 
you
, it precedes the main verb and is not 
separated from it by a punctuation or intonation break. The vocative (e.g. 
Melissa
) is more 
mobile and it can be positioned at the beginning, middle or end of imperative sentence. 
Imperative clauses can also be elaborated by the addition of question tags, discourse mark-
ers like 
please
, and adverbs like 
just
. For instance: 

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
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