21
votes
Your will be done or Your will will be done
The 'will' in "Your will be done" is a noun.
One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands.
And the 'be' is the imperative form of the verb 'to be'.
So, taken together, "Your will be ...
- 22.7k
15
votes
Can an imperative sentence have a subject?
OK, first the vocatives.
When we name the person we're addressing, the term for that is a Vocative noun phrase. For instance:
Honey, I'm home.
Mom, you just don't understand.
Sandra, he's coming to ...
- 109k
10
votes
"May I have a mango!" is it an Imperative, Optative or Interrogative sentence?
This expression could be optative, and the use of an exclamation mark would support that interpretation. However, the sentence is not idiomatic for an optative sentence: it's idiomatically a question.
...
- 103k
8
votes
Meaning of "fast inside" (in context)
In this sentence, fast is not a verb, it's an adverb, qualifying “inside the machine”. There is no verb in the main clause, just like there is no verb in the previous sentence. You can add “they are” ...
7
votes
Accepted
Your will be done or Your will will be done
Like Mr Beadles said, the 'will' here is a noun.
It's not an imperative, though, which would be a command to an implied you to perform the action of the verb. What is actually going on is that it is ...
- 10.3k
7
votes
Is "Do this, please" an imperative sentence?
Short answer (tl;dr)
In terms of illocutionary force, or type of speech act, the addition of the word please will change the sentence from an order to a polite request (all other things being equal).
...
- 48.7k
6
votes
Accepted
Is "Don't worry" a complete sentence?
Yes, it is. It's a negative imperative. The imperative mood is used for commands, exhortation, requests, and other sentences where the addressee is being asked, ordered, or advised to do something.
...
- 2,447
6
votes
Imperative well-wishing
These are short for wishes, blessings, or curses addressed to a listener, usually with may, like
(May you) sleep well/win the race/break a leg!
(May you) have a good time/a safe flight/a happy Holi!
(...
- 109k
6
votes
Accepted
Is "Be ye..." subjunctive or imperative?
In Early Modern English, it could have been either. The subjunctive and the imperative both used the bare infinitive, and while the imperative wasn't always followed by thou or ye, it could be.
When ...
- 90.3k
6
votes
Can an imperative sentence have a subject?
Does it make any sense to say that there is an implied subject "you" making the sentence:
Yes. Here are some sources discussing the "you-understood" that include examples like the ...
- 535
5
votes
Does "Welcome, Campers" require a comma?
Direct address normally requires a comma before the name of the person being addressed:
Come here, Tom.
Get the lead out, Barney.
See, Anita? That's how it's done.
Welcome, campers!
You will see ...
- 153k
4
votes
Accepted
Which question tag is correct? "Shut the door, will you?" or "Shut the door, won't you?"
Both #1 and #2 are okay and mean approximately the same. "Shut the door, won't you?" is slightly more polite, because the tag at the end suggests that you might not be willing to comply, and that is a ...
- 17.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Will you/won't you?
Well, either is grammatically correct, but they have different meanings.
When using question tags, we use the negative form of what we want/mean. According to this eslbase.com page:
If the auxiliary ...
- 14.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Is "Drink milk." a legal imperative sentence?
Articles are generally only needed if they refer to a single object or quantity. "Drink the milk." is a valid sentence as you noted, indicating that there is some obvious milk available. "Drink a ...
- 1,137
4
votes
Accepted
Can I say 'right up' as a request to have a ship righted?
No, the verb is right. It's not a phrasal verb right up. It is transitive and requires an object, "Right it."
All of Oxford/Lexico's examples illustrate this:
we righted the capsized dinghy
...
- 103k
4
votes
Accepted
What is the grammatical mood of the sentence "Someone stop that person"?
Someone stop that person: the verb stop is in the imperative mood in
That's correct.
'stop' is in the (exhortative) subjunctive mood
That's not.
You can easily prove this syntactically. One test is ...
- 7,316
3
votes
Is 'you are required' an imperative?
Imperatives use the base form of the verb (including the verb to be) and issue commands or directives:
Come here!
Stop that!
Be quiet!
Be ready to leave at 6 o'clock.
You are required ...
- 33.5k
3
votes
Can all base forms of verbs express wish?
The answer to your question is mostly "no". This is not an especially productive construction these days. These third-person imperatives are differently expressed now, although the old style can ...
- 137k
3
votes
What is the difference between "Don't be..." and "Be not..."?
What is the difference between "Don't be..." and "Be not..."?
There is no difference in meaning: both express a negative imperative.
"Be not..." is an old-fashioned form ...
- 46.4k
3
votes
Is it possible to make a declarative sentence starting with 'Can'?
Your example sentence is more nearly imperative than declarative, but whatever terminology you apply to it, it isn't a normal interrogative form, and—at least according to The Chicago Manual of Style, ...
- 169k
3
votes
Is it possible to make a declarative sentence starting with 'Can'?
Of course we can do so:
"Can" is a modal auxiliary verb.
Can pigs fly is a question that puzzles me.
However, you are probably interested in situations in which "can" is not used ...
- 7,930
2
votes
Etymology of "let us" and "let's"
In Glaswegian dialect "give us" is often contracted in this way. The verb itself is changed to "gie" (interestingly, it becomes regular: past simple and past participle "gied") and "give us" is ...
- 21
2
votes
What is the history of the oh-so-common English phrase, "come on!"?
Coverage of 'come on' in idiom dictionaries
Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2013) has this entry for "come on":
come on 1. Move forward, ...
- 169k
2
votes
Is it "Don't let's" or "Let's don't"?
Don't let's forget the 1943 Noel Coward song "Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans". If we un-contract, it becomes "Do not let us be beastly to the Germans" which is perfectly acceptable English. So ...
- 1,210
2
votes
Does putting an "and" between two verbs alter qualifying clauses?
This passage does not seem to be optimally translated. To "confirm" your balance is to verify the amount in it. What they seem to mean is to "maintain" or "keep" your ...
- 41
2
votes
Infinitives used as imperatives?
The quotation in your question omits two key items from the original:
1. that the quoted paragraph starts with the word "Memorandum:—"; and
2. that the following text immediately precedes your ...
- 12.3k
2
votes
Is the phrase "come fast" a grammatically correct imperative?
Let me ease any discomfort you might feel with come fast as an imperative. The source of that discomfort is probably that you think of fast as adjective rather than adverb. It can indeed be an ...
- 16.3k
2
votes
Is the phrase "come fast" a grammatically correct imperative?
It depends on what was intended. To invite people to participate in a religious practice of not eating, “come fast” works but “come quick” doesn’t.
Grammar that doesn’t consider intent is a low bar ...
- 39k
2
votes
Accepted
What's the proper way to start a sentence with the word "think"?
Merriam-Webster perhaps comes close to this usage of 'think':
think [transitive verb] ...
8a: to center one's thoughts on
talks and thinks business
But even this isn't quite the same. A paraphrase ...
- 87.1k
2
votes
What's the proper way to start a sentence with the word "think"?
Think [no comma] [no quotes]Uber meets laundry[no quotes]!
Think is an imperative.
Uber meets laundry is an object.
The grammatical structure is the same as
Buy our roast chicken!
Say you love me!
- 46.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible