Positive Instructions

Level 3

Positive imperative forms include כתוב, כתבי and כתבו. Ordinary conversation also uses future forms as requests or instructions.

How It Works

A Common Family

For לכתוב, learn כתוב to one male listener, כתבי to one female listener and כתבו to several listeners. Other verbs have their own actual forms: להסביר gives הסבר, הסבירי and הסבירו. Do not create an imperative by removing a letter from every future form.

Conversation and Register

Future-shaped תכתוב, תכתבי and תכתבו are common requests in speech. Their interpretation depends on context and tone. The morphological imperative is frequent in notices, directions and common short commands. Neither form guarantees politeness; בבקשה and the situation matter.

Negative Instructions

For do not write, use אל תכתוב, אל תכתבי or אל תכתבו. This is a different construction from the positive imperative. Literary feminine plural imperatives such as כתובנה may occur, but contemporary plural כתבו serves women too.

Examples (4)

  1. כתוב את השם.

    Write the name.

    כתוב is a positive imperative to one male listener.

  2. כתבי את התשובה.

    Write the answer.

    כתבי addresses one female listener.

  3. כתבו בעברית.

    Write in Hebrew.

    כתבו is the common plural instruction.

  4. בבקשה, תסבירי לי.

    Please explain it to me.

    A future-shaped form makes a conversational request to one woman.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the positive imperative after אל.

    אל כתוב את זה.
    אל תכתוב את זה.

    A negative instruction needs the future-shaped form after אל.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Positive InstructionsLevel 3

Learn This First

Identify the addressee and compare dedicated imperative forms with everyday future-shaped requests.