Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Meeting The Deku Tree/Grammar

The Informal Imperative

We seen earlier an imperative command using ～なさい. Today, we will see another, much stonger imperative.

For Group 1 verbs (う　Verbs, 五段), change the verb to base 5 (命令形） (ends in an　え sound, just like for the conditional form ～ば):

• 書く =>　　書け
• 読む　=>　　　読め
• 死ぬ =>　　死ね　

For Group 2 verbs (る verbs, 一段), you also change the verb to base 5, but you must add ろ／よ.

• 食べる => 食べろ
• 寝る =>　寝よ

Whether you use ろ or よ is mostly a question of dialect/preference. よ sounds slighlty softer. Verbs する and　くる become　しろ and　こい. Note: 命令形 can mean both the "grammatical Base 5 form" and "imperative form" of a verb. The grammatical base is used for conjugation and ends on 〜エ (eg 食べ、寝（ね）), while the imperative form refers to the verb completely conjugated and ready to be used as a command(eg with ろ／よ tacked on).

It is possible you won't hear this used in real life, and only see it in games/mangas/animes, etc. It is quite rude.

We seen this type of imperative in one sentence:

• 妖精ナビィ…リンクの力となれ…

(Fairy Navi, become Link's strength...)

The causative form

The causative, expressing things such as "to cause to...", "to make someone do something" etc. To form the causative, change the verb to base 1 (未然形） (just like the base for the negating form ～ない) and add, depending of the verb type:

For Group 1 verbs (う　Verbs, 五段), add -せる

• 書く =>　　書かせる
• 読む　=>　　　読ませる
• 死ぬ =>　　死なせる

For Group 2 verbs (る verbs, 一段), add -させる.

• 食べる => 食べさせる
• 寝る =>　寝させる

As a rule of thumb, remember there must be an both an a-sound and a せる. (The same goes for the passive/potential.)

It was used in the following sentence:

• リンクよ…今、ここでお前の勇気を試（ため）させて欲（ほ）しい…

Link, I want to have your courage tested here.