Plain imperatives

The plainest imperative in Mandarin is just a verb. No subject, no marker.

• 坐！ (Zuò!) - Sit!
• 看！ (Kàn!) - Look!
• 走！ (Zǒu!) - Go! / Move!
• 起来！ (Qǐ lái!) - Get up!
• 听我说。 (Tīng wǒ shuō.) - Listen to me.

This is direct. Acceptable between close family, friends, or in genuinely urgent situations. Used on a stranger or a colleague, it lands as rude.

Polite request: 请 + verb

请 (qǐng) literally means 'invite' / 'request'. Stick it in front of any imperative to make it polite.

• 请坐。 (Qǐng zuò.) - Please sit down.
• 请进。 (Qǐng jìn.) - Please come in.
• 请等一下。 (Qǐng děng yí xià.) - Please wait a moment.
• 请给我那本书。 (Qǐng gěi wǒ nà běn shū.) - Please give me that book.
• 请问，洗手间在哪儿？ (Qǐng wèn, xǐ shǒu jiān zài nǎr?) - Excuse me, where's the toilet?

请 is the most-reached-for politeness marker in everyday Mandarin. Asking a waiter, addressing a stranger, or making a request of someone you don't know well - 请 first.

请问 (lit. 'please ask') is the standard 'excuse me' for asking a stranger something. Use it whenever you'd say 'excuse me' in English to flag a question to a stranger.

Negative imperatives: 别 and 不要

For 'don't do X', you have two options: 别 (bié) and 不要 (bú yào). They mean the same thing.

• 别走！ (Bié zǒu!) - Don't go!
• 不要说话。 (Bú yào shuō huà.) - Don't talk.
• 别生气。 (Bié shēng qì.) - Don't be angry.
• 不要忘了。 (Bú yào wàng le.) - Don't forget.
• 别这样。 (Bié zhè yàng.) - Don't be like that.

别 is slightly shorter and more colloquial; 不要 is slightly more formal. Both are everyday. For 'please don't', stick 请 in front: 请别说话 (please don't talk).

Softening particles: 吧 and 啊

Two sentence-final particles that soften the tone. The difference between a command and a suggestion often comes down to a single particle.

吧 (ba): suggestion / let's

• 我们走吧。 (Wǒ men zǒu ba.) - Let's go.
• 你坐吧。 (Nǐ zuò ba.) - Sit down. (Inviting, not commanding.)
• 你试试吧。 (Nǐ shì shi ba.) - Give it a try.
• 好吧。 (Hǎo ba.) - Alright then. (Reluctant agreement.)

吧 turns a command into a suggestion. 你坐 (sit down, command) becomes 你坐吧 (have a seat, invitation). One particle changes the whole register.

啊 (a): casual softener / emphatic

• 来啊！ (Lái a!) - Come on!
• 你说啊！ (Nǐ shuō a!) - Speak up! / Go on, say it!
• 别担心啊。 (Bié dān xīn a.) - Don't worry, mate.

啊 is more emphatic and casual than 吧. It can soften a command between friends but it can also amp up a request to 'come on, just do it'. Use carefully.

Verb reduplication: 'have a quick X'

Reduplicating a verb (saying it twice) softens it into 'have a brief X' / 'do X a bit' / 'give X a try'. This is one of the most underused tools by learners and one of the most-used by natives.

For one-syllable verbs, just repeat: 看看, 听听. The second instance is often pronounced lighter (neutral tone). For two-syllable verbs, the pattern is ABAB: 学习 (study) → 学习学习, 休息 (rest) → 休息休息.

Reduplicated verbs work brilliantly in soft requests:

• 你看看这个。 (Nǐ kàn kan zhè ge.) - Have a look at this.
• 你试试吧。 (Nǐ shì shi ba.) - Give it a try.
• 让我想想。 (Ràng wǒ xiǎng xiang.) - Let me think about it.
• 我们等等他。 (Wǒ men děng deng tā.) - Let's wait a bit for him.

The reduplicated form is to imperatives what 'a quick look' / 'a brief try' is in English. It defuses the directness.

You can also insert 一 between the two: 看一看 = 看看. Same meaning, slightly more formal.

Stacking politeness

The tools combine. A maximally polite request might stack 请 + reduplicated verb + 吧:

• 请你看看这个吧。 (Qǐng nǐ kàn kan zhè ge ba.) - Please have a look at this.
• 请等等啊。 (Qǐng děng deng a.) - Please wait a moment.
• 请说说你的意见吧。 (Qǐng shuō shuo nǐ de yì jiàn ba.) - Please share your view.

Three layers of softening on one sentence. Native speakers do this routinely when they want to be deferential. The opening 请 marks the politeness; the reduplicated verb suggests 'a quick X'; the 吧 turns it into an invitation rather than a command.

A note on register

Mandarin's politeness system is less codified than the Japanese or Korean ones - there's no honorific verb forms, no register-locked vocabulary at the everyday level. The register is set by:

• The opening particle (请 or its absence)
• Whether the verb is reduplicated
• The sentence-final particle (吧, 啊, or neither)
• Tone of voice (more important than character choice in many cases)

Get these four moves right and your requests will land politely. Skip them and you'll sound like a textbook command-form, which can read as brusque even when you didn't mean it.

What to internalise

1. 请 + verb is the default polite request. Use it on strangers, in shops, with anyone you don't know well.
2. 别 and 不要 are interchangeable for negative commands. 别 is shorter and more colloquial.
3. 吧 softens commands into suggestions. 你坐 → 你坐吧 is the textbook example.
4. Reduplicate verbs for 'have a quick X'. 看看, 听听, 试试. The single most natural-sounding politeness move.
5. Stack the tools for maximum politeness. 请 + reduplicated verb + 吧.

For the wider grammar inventory, see the Mandarin grammar cheatsheet.