Request / Command / Prohibition
What do we want the other person to do?
Signification
A speech act that asks, tells, invites, warns, orders, suggests, or forbids someone to do something.
Comment le repérer
Ask whether the speaker is trying to make the listener act or stop acting.
Exemples
please|don't|let's|could you|must not
please sit down|don't touch it|could you help
Please close the window.
Visual guide
Speaker wants listener action
SPEAKER ──asks/tells──> YOU
↓
do it / stop it
Please close the window.
Same intention, different shapes: Command: Close the window. Request: Please close... Question: Could you help? Invitation: Let's go. Prohibition: Don't touch it.
Vue par langue
Dans votre langue maternelle
Directives use imperatives, modal softenings, negative frames, and politeness markers.
Fermez la fenêtre, s’il vous plaît.
Close the window, please.
Dans votre langue d’apprentissage
En anglais, les demandes et les ordres peuvent utiliser l’impératif, les verbes modaux, please, des formes de question et l’intonation pour être plus ou moins directs.
Please close the window.
please close = demande/ordre poli
Les apprenants peuvent sembler trop directs ou utiliser des formes d’ordre trop littérales.
Same block, different coding
Both languages use this block strongly, but they signal it differently. Focus on form changes, not only meaning.