This usage of the imperfective (aka "Future Tense") in order to express a command is actually not considered to be an imperative at all: it's a jussive. In Biblical Hebrew, jussives are overwhelmingly more common in the third person but they do exist in the second person as well and are indentical in appearance (unless they are III-hehs) to a regular imperfective.
Also, the negative form of a jussive is formed by either adding לא or אל as a prefix; there is no negative imperative in Hebrew - but that's a side point. When you say that the "more punchy" form (ie: the imperative form) only works some of the time, I imagine that that's just because Israeli Hebrew has largely lost the imperative in favour of the jussive. It works all the time in Biblical Hebrew.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Ah, swearing in Hebrew...
Date: 2006-09-30 08:53 am (UTC)This usage of the imperfective (aka "Future Tense") in order to express a command is actually not considered to be an imperative at all: it's a jussive. In Biblical Hebrew, jussives are overwhelmingly more common in the third person but they do exist in the second person as well and are indentical in appearance (unless they are III-hehs) to a regular imperfective.
Also, the negative form of a jussive is formed by either adding לא or אל as a prefix; there is no negative imperative in Hebrew - but that's a side point. When you say that the "more punchy" form (ie: the imperative form) only works some of the time, I imagine that that's just because Israeli Hebrew has largely lost the imperative in favour of the jussive. It works all the time in Biblical Hebrew.