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218
Would you do me a favour?
The falling tone and an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence opening with will express irritation and
impatience, as in:
Will you stop arguing!
Will you be quiet!
§ 18. Though in the vast majority of commands the subject is only implied, the subject expressed by the
pronoun you occurs when it is necessary (a) to specify the subject, sometimes for the sake of contrast; (b) to
convey the speaker’s personal attitude to the event presented in the sentence (for example, irritation, anger,
threat, impatience); (c) to soothe somebody. The subject in these cases is heavily stressed.
a) You come first, and I’ll wait a little.
You come first, and he will have to wait.
b) You say it again, and I’ll turn you out of here!
Just you wait, Mr Higgins.
c) You be a good girl, and don’t worry.
Note the initial position of the operator in negative commands with a subject.
Don’t you interrupt me.
§ 19. In the case of first person plural and third person singular and plural subjects, the imperative let is
followed by a personal pronoun in the objective case.
Let him try again.
Let them come in.
Let us have some tea.
A first-person command often implies invitation or suggestion and may be followed by the tag shall we.
Lets do it together, shall we?
There are two negative constructions with let for the first person.
Let’s not quarrel about trifles.
Don’t let’s quarrel about trifles.
A third-person command admits of only one negative construction:
Don't let him interfere in our affairs.
A third-person command may begin with a noun or a pronoun denoting the person addressed.
Somebody switch off the light.
Mary and John fetch dictionaries.
Here the corresponding negative is:
Don’t anybody switch off the light!
§ 20. The imperative of some verbs may acquire interjectional force. Thus the forms listen, look (here), see