# Imperative ending -라 for verbstems with -ㄹ



## idialegre

Hi everyone. I'm confused about the imperative form of verbs with a final ㄹ in the stem. For example, would "Sell the house!" be 집을 팔아! or 집을 팔라! ?

Also, does the  반말 imperative 마 (from 말다,  as in 거짓말 하지 마!) have a parallel form in other -ㄹ stem verbs, for example 파! from 팔다?

Thanks for any help!


----------



## dahard1987

I don't know any technical reason but I can tell you that we say '집을 팔아!'(or in 존댓말, '집을 파세요!' or '집을 파십시오!')

And there is no parallel between 말다 and 팔다. I've never seen anyone saying '파!' as an imperative form of '팔다.' We say '팔아!' or '파세요!'

Hope I was of some help


----------



## mink-shin

-아/어라 is an imperative ending.
"집을 팔아라"
"거짓말 하지 말아라"

We drop '아/어' when the stem of verb ends in 'ㅏ', 'ㅓ', 'ㅕ', 'ㅐ', 'ㅔ'.
"집을 팔아라"
The verb is "팔아라".
The stem of the verb is "팔-"
"팔" doesn't end in any of those vowels.
Hence I think it has an error in grammar.
Not only do I think that "팔라" has an error in grammar, it sounds very weird to me. Though we have another imperative ending, "-라", I can't imagine any context in which I would use "집을 팔라". "-라" is often used in famous saying. "너 자신을 알라(Know yourself)"



idialegre said:


> Also, does the 반말 imperative 마 (from 말다, as in 거짓말 하지 마!) have a parallel form in other -ㄹ stem verbs, for example 파! from 팔다?


It's just only for "말다", not for other -ㄹ stem words.


----------



## idialegre

Thanks to both of you. That all makes perfect sense to me. Except I still wonder how to explain the form 알라 in the proverb you quoted (너 자신을 알라)? Is that perhaps 고어?


----------



## mink-shin

idialegre said:


> Thanks to both of you. That all makes perfect sense to me. Except I still wonder how to explain the form 알라 in the proverb you quoted (너 자신을 알라)? Is that perhaps 고어?


Hmm... No. But it reminded me of some lines in historical dramas when I read your post(#4). I think I've heard '-라' used as an imperative ending in some historical dramas. 

But, in this case(너 자신을 알라), I don't think it's an archaic word which into Korean could be translated as 고어 though I think it sounds very old fashioned. '-라' is used when an imperative sentence including '-라' is for unspecified individuals, especially in written Korean. I think I should have explained about it more specifically than I did on my previous post(#3).


----------

