Re: past tense imperative

René Uittenbogaard wrote:

> Another thought crossed my mind: are perfective verbs in Russian ever
> used in the imperative? What do they mean? Examples?
Yes, perfective verbs are used in imperative, and even more often than
imperfective, because this form is considered more polite. No other
difference is usually meant, except if any perfectivizer (a prefix or a
suffix changing an imperfective verb into a perfective one) adds something
to the meaning per_se.
IA (imperfective aspect) / PA (perfective aspect):
_Pishi! / Napishi!_ "Write!"
_Rabotaj! / Porabotaj!_ "Work!" (PA adds "work for a while")

One should bear in mind, that PA has nothing to do with past tense: it show
only the accomplishement of the action, whether in past (making it similar
to aorist and/or perfect), or in non-past (making it future).

-- Yitzik