Actually, the fact that it is a transitive or intransitive verb doesn't really have much to do as much as it does have to do with the last hiragana of the verb. You can check the pattern here: http://japanese.about.com/library/bl_verbs.htm I hope this helps Mario

Actually, intransitive or transitive has less to do with whether you can use imperative or not. It's the subject that matters. If the subject is person(or maybe animal), you can use imperative. If the subject is something not human, you can't. Let's take your examples. 立って! is of course from 「立つ(stand up)」。 So you order SOMEONE to stand up. 立って and 立てて are different. 立てて is from 立てる(set something up)。You order SOMEONE to set SOMETHING up. (eg) 「この旗を　そこに　立てて！」"Please put this flag up there! " 始めて! is from 始める。 You order SOMEONE to start SOMETHING. 始まって is from 始まる。 Now, 始まる is usually used like 「授業が始まる」「1年が始まる」「夏休みが始まる」etc. Can you see that none of them has human as the subject? You cannot order the lesson or the year or summer vacation to start. That's why you have never heard 「始まって！」. Note: In rare exceptions, such as in literature, imperative can take non-human thing as its subject. It's a kind of personification. e.g. <Towards the radio-control air plane>「飛べ！」"Fly! "

There is no relations in order to make Imperative form. Here is the simple rules. Imperative Form 2 Group Verb： 〜ます→『ろ』 3 Group Verb：来ます→『来い』、します→『しろ』 1 Group Verb：i ます→change the vowel from "i" to "e" and take out ます i.e. かきます(kaki-masu) →kake およぎます(oyogi-masu)→oyoge のみます(nomi-masu)→nome However there is no Imperative form for some verbs. They are "non-volitional verbs". わかる、できる、ある etc 立てて、始まって can be used for different usage such as describing the certain situation. i.e. ほんがつくえの上に立ててある。A book has been standing on the desk. じゅぎょうが始まっている。A class has started. You can check this out for conjugating practice ;-) http://www.nihonmura.net/en/verbs/meirei/01.shtml