From 0aa6a072153b5b5e6fcccdc7c7bb8d4d54651e5b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: wyattscarpenter Date: Fri, 9 May 2025 05:26:46 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] [docs] CONTRIBUTING.md: specify bare infinitive instead of imperative Technically, git commit subject lines are in the bare infinitive, not the imperative, because they're merely unconjugated, rather than being a command. (They are identical in form, though, so it's understandable that they were confused here.) Or, so I think, at least! For more information, you can see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_infinitive , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperative_mood , or this blog post I wrote about this subject a while ago: https://wyattscarpenter.github.io/blog/git_commit_messages_are_in_the_bare_infinitive.txt --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index e782158ba21f4..ca3e35173071d 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ Core developers should follow these rules when processing pull requests: message is under 80 characters, including the subject line. - Capitalize the subject and each paragraph. - Make sure that the subject of the commit message has no trailing dot. - - Use the imperative mood in the subject line (e.g. "Fix typo in README"). + - Use the bare infinitive in the subject line (e.g. "Fix typo in README"). - If the PR fixes an issue, make sure something like "Fixes #xxx." occurs in the body of the message (not in the subject). - Use Markdown for formatting.