The cohortative is used for mutual encouragement or discouragement.

The cohortative is a hortative modality in English.

It is similar to the jussive mood, with the notable exception that the cohortative appears only in first grammatical person, whereas the jussive appears in second or third.

In some languages, this is distinguished from the cohortative mood in that the cohortative occurs in the first person and the jussive in the second or third.

A less urgent version of imperative, the cohortative, employs a present-tense verb within a "that" ("que") clause and may be used with the first and third person as well as the second.

Although the cohortative is itself a fairly neutral modality with regard to attitude, usually reflecting a mutual encouragement to partake in the proposition of the utterance with little more than tacit urging, it can be combined with the implied meanings of the other six hortative modalities.