Declarative means making a clear, direct statement of fact or opinion. When you say “The sky is blue” or “I am hungry,” you're using a declarative sentence: you're declaring something to be true rather than asking a question, giving a command, or expressing strong emotion.

In everyday writing and speech, most of our sentences are declarative. “We had pizza for lunch” is declarative. “My friend lives in Chicago” is declarative. These sentences simply state information, ending with a period rather than a question mark or an exclamation point.

In computer programming, declarative also has a special meaning: it describes code that tells the computer what you want rather than exactly how to do it. When you search for “chocolate chip cookies” on a website, you're being declarative: you're stating what you want to find. The computer figures out the steps to search through thousands of recipes. This differs from imperative programming, where you'd have to spell out every single step the computer should take, like giving extremely detailed directions to someone instead of just telling them the address.

Whether you're making a simple statement in English class or describing what you want a computer program to accomplish, being declarative means stating clearly what is true or what you need.