This study investigates Saudi EFL students’ difficulties in translating imperative sentences between English and Arabic. It focuses on the interaction of structural, functional, pragmatic, and pedagogical dimensions of imperative translation. A convergent mixed-methods design was used with 80 female undergraduate EFL students at Jazan University and 20 university teachers. Data were collected through a translation test covering English–Arabic and Arabic–English imperative constructions and a structured teacher questionnaire supplemented by open-ended questions. The quantitative findings indicate that students performed best in the reported Negative/Logical domain (M = 3.92, SD = 0.25) and weakest in the Pragmatic domain (M = 3.54, SD = 0.29), with Structural (M = 3.77, SD = 0.35) and Functional (M = 3.64, SD = 0.23) performance falling between these two areas. The results suggest that students generally recognize imperative structures but experience greater difficulty when translation requires contextual interpretation, communicative-function recognition, politeness management, and pragmatic equivalence. Teacher responses similarly emphasized cross-linguistic structural differences, implicit subjects, morphology, contextual meaning, and pragmatic factors. The study argues that imperative translation should be taught as a multidimensional competence rather than as a purely grammatical exercise. The findings support an integrated approach combining contrastive analysis, pragmatic awareness, contextualized translation practice, explicit feedback, and collaborative correction