Inbpo-9305, Fred Drake recommends preferring `Returns ...` over the imperative `Return ...`:https://bugs.python.org/issue9305#msg110912Currently we're pretty consistent about `Return ...`, which is consistent withPEP 257:https://peps.python.org/pep-0257/That said, I actually think "Returns ..." sounds much better in the documentation, and I'd be happy to see it changed if others agree.I have spun this off frombpo-9305 so that we can unblockhttps://github.com/python/cpython/pull/31697.

Is there a bpo page or some sort that discusses why the imperative mood is used over the indicative mood other than convention ofPEP 257? I found this (https://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/2012-May/089584.html) question and answer that seems to make sense, but it's not quite an official source.If the reason for using imperative mood in docstrings doesn't apply to documentation, then I think there wouldn't be any problems in changing it. One thing raised in the mail thread was that 'Returns ...' isn't strictly grammatical, so perhaps that's something to consider.