I examine how explicit performative utterances, such as “I advise you to φ”, can be recognised as instances of the directive speech act of advising even when they appear in the indicative mood. In doing so, I tackle the Mood-Force Problem, which concerns the fact that the indicative mood is typically associated with assertive speech acts, yet some explicit performatives, such as “I order you to leave” or “I advise that you reconsider”, have a directive illocutionary force that breaks this association. Through examining and criticising several existing accounts, including indirect and declarational views, I compare different explanations of how explicit performatives in the indicative can signal the illocutionary force. I then develop the Priming View, which proposes that a performative prefix, such as “I advise”, acts directly as a cognitive prime, creating an expectation for the hearer to interpret the utterance as having a particular illocutionary force and to engage with the ensuing content accordingly. When an advisory explicit performative is used, the hearer is prepared to engage with the advice. This explains how advisory explicit performatives can guide action by directly priming the hearer to anticipate the content of the advice, even when the grammatical mood is indicative.

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