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Latin from scratch course › #22: Imperative › #22.42: Commands and prohibitions

Latin from scratch #22.42: The imperative mood and other ways to express command

In the forty-second class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the imperative mood (which in Latin has two tenses and two voices) and the most important ways to express command, prohibition, etc.

Contents

  • The imperative mood
    • Present active
    • Present passive
    • Future active
    • Future passive
  • Other ways to express command, prohibition, etc.
    • Exhortative subjunctive
    • Negative commands
    • Future for imperative

I explain everything in the following video (⏳ 11m 14s ⌛):

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The imperative mood

The imperative mood in Latin has two tenses (present and future), each of them in the active and in the passive voice.

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Present active

The present tense in the active voice of the imperative mood is definitely the most frequent one. It only has 2nd person singular and plural.

Its morphology is quite simple.

The singular has the raw present stem, i.e. without any ending or morpheme:

  • amo → ama
  • moneo → mone

(However, some verbs in the 3rd and mixed conjugations do have the ending ‑e: mitte, cape…).

The plural is formed in the following way:

  1. present stem
  2. linking vowel ĭ (3rd conjugation only)
  3. ending ‑tĕ

So we would have the following examples:

  • amo → amate
  • moneo → monete
  • duco → ducite

Present passive

In the passive voice we also have 2nd persons only:

  1. present stem
  2. linking vowel (only 3rd conjugation)
    • singular: ĕ
    • plural: ĭ
  3. ending
    • singular: ‑rĕ
    • plural: ‑mĭnī

Some examples would be:

  • amo → amare, amamini
  • moneo → monere, monemini
  • duco → ducere, ducimini

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The 2nd person singular looks like the present infinitive (and other passive 2nd person singular forms), whereas the plural may look like the 2nd person plural of the passive present indicative.

Future active

This tense does not exist in English (even in Romance languages!) because it wasn’t used much in Latin itself. The theory says that it is specialized in clear references to the future (usually with some adverb or phrase of time) or in laws (since they are an order not only immediate, but also for the future).

The verbs memini and scio regularly employ the future imperative instead of the present; the verb habeo uses it quite frequently.

The future imperative has 2nd persons, but also 3rd. Its morphology is as follows:

  1. present stem
  2. linking vowel
    • all singular: ĭ (3rd conjugation only)
    • 2nd plural: ĭ (3rd conjugation only)
    • 3rd plural: ŭ (3rd, mixed and 4th conjugations)
  3. ending
    • all singular: ‑tō
    • 2nd plural: ‑tōtĕ
    • 3rd plural: ‑ntō

Some examples:

  • amo → amato, amato, amatote, amanto
  • moneo → moneto, moneto, monetote, monento
  • duco → ducito, ducito, ducitote, ducunto

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Future passive

In the passive voice there is no 2nd person plural. It is formed in the following way:

  1. present stem
  2. linking vowel
    • singular: ĭ (3rd conjugation only)
    • plural: ŭ (3rd, mixed and 4th conjugations)
  3. ending
    • singular: ‑tŏr
    • plural: ‑ntŏr

Some examples:

  • amo → amator, amator, amantor
  • moneo → monetor, monetor, monentor
  • duco → ducitor, ducitor, ducuntor

Other ways to express command, prohibition, etc.

Apart from the imperative mood itself, Latin can express similar notions in other ways. Let’s see the most common ones.

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Exhortative subjunctive

Used for the 1st person plural, it’s the equivalent to the English let’s + verb. In Latin we have the 1st person plural of the present subjunctive.

It is a proposal, a command or a prohibition addressed to several people, in which the speaker is included.

Aqua calet: eamus hinc intro, ut laves.

The water is warm: let’s go inside so you bathe.

Negative commands

Negative commands, prohibitions, etc., are frequently expressed with the imperative of nolo (noli, nolite) followed by the main verb in the infinitive.

Noli hic manere.

Don’t stay here.

The same can be achieved with the perfect subjunctive negated by ne.

Ne hic manseris.

Don’t stay here.

Future for imperative

For commands both positive and negative the plain future indicative can appear. (If it is negative, the negation is just non).

Sex diebus operaberis.

For six days you shall work.

Non concupisces domum proximi tui nec desiderabis uxorem eius.

You shall not yearn for your neighbor’s house nor desire his wife.

This is the fundamental theory we need about the imperative mood, commands, prohibitions, etc. Now let’s put them into practice.

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Next: The imperative mood and other ways to express command →

Paco Álvarez

About Paco Álvarez

I’m Paco Álvarez, a Spanish classical philologist. For years I’ve been teaching Latin and Greek online to Spanish students. When I saw there was nothing like my AcademiaLatin.com for English-speaking Latin lovers, I decided to create it myself, and that’s how LatinFromScratch.com was born.

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Course content

  1. Quick start
  2. Introduction
  3. Cases and their functions
  4. The five declensions
  5. First declension
  6. Verbal conjugation
  7. Present tense
  8. Second declension
  9. 2-1-2 adjectives
  10. Imperfect past tense
  11. Future tense
  12. Third declension nouns
  13. Third declension adjectives
  14. Perfect past tense
  15. Adverbials of place
  16. Fourth declension
  17. Fifth declension
  18. Pluperfect tense
  19. Possessives
  20. Personal pronouns
  21. Apposition
  22. Predicative complement
  23. Present subjunctive
  24. Imperfect subjunctive
  25. Perfect subjunctive
  26. Perfect future indicative
  27. Pluperfect subjunctive
  28. Syntax of cum
  29. Syntax of ut & ne
  30. Comparison of adjectives
  31. Superlative adjectives
  32. Adverbs from adjectives
  33. Demonstratives
  34. Relative clauses
  35. Passive voice
  36. Deponent verbs
  37. Relative time
  38. Participles: morphology
  39. Participles: syntax
  40. Infinitives
  41. Compounds of sum
  42. Irregular verbs
  43. Imperative

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