VIL: Lesson - The Imperative Mood
The Imperative Mood
In Latin, a special mood is used to issue commands called the imperative mood (from the Latin verb imperare - to command or give an order). The imperative mood is formed by using the 2nd principal part of a verb. Imperatives can be singular or plural but will always be 2nd person: you are being told to do something. They can also be positive or negative. Let's examine how to form and translate imperatives.
Positive Imperatives
Positive imperatives for 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs are formed using the Present Stem (2nd Prinicipal Part - re). Note: the singular imperative is formed in the same manner as the present stem!
Formation Rules:
- Singular: Drop -re from the 2nd Principal Part
- amare - re = Ama! - Love!
- docere - re = Doce! - Teach!
- Plural: Add -te to the singular form:
- Ama + te = Amate! - Love!
- Doce + te = Docete! - Teach!
Nota Bene: In English, there is no difference in translation between the singular and plural imperative. "Love!" is both singular and plural in English. Remember this when translating Latin imperatives. Why do you think Latin has both a singular and plural form (hint: remember that imperatives are 2nd person)?
Negative Imperatives
Negative imperatives are formed using the word noli (singular) or nolite in addition to the 2nd Principal Part of the verb. So, a negative imperative will be two words.
Formation Rules:
- Singular: Use noli followed by the 2nd PP:
- Noli + amare = Noli amare! - Don't love!
- Noli + docere = Noli docere! - Don't teach!
- Plural: Use nolite followed by the 2nd PP:
- Nolite + amare = Nolite amare! - Don't love!
- Nolite + docere = Nolite docere! - Don't teach!
Nota Bene: In English, there is no difference in translation between the singular and plural negative imperative. "Don't love!" is both singular and plural in English. Remember this when translating Latin negative imperatives.
Did you figure it out above? The idea here is that English does not distinguish between 2nd person singular and plural: we use "you" regardless. Meanwhile, Latin does use different endings for singular and plural (-s vs. -tis, for example), which means that Latin uses two forms for the imperative, but English only uses one translation. For both languages, singular and plural is established by who is being commanded. Consider the following:
- Singular Example:
- Specta, Marce, librum!
- Marcus, look at the book!
- Plural Example:
- Spectate, pueri, librum!
- Boys, look at the book!
What changed to go from specta to spectate? In this case, those being commanded are in the vocative case, so we see the singular Marce and the plural pueri.