Imperative Mood
The imperative is the third of three moods in Latin. We’ve had extensive practice with the primary two: the indicative mood, which is used for factual situations; and the subjunctive mood, which is used for non-factual situations (doubt, possibility, wish, etc.).
This third mood, the imperative mood, exists mostly in the 2nd person and issues an order from the speaker to the addressee. For example:
- audī! Listen! (to a singular addressee) (2nd sg. pres. imperative act.)
- audīte! Listen! (to a group of people) (2nd pl. pres. imperative act.)
The verbal action is a command being issued to the listener. The singular imperative commands a single addressee to do something; the plural imperative commands a group of addressees to do something.
To form the imperative of 1st, 2nd, and 4th conjugation verbs:
- in the singular, simply chop the -re off the infinitive.
- amāre - amā! “Love!”
- sedēre - sedē! “Sit!”
- audīre - audī! “Listen!”
- in the plural, add -te to the singular imperative form.
- amāte! “Love!” (to a plural group)
- sedēte! “Sit!”
- audīte! “Listen!”
To form the imperative of 3rd and 3rd -iō conjugation verbs:
- in the singular, chop the -re off the infinitive, as in the other conjugations:
- regere - rege! “Rule!”
- capere - cape! “Take!”
- but in the plural, change the stem vowel to -i- before adding the -te:
- regite! “Rule!” (to a plural group)
- capite! “Take!”
Take a look at the following examples.
- epistulam scrībe! Write the letter!
- verba eius audīte! Listen to his words!
- dā mihi basia mille! Give a thousand kisses to me! (Catullus 5.7)
Irregular Imperatives
There are four verbs that have irregularly-formed singular imperatives:
- dīcere - dīc! “Speak!”
- dūcere - dūc! “Lead!”
- facere - fac! “Do! / Make!”
- ferre - fer! “Bring!”
Their plurals follow normal third and third -iō conjugation patterns, except for ferre:
- dīcere - dīcite! “Speak!”
- dūcere - dūcite! “Lead!”
- facere - facite! “Do! / Make!”
- ferre - ferte! “Bring!”
The imperative of the verb eō, īre, iī/īvī, ītus (“to go”) is formed as follows:
- singular: ī! “Go!”
- plural: īte! “Go!”
Negative Imperatives
To negate an imperative, we will not use the expected nōn or nē, but rather, we will use a specific syntactic construction. To form a negative imperative, we use the imperative forms of nōlō, nōlle, nōluī with a complementary infinitive. The singular imperative of nōlō is nōlī; the plural imperative of nōlō is nōlīte.
- nōlī timēre! Don’t be afraid!
- nōlīte id aspicere. Don’t look at it!