Imperative Mood and Vocative Case
Forming the imperative
SINGULAR, POSITIVE (telling one person to do something).
-Go to the infinitive and take off the last -RE
e.g. laudo, laudare - lauda! = praise!
timeo, timēre - timē! = fear!
Positive, plural
POSITIVE, PLURAL: Telling more than one person to do something.
simply add -TE to the singular positive
-lauda! becomes laudate!
-timē! becomes timēte!
Practice at your desk
Give sing and plural positive imperatives
Hello and Goodbye
In Latin “hello” and “goodbye” are actually imperative:
-hello - salvē! salvēte! = lit. be well!, be healthy! (from salvēre)
(why two forms?)
-goodbye - valē! valēte! = lit. be strong! (from valēre)
(again, why two forms?)
Negative imperatives
FOR ALL CONJUGATIONS
Singular = “noli” + infinitive (2 words)
e.g. noli sedēre = don’t sit! (to one person)
Plural = “nolite” + infinitive (2 words)
e.g. nolite pugnare = don’t fight!
Practice at your desk
Give sing and plural negative imperatives
Vocative Case
The vocative case is used for direct address (goes hand-in-hand with telling someone to do something).
It is almost always identical to the nominative with a few exceptions
Vocative Case
-us in 2nd declension masculine becomes -e
-Marcus = Marce
-ius in 2nd declension masculine becomes -i
-Vergilius = Vergili
-the adjective “meus” (my) becomes “mi”
-the vocative of “Deus” (God) is “Deus”
We’ll Translate Together