When you give a command to more than one person - a class, a crowd, a group of soldiers - Latin uses the plural imperative.
Can recognize Imperatives plural in a short Latin prompt
Podívejte se na tyto příklady. Dokážete rozpoznat gramatický vzorec?
Come and see!
Be quiet, pupils!
Zaměřte se na zvýrazněné části. Co mají společného?
When you give a command to more than one person - a class, a crowd, a group of soldiers - Latin uses the plural imperative. It is built from the singular command by adding -te (with a linking vowel in the third conjugation). Roman writers of notices and speeches lean on it heavily, so it is worth recognizing at a glance.
| Conjugation | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ama! - love! | amate! - love! |
| 2nd | mone! - warn! | monete! - warn! |
| 3rd | rege! - rule! | regite! - rule! |
| 4th | audi! - listen! | audite! - listen! |
The verbs that shorten in the singular become regular again in the plural: dic! becomes dicite!, duc! becomes ducite!, fac! becomes facite!.
Examples: Legite librum! - Read the book (all of you)! Venīte huc! - Come here!
For English speakers: English uses the very same word whether you command one person or many ("Read!"), so nothing in your native grammar reminds you to mark the number. In Latin the -te ending does that work: audī tells one person to listen, audite tells the whole group. Watch the third-conjugation link vowel too - it is regite (with i), not "regte".
Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1
Procvičovací cvičeníCome and see!
The plural adds -te. It addresses several people, not one person politely - Latin has no polite plural.
Be quiet, pupils!
Tacete commands a group; discipuli is a vocative plural that looks like the nominative.
Procvičit v kurzu
Použijte tuto gramatiku ve cvičeních kurzu A1