The singular imperative is how Latin gives a command to one person: "Look!", "Come!", "Read this!".
Can recognize Imperatives singular in a short Latin prompt
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Avē, Caesar!
Hail, Caesar!
Carpe diem.
Seize the day.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
The singular imperative is how Latin gives a command to one person: "Look!", "Come!", "Read this!". You will see it constantly in dialogue, teaching, and inscriptions. The good news is that it is easy to form - for most verbs you simply take the present infinitive and drop the -re ending.
| Conjugation | Infinitive | Singular command |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | amare | ama! - love! |
| 2nd | monere | mone! - warn! |
| 3rd | regere | rege! - rule! |
| 4th | audire | audi! - listen! |
A few everyday verbs are irregular and shorten further: dicere gives dic! (say!), ducere gives duc! (lead!), facere gives fac! (do!), and ferre gives fer! (carry!).
Examples: Veni! - Come! Specta lunam! - Look at the moon!
For English speakers: Latin does not add the word "you" to a command, and there is no helper like "do" - the bare verb form is the command. So audī is a complete order, "Listen!". Also keep this singular command separate from the third-person audit ("he listens"): the imperative audī ends in the bare stem vowel, while audit carries the -t ending.
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesAvē, Caesar!
Hail, Caesar!
Ave is a singular imperative. Caesar happens to have a vocative identical to its nominative.
Carpe diem.
Seize the day.
Carpe is a third-conjugation imperative: the stem carp- plus a short -e (carpere -> carpe), like legere -> lege. A first-conjugation imperative would end in long -a: amā.
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Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises