Latin GrammarA1

Imperatives singular

The singular imperative is how Latin gives a command to one person: "Look!", "Come!", "Read this!".

Learning Goal

Can recognize Imperatives singular in a short Latin prompt

Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?

Marcus reads.

Julia sees the tablet.

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.

ConjugationInfinitiveSingular command
1stamareama! - love!
2ndmoneremone! - warn!
3rdregererege! - rule!
4thaudireaudi! - 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 audi is a complete order, "Listen!". Also keep this singular command separate from the third-person audit ("he listens"): the imperative audi ends in the bare stem vowel, while audit carries the -t ending.

Marcus reads.

Example for Imperatives singular.

Julia sees the tablet.

A short A1 sentence with visible endings.

Practice in course

Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises

A1 Course
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