Derivatives

[Mongoose42]

How do you tell the difference between an imperative ending in -to and frequentatives with the same ending?

[benissimus]

Imperatives in -to are very rare, so they usually aren't even an issue. The frequentatives in -to (-tare) are usually just first conjugation endings added onto the passive participial stem which ends in -s- or -t-, or else this method borrowed and extended to a part other than the passive participial stem.

[Mongoose42]

In study "A Latin Grammer" I have found many other terminations that are the same, do all of them have such a distinction or is it simply a matter of context?

[benissimus]

Could you offer some examples please?

[Mongoose42]

A lot of terminations end in -a, -um, -is, and other endings. Without looking up the vocabulary while reading Latin, is there a method to determine if the ending is for a noun, verb, etc...

Also, short of Wheelock where can I find a comprehensive list of Latin Grammer tables?

[Ulpianus]

No. But in a sense it's a trick question. Those particular endings will normally apply to nouns or adjectives. But the word in question might be a participle (a verbal adjective), or it might be a gerund (a verbal noun: though these are pretty easy to recognise). And, to make matters worse, it may be a participle functioning as a noun. But a participle, although an adjective derived from a verbal stem, is still an adjective. We learn it as part of learning "verbs" for the purposes of accidence, and we look for their meanings in dictionaries using the verb's principle parts, but a participle as such is not a verb; it's an adjective.

In the end, you are going to have to look these things up if you don't recognise them. But then, if you want to understand the sentence, you are sooner or later going to have to know what they mean anyway! You may be able to guess from context, or from the syntax, and by a process of eliminating what you do know, what sort of animal you have. That's why learning vocabulary is at least as important as learning grammar. You need both, and they both help you with each other.

[Mongoose42]

This follows a different question, but I started this thread so I may as well use it.

An imperative is a command, in the passive the subject recieves the action, but how is a subjunctive described?

I know that "eamus" means "let us go", but I have been unable to seperate the different grammatical parts of the translation.

[benissimus]

This follows a different question, but I started this thread so I may as well use it.

An imperative is a command, in the passive the subject recieves the action, but how is a subjunctive described?

I know that "eamus" means "let us go", but I have been unable to seperate the different grammatical parts of the translation.

Subjunctive is usually described as a "contrary to fact" presentation of the verb, but it also has many idiomatical uses that may or may not suggest a contrary-to-fact statement. Passive is a voice, Imperative and Subjunctive are Moods. Eamus is Active voice, Subjunctive mood, First person, Plural number, Present tense.