Present Imperative Active

Are you learning Latin with Wheelock's Latin 6th Edition? Here's where you can meet other learners using this textbook. Use this board to ask questions and post your work for feedback.
Post Reply
manderson
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:55 am

Present Imperative Active

Post by manderson »

When the verb in the present imperative active, is it still the last word in the sentence, or is it the first?

Also, could you help with this sentence? We have only made it to chapter 8 and the word for things is not in our vocab yet. What do you do?

Write many things about the glory of our state.
Multa de gloria civititis nostrae scribe/scribete.

Nostrae and Civititis have to agree, but you decline them with different declensions correct???

Is "things" implied???

Thanks for your help! (BTW I got an A on my test!!! Yippee! Unfortunately that only means the fall down is longer and harder!)
:P

bellum paxque
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 718
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 2:29 pm
Location: nanun Hanguge issoyo (in Korea sum)
Contact:

Post by bellum paxque »

Thanks for your help! (BTW I got an A on my test!!! Yippee! Unfortunately that only means the fall down is longer and harder!)
Great job on the test! I hope that you'll find you're not falling down but climbing up that mountain we like to call Latin.
When the verb in the present imperative active, is it still the last word in the sentence, or is it the first?
I don't recall seeing a rule about this; the position probably can vary, given the free word order in Latin, but I've often see the imperative placed at the beginning of the sentence.
Also, could you help with this sentence? We have only made it to chapter 8 and the word for things is not in our vocab yet. What do you do?

Write many things about the glory of our state.
Multa de gloria civititis nostrae scribe/scribete.

Nostrae and Civititis have to agree, but you decline them with different declensions correct??? Is "things" implied???
Not civititis, but civitatis. Remember that adjectives must agree with nouns in case, number, and gender- so ask, what are the case, number, and gender of civitatis? = genitive, singular, feminine. What is the genitive singular, feminine, of noster/nostra/nostrum? = nostrae (as you correctly answered). That process sounds really complicated but becomes automatic more quickly than you'd guess.

Now, regarding the question, "is things implied?" The short answer: yes, "things" is implied. Because Latin has the neuter gender, it is often sufficient to use a neuter adjective or pronoun to express what, in English, we must use "things" to say. For instance,

-ea [nominative plural neuter of is,ea,id] mihi placent - those (things) please me
-multum, non multa - a famous proverb, meaning "less is more," basically - much, not many (things)
-in duris, non in secundis, uerus inuenitur amicus - a true friend is found in hard (times), not in favorable (ones)
-bona fac - do good (things)

There IS a Latin word for "thing," that is, res, rei (5th declension), but it is closer in meaning to "matter, business" and is often used with an adjective where English prefers an abstract noun (res publica = government, state, republic; res militaris = warfare).

Whew! That was a bit long. Sorry!

uale,

David

Sigma
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:52 am

Post by Sigma »

See chapter 4 under the section "Subsantive Adjectives". It talks about using adjectives as nouns.

Some examples:
Avari de pecunia semper cogitant. - Greedy people always think about money.
Mali paces numquam habebunt. - Bad people will never have peace.

Post Reply