Latin Imperatives: How To Give Commands & Make Prohibitions

Latin imperatives are crucial for reading ancient Roman texts – and for having casual conversations! With these handy forms you can give orders, make prohibitions, and even exchange social pleasantries.

“Imperative” is a fancy way of saying “command”. The name may sound intimidating, but the concept is quite simple.

In fact, you may already be familiar with some key Latin command forms, even if you aren’t aware of it.

For instance, have you ever said salvē (“hello”) to someone? Well, salvē is an imperative. The literal meaning is “be well”.

In this post, we will cover all the different types of imperatives. We will also go over the various ways of giving negative commands (or prohibitions). Soon you will be expertly ordering people around in Latin!

This post may contain affiliate links and I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. See my disclosures for more details.

Introducing Latin Imperatives

The imperative mood is used to give commands. This makes sense when you think about what “imperative” means in general.

Merriam-Webster defines “imperative” as “not to be avoided or evaded” – in other words, necessary.

As a Latin professor, I might tell my students: “It is imperative that you cultivate good Latin reading strategies.” After all, if you don’t approach texts in a productive way, you will never develop strong Latin reading skills.

If it is imperative that you do something, then I am strongly advising or even commanding you to do it. In fact, “imperative” comes from the Latin adjective imperātīvus, which in turn derives from the Latin verb imperō “command, order”.

Thus the imperative mood is literally the commanding mood and imperatives are commands.

👉 Confused about what a grammatical ‘mood’ is? My guide to conjugation explains person, number, tense, voice, and mood in detail.

Latin imperatives have two possible tenses: present and future. They also have two possible persons: second and third. Imperatives can be singular or plural, active or passive.

2nd person present imperatives are by far the most common. In fact, if you are a beginning student, you can safely ignore future imperatives and 3rd person imperatives.

The following charts show the full range of possibilities for a sample verb: amō, amāre, amāvī, amātus “love”. First we have the present imperatives:

Person	Active	Passive
2 sing.	amā love!	amāre be loved!
2 plur.	amāte (y’all) love!	amāminī (y’all) be loved!

And then the much rarer future imperatives:

Person	Active	Passive
2 sing.	amātō love! (you shall love)	amātor be loved! (you shall be loved)
3 sing.	amātō he/she/it shall love	amātor he/she/it shall be loved
2 plur.	amātōte (y’all) love! (y’all shall love)	none
3 plur.	amantō they shall love	amantor they shall be loved

Now that you have a general idea of what imperatives are all about, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty details. First up are present imperatives!

Present Imperatives

As I mentioned above, present imperatives are by far the most common. Think of them as the default command form.

When you want someone to do something right now, you use a present imperative to give that order.

Jump! Run! Listen! Read! Saltā! Curre! Audī! Lege!

You also use a present imperative to give a general command that applies now and continues into the future.

Help your friends! Iuvā amīcōs!

Present imperatives can be active (“love!”) or passive (“be loved!”). Active imperatives are more common, and luckily they are quite simple to form and use.

Note that present imperatives are all 2nd person. This makes sense. If you shout tacē (“Shut up!”) at someone, what you mean is “you shut up”.

Tacē is 2nd person singular because you are talking to one person. But if you are yelling at a group of people to be silent, you need a 2nd person plural imperative: tacēte!

👉 Still not sure what “2nd person plural” means? Read my guide to Latin person and number!

Forming Present Active Imperatives in Latin

Latin uses the bare present stem as the 2nd person singular present active imperative. To find the present stem, simply remove –re from the verb’s second principal part (its present active infinitive).

To make the imperative plural, add –te to the present stem.

The following chart gives examples from each of the four Latin verb conjugations. The imperative endings are in bold.

Conj.	Sample Verb	Stem	2nd Sing. Imp.	2nd Plur. Imp.
1st	iuvō, iuvāre	iuvā-	iuvā	iuvāte
2nd	videō, vidēre	vidē-	vidē	vidēte
3rd	mittō, mittere	mitte-	mitte	mittite
4th	audiō, audīre	audī-	audī	audīte

These forms are translated as “help!”, “see!”, “send!”, and “hear!”, respectively. There is no difference in translation between singular and plural imperatives.

Notice the I in the 2nd person plural imperative of 3rd conjugation. We would expect to see *mittete, but this form does not exist: instead we get mittite.

You can recognize present active imperatives by their distinctive endings: –ā, –ē, –e, and –ī in the singular and -āte, –ēte, –ite, and –īte in the plural.

Now it’s your turn. Can you create the present active imperatives – singular and plural – of the following verbs?

Present Active Imperatives In Action

Imperatives are central to several conversational Latin phrases.

Verb	Imperatives	Idiom
salveō, salvēre = be well, healthy	salvē / salvēte = be healthy!	hello
valeō, valēre = be strong, healthy	valē / valēte = be strong!	goodbye
ignōscō, ignōscere = forgive	ignōsce / ignōscite = forgive!	I’m sorry

Memorize these phrases and introduce imperatives into your everyday conversation right away!

Now let’s look at some longer sentences involving Latin command forms.

Pro Tip: Imperatives are often accompanied by vocatives. If you think about it, this makes sense: the vocative is the case of direct address, and you frequently address a person by name or title when you give them an order.

In the following example sentences, the imperatives are in red and the vocatives are in blue.

EXAMPLE #1
Dīc mihi, Mārce, ubi sit soror! = Tell me, Marcus, where your sister is!

EXAMPLE #2
Pecūniam cape atque servā, māter! = Take the money and keep / guard it, mother!

Our next example is a rather famous quote from the Roman poet Horace.

EXAMPLE #3
dimidium factī, quī coepit, habet: sapere audē, incipe.

One who has begun has half of the deed (done); dare to be sensible, begin.

Horace, Epistulae 1.2.40-41

We have seen several examples with 2nd person singular imperatives, so now let’s look at some plural imperatives in a quote from the Roman playwright Plautus.

EXAMPLE #4
PINACHIUM: quid hoc? occlūsam iānuam videō. ībō et pultābō forēs. aperīte atque adproperāte, forēs facite ut pateant, removēte moram.

PINACHIUM: What’s this? I see the gate is closed. I shall go and knock on the doors. Open up and hurry up, make the doors open wide, set aside delay.

Plautus, Stichus 308-310

Example #4 is fantastic because it combines plural imperatives of all four conjugations into one sentence. The verbs are aperiō (open, 4th conjugation), approperō (hasten, 1st conjugation), faciō (do, make, 3rd conjugation), and removeō (move back; set aside, 2nd conjugation).

While there is no explicit vocative, presumably the character Pinachium is shouting at the enslaved people in the house.

Our last example comes from Valerius Flaccus’ epic Argonautica. Epic poetry features many invocations of the Muses and entreaties to divinities.

Since my research focuses primarily on Roman epic, I had to give you at least one example from this awesome genre! I’m currently writing an article about Valerius Flaccus so he is on my mind.

EXAMPLE #5
ēripe mē populīs et habentī nūbila terrae,
sāncte pater, veterumque favē veneranda canentī
facta virum . . .

Snatch me from the crowds and the cloud-bearing earth,
holy father, and favor me as I sing the venerable deeds
of ancient men . . .

Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 1.10-12

In this excerpt the poet asks the Roman emperor Vespasian (viewed as the ‘father’ of Rome) to look kindly upon his work. This quote is a reminder that imperatives can indicate entreaties and prayers as well as stricter orders.

After all, Valerius Flaccus has no authority to command the emperor . . . just as other poets cannot force the Muses to do their bidding!

All right, it is now time to move on to present passive imperatives. If you have not learned the passive voice yet – and really, if you haven’t learned deponent verbs yet – I recommend that you jump down to my section on negative commands.

Forming Present Passive Imperatives

Present passive imperatives are also built off the present stem. The standard translation for both singular and plural is “be __________ed!”

The singular imperative consists of the present stem plus -re. In other words, it is identical to the present active infinitive (aka the second principal part). Easy peasy.

The plural imperative consists of the present stem plus –minī. This means that it is identical to the 2nd person plural present indicative passive.

A chart will clarify things:

Conj.	Sample Verb	Stem	2nd Sing. Imp.	2nd Plur. Imp.
1st	iuvō, iuvāre	iuvā-	iuvāre	iuvāminī
2nd	videō, vidēre	vidē-	vidēre	vidēminī
3rd	mittō, mittere	mitte-	mittere	mittiminī
4th	audiō, audīre	audī-	audīre	audīminī

These forms are translated as “be helped”, “be seen”, “be sent”, and “be heard”, respectively.

As with the present active imperatives, an I pops up in the second person plural of the 3rd conjugation.

Finding the passive imperatives is simple for most verbs, but there is a slight complication with deponent verbs.

Deponent verbs have active meaning but passive forms. Since they look passive, they don’t have a present active infinitive as their second principal part.

Loquor, loquī, locūtus sum is a common 3rd conjugation deponent verb. Its present passive imperatives are loquere and loquiminī.

Notice that those endings (-ere and -iminī) are the exact same as those listed for regular 3rd conjugation verbs in the chart above.

The imperative endings don’t change – with deponents we just can’t use the short cut of looking at the present active infinitive. Instead, we need to find the present stem and add -re (for singular) and -minī (for plural).

I walk you through finding the stems of deponent verbs in my guide to verb stems!

Now put your new knowledge into action with another exercise. Can you form the present passive imperatives of the following verbs? (Watch out – some are deponent!)

Present Passive Imperatives in Action

Telling someone “be helped!” is kind of weird, right? After all, a person can’t necessarily control whether they are helped by someone else.

So how frequently do we actually use present passive imperatives?

The answer is that present passive imperatives are common – for deponent verbs.

Remember what I said above? Deponent verbs look passive, but they have active meanings. So the present passive imperatives loquere and loquiminī mean “speak!” (NOT “be spoken”).

In the following example sentences, the present passive imperatives are in red and the vocatives are in blue.

EXAMPLE #1
Tacē et sequere hāc mē! = Shut up and follow me this way!

EXAMPLE #2
Hortāminī ut subitō redeant! = Encourage (them) to come back right away!

Sequere is an example of a singular present passive imperative (and here it is paired with tacē, an active imperative).

Hortāminī, on the other hand, is a plural imperative, indicating that there are two or more people who are supposed to do the encouraging.

Our next example comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In this passage, Hippomenes is racing Atalanta, and the spectators urge him on:

Hippomenē, properā! nunc vīribus ūtere tōtīs!
pelle moram: vincēs!

Hippomenes, hurry! Now use all your strength!
Banish delay: you will conquer!

Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.658-659

In addition to the passive imperative ūtere, there are two present active imperatives: properā and pelle. As you may have guessed by now, imperatives often come in groups.

Before we move on to future imperatives, let’s look at one final example of present imperatives in action. This quote is from one of Cicero’s speeches against Catiline, the leader of a conspiracy against the Republic.

Quae cum ita sint, Catilīna, perge quō coepistī: ēgredere aliquandō ex urbe; patent portae; proficiscere. Nimium diū tē imperātōrem tua illa Manliāna castra dēsīderant. Ēdūc tēcum etiam omnīs tuōs, sī minus, quam plūrimōs; purgā urbem.

Since these things are so, Catiline, continue how you have begun; go out of the city at last; the gates are open; set out. Too long that Manlian camp of yours has desired you as general. Lead out with you also all of your followers, if less (than all), as many as possible; cleanse the city.

Cicero, In Catilinam 1.10

Cicero uses five present imperatives in this short passage. Two of them are passive: ēgredere and proficiscere. Can you identify the three active imperatives?

Note the vocative Catilīna. Remember – vocatives often accompany imperatives.

And now, at long last, we have reached the most advanced portion of this post: future imperatives.

(Oh, and in case you are wondering – the three active imperatives in the Cicero quote are perge, ēdūc, and purgā.)

Future Imperatives

Future imperatives are a rare phenomenon in classical Latin. In fact, they are uncommon enough that most textbooks skip them.

Wheelock’s Latin – the textbook I taught with at Kenyon College and Wellesley College – briefly mentions the existence of future imperatives on p. 292, but that’s it. There is no further explanation.

I’m here to fill in this potential gap in your knowledge. Future imperatives may be rarer than present ones, but you will encounter them if you read Latin texts! It’s best to be prepared.

Present vs. Future Imperatives in Latin

As I mentioned earlier in this post, present imperatives demand or request immediate action or general action stretching from the present into the future.

Future imperatives – as their name suggests – demand or request action in the future.

Crās venītō. = Come tomorrow.

You can expect to see future imperatives appearing near phrases indicating future time (crās, decimā hōrā, etc.) and also in the company of future indicative verbs.

I love this quote from Plautus, because it exemplifies the distinction between present and future imperatives so perfectly:

LYSIMACHUS: crās petitō; dabitur. Nunc abī.

LYSIMACHUS: Ask tomorrow; it will be given. Now go away.

Plautus, Mercator 770

Lysimachus is speaking to his cook, who wants to be paid. The problem is that Lysimachus is fighting with his wife and doesn’t want her to know about the payment.

His solution? He tells the cook to ask tomorrow (petitō, future imperative) and to go away right now (abī, present imperative).

It is also helpful to think of future imperatives in terms of contingent action. That is, you command someone to do something if or when another condition is met first.

Consider the following excerpt from Cicero’s Letters.

nōs circiter Kalendās aut in Formiānō erimus aut in Pompēiānō. tū, sī in Formiānō nōn erimus, sī nōs amās, in Pompēiānum venītō. id et nōbīs erit periūcundum et tibi nōn sānē dēvium.

Around the Kalends we will be either at the villa near Formiae or at the villa near Pompeii. You, if we will not be near Formiae, if you love us, come to the villa near Pompeii. This will be both exceedingly pleasant for us and not much out of the way for you.

Cicero, Letters to Atticus 2.4.6

Cicero is making plans with his friend Atticus. Notice, first, all of the markers of future time (underlined): circiter Kalendās, erimus (two times), and erit. Immediate action is certainly not requested.

The contingency appears with the if-clause: sī in Formiānō nōn erimus. Cicero urges Atticus to come only if he and his family will not be at Formiae (in other words, if they will be at Pompeii).

Future imperatives often show up in such conditional statements. If X occurs, then do Y. When A happens, then do B.

Finally, future imperatives are the verb form of choice for laws, precepts, recipes, and even proverbs.

For instance, the Law of the Twelve Tables – the earliest surviving Roman legislation – is full of future imperatives. Here is an example:

Viam mūniuntō. Nī sam dēlāpidāssint, quā volet iūmenta agitō.

They shall pave the road. If they haven’t laid it with stones, a man shall drive his teams where he wishes.

Table VII, quoted in Festus 564

The owners have a responsibility to care for the road (mūniuntō). But if they don’t do it, a traveler or worker can then leave the road and drive (agitō) wherever he wants.

Future imperatives have an archaic feel to them and they become less common by the classical period. (There are, however, some exceptions, as I discuss below.)

For a Roman of the late Republic or early empire, the barrage of future imperatives in legal documents might have sounded like “Thou shalt honor the Lord thy God and thou shalt not have strange gods before him” does to a modern English speaker. Understandable, but old-fashioned.

Now that you have an idea of what future imperatives do, let’s turn to their formation.

Forming & Translating Future Imperatives

Future imperatives, unlike present imperatives, have two possible persons: second and third.

As with present imperatives, future imperatives are built from the present stem. You add the appropriate ending directly to this stem.

• For 2nd person and 3rd person singular active, the ending is –tō.
• For the 2nd person plural active, the ending is –tōte.
• For the 3rd person plural active, the ending is –ntō.

Conj.	Sample Verb	Stem	Future Active Imperatives
1st	iuvō, iuvāre	iuvā-	iuvātō, iuvātō, iuvātōte, iuvantō
2nd	videō, vidēre	vidē-	vidētō, vidētō, vidētōte, videntō
3rd	mittō, mittere	mitte-	mittitō, mittitō, mittitōte, mittuntō
4th	audiō, audīre	audī-	audītō, audītō, audītōte, audiuntō

Note the vowel changes (in red) which occur before the endings in 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs. Also pay attention to the macrons; long stem vowels shorten before –nt.

2nd person future imperatives are usually translated in the same way as present imperatives. This is because we don’t distinguish between present and future imperatives in English.

Vidē (present) and vidētō (future) both translate to English “see!” – what is important is to understand is the differing contexts of the Latin forms. In the same way, the plural vidēte (present) and vidētōte (future) both receive the same translation: “see!” again.

3rd person future imperatives are harder to translate since we don’t have a good equivalent in English. One option is to use the formula “let [him/her/them] do X”. Thus vidētō would mean “let him/her see” and videntō would mean “let them see”.

A second option is to use an emphatic future tense in English. Vidētō becomes “he/she shall see” and videntō becomes “they shall see”.

For future passive imperatives, there are only three forms since there is no 2nd person plural passive.

• For the 2nd person singular and the 3rd person singular passive, add –tor to the present stem.
• For the 3rd person plural passive, add –ntor to the present stem.

These future passive forms are so rare that I am not going to give a full chart. Most verbs are never used with these endings in surviving Latin texts.

Instead, I will list a few examples of deponent verbs that are attested with these endings. Remember: deponent verbs have passive forms, but we translate them actively!

• contemplor, contemplārī, contemplātus sum – contemplate > 2nd singular future passive imperative contemplātor “contemplate!” (Vergil, Georgics 4.61)
• patior, patī, passus sum – endure > 2nd singular future passive imperative patitor “endure!” (Plautus, Asinaria 375)

I couldn’t find any examples of the 3rd person plural future passive imperative, but the grammar books list ūtuntor “let them use” from ūtor, ūtī, ūsus sum.

Future Imperatives in Action

You have already seen some examples of future imperatives earlier in this post, but the more the merrier, right?

First, I want to mention that that there are three common verbs which use future imperatives instead of present imperatives.

• Sciō, scīre, scīvī, scītus “know” does not have a present singular imperative. The future singular scītō is thus used whenever you want to say “know!”, and the future plural scītōte is also common.
• Meminī, meminisse “remember” is a defective verb that has perfect forms but present meanings. The imperative forms are the future mementō (singular) and mementōte (plural).
• Habeō, habēre, habuī, habitus “have; consider” does have present imperatives, but the future imperatives habētō and habētōte are frequently used, too.

In the following sample sentences, all future imperatives are in red. Vocatives are in blue.

Our first example is a recipe for indigestion from Cato the Elder’s De Agricultura. It goes without saying, but don’t try this recipe at home!

EXAMPLE #1

Mālum Pūnicum ubi florēbit, conligitō, trīs minās in amphoram infunditō, vīnī Q. I veteris additō et faeniculī rādicem pūram contūsam minam. Oblinitō amphoram et post diēs XXX aperītō et ūtitor.⁠ Ubi volēs cibum concoquere et lōtium facere, hinc bibitō quantum volēs sine perīculō.

When the pomegranate blossoms, gather [the blooms], pour three minas into an amphora, add one quadrantal of old wine and one mina of pure crushed root of fennel. Seal the amphora and open and use it after thirty days. When you want to digest food and relieve yourself, drink however much you want of it without danger.

Cato, De Agricultura 127

If you want to practice identifying future imperatives, then Cato is an excellent place to begin. I like how he calls the pomegranate a “Phoenician apple” (mālum Pūnicum).

Next up is an excerpt from one of Cicero’s speeches.

EXAMPLE #2

In eius modī vītā, iūdicēs, in hīs tot tantīsque flāgitiīs hoc quoque maleficium dē quō iūdicium est reperiētis. Etenim quaerere ita dēbētis: ubi multa avārē, multa audacter, multa improbē, multa perfidiōsē facta vidēbitis, ibi scelus quoque latēre inter illa tot flagitia putātōte.

In a life of this sort, judges, among these shameful acts – so many and so great – you will find also this offence, concerning which is the trial. And indeed you ought to examine [the matter] in the following way: when you see so many deeds performed greedily, boldly, impiously, [and] dishonestly, think that the crime lurks there as well among all those shameful acts.

Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino 117.14-118.2

Cicero uses a 2nd person plural future active imperative putātōte because he is urging the judges to consider the whole life of the defendant and then judge him. Once the judges have examined his past actions, they will be likely to blame him for this crime, too.

The action of thinking should occur in the future and is also contingent on the act of seeing (ubi . . . vidēbitis).

Imperatives of Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs often have totally irregular imperatives – and sometimes their imperatives are missing altogether.

I made a quick chart so you can see the present imperatives of four common irregular verbs.

Irregular Verb	Singular	Plural
sum, esse, fuī, futūrus – “be, exist”	es	este
eō, īre, iī / īvī, itus – “go”	ī	īte
ferō, ferre, tulī, lātus – “carry, bring”	fer	ferte
nōlō, nōlle, nōluī – “not want”	nōlī	nōlīte

Compound verbs formed from sum, eō, and ferō have the same irregular forms. So, for example, abeō “go away” has the imperatives abī and abīte.

A NOTE FOR ADVANCED STUDENTS: Sum has the future active imperatives estō (2nd and 3rd sing.), estōte (2nd plur.), and suntō (3rd plur.). See the chart in my guide to sum for translations.

Eō has the future imperatives ītō (2nd and 3rd sing.), ītōte (2nd plur.), and euntō (3rd plur.), while nōlō has nōlītō (2nd and 3rd sing.) and nōlītōte (2nd plur.).

Finally, ferō has a whole set of present passive imperatives and future imperatives. They take 3rd conjugation endings, but the stem vowel (I/E) vanishes most of the time. So the 2nd person singular present passive imperative is ferre (instead of *ferere), while the 2nd and 3rd person singular future active form is fertō (instead of *feritō).

Negative Commands

So far we have focused on positive commands, i.e., when you want someone to do something. But there are also negative commands or prohibitions, i.e. when you want someone to not do something.

Negative commands are a complicated subject that deserve their own post, so here I will merely summarize the most important points.

First, you cannot simply stick the adverb nōn (“not”) in front of an imperative. This is not correct Latin. (Although never say never – Latin poets play with grammar frequently!)

In classical Latin, the most common way of giving a negative command is to use nōlī or nōlīte plus a complementary infinitive.

As we saw above, nōlī and nōlīte are the singular and plural present active imperatives of nōlō. This verb means “not want”, so the imperatives mean “do not want” or “refuse”.

If you want to tell someone not to come over, you take nōlī and then add the present infinitive of veniō. This gives you nōlī venīre, “do not come!”

If you are speaking to multiple people, you would say nōlīte venīre.

Here are two more quick examples:

• Nōlī flēre! = Don’t cry! (to one person)
• Nōlīte rīdēre! = Don’t laugh! (to more than one person)

I love this form of giving negative commands because it is so easy. Just memorize nōlī and nōlīte and then you can add the infinitive of any verb afterward.

This method is perfect for beginning students!

Another, more advanced option is to use the particle nē plus the perfect subjunctive. This usage falls under the umbrella of the hortatory subjunctive.

• Nē vēnerīs! = Do not come! (to one person)
• Vēritātem nē dīxerītis! = Do not speak the truth! (to more than one person)

Finally, you can combine cavē (nē) “beware (not to)” with the present subjunctive.

• Cavē (nē) veniās! = Don’t come! / Beware not to come! (to one person)
• Vēritātem cavēte (nē) dīcātis! = Don’t say the truth! / Beware not to say the truth! (to more than one person)

Other combinations of tenses are frequent in earlier Latin authors (and in the poets), but nē + perfect subjunctive and cavē + present subjunctive are standard for the classical period.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All of these rules apply to when you would use a present imperative. You can negate future imperatives by adding nē in front of them; so, nē venītō.

Even More About Latin Imperatives

Imperatives are a surprisingly complex topic, but the good news is that the most frequent command forms are simple.

If you are new to Latin imperatives, here’s what you should prioritize:

1. Present active imperatives: These are by far the most common commands, and remember, they are easy to form. The 2nd person singular form is the bare present stem, and to make the command plural, add –te.
2. Negative commands with nōlī / nōlīte: Learn two quick forms, and you can combine them with any infinitive to produce a negative command or prohibition.

This is a long post, but there is so much more that I could have included. I’ll give you two more tidbits now, and then recommend some sources for further reading.

Bonus Tidbit #1: You can also use the regular future indicative tense to give a command. We do this in English sometimes, too. For instance, a parent might say to their child, “You will go to school tomorrow.” An example in Latin is tacēbis, “you will shut up.”

Bonus Tidbit #2: If you want someone to do something, you can use quīn (why not?) to ask why they are not doing something. For example, quīn tacēs? literally means “Why aren’t you shutting up?”, but the sense is “Shut up!”

I am about to shut up, I promise, but first . . . here’s where to go for more information:

📖 Allen and Greenough’s, my go-to Latin grammar, covers imperatives at sections 448-450. There is SO much information packed into a few pages. 📖

📚 Sections 126-130 of Woodcock’s are also useful, as are sections 266-275 of Gildersleeve & Lodge. Gildersleeve & Lodge do handle imperatives a bit differently, but variation in perspective can be so helpful! 📚

🤓 I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Michael Weiss’s exhaustive guide to the historical development of the Latin language. I love this book so much, but it is definitely not for the faint of heart. I took two historical linguistics courses at Harvard as part of my PhD and I still don’t understand everything Weiss says! 🤓

YOU MAY ALSO LOVE:

Awesome Latin Novellas for Beginners

A Review of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata

How To Pronounce Classical Latin

Latin Participles

Passive & Active Periphrastic

Gerunds and Gerundives Made Easy