There have been many Imperative Verbs in the Legonium stories so far. People are often telling others what to do. Here is a handy table from a previous post, showing the various Imperative endings based on Conjugation and the Number of people being ordered.
Conjugation Verb Singular Imperative Plural Imperative
1st do, dare, dedi, datum da give! date
2nd video, videre, vidi, visum vide see! videte
3rd lego, legere, legi, lectum lege read! legite
4th audio, audire, audivi, auditum audi listen! audite
Mixed capio, capere, cepi, captum cape seize! capite
Far rarer is the elusive Passive Imperative. While it certainly appears in Latin literature, it isn’t frequently spotted. And I don’t think I’ve used a single example in Legonium. Passive Imperatives have meanings such as dare be given! videre be seen! legere be read! audire be heard! and capere! be seized! It doesn’t help one bit that they look like an Infinitive! But, as I said, they are rare. Here is a table, showing the Passive Imperative in the Singular and Plural.
Conjugation Verb Singular Imperative Plural Imperative
1st do, dare, dedi, datum dare be given! damini
2nd video, videre, vidi, visum videre be seen! videmini
3rd lego, legere, legi, lectum legere be read! legimini
4th audio, audire, audivi, auditum audire be heard! audimini
Mixed capio, capere, cepi, captum capere be seized! capimini
Despite the rarity of the Passive Imperative, this table is still incredibly important, because of Deponent Verbs. Deponent Verbs are a club of Verbs (they exist in every Conjugation) that have lost their regular Active Forms. Instead, they use Passive forms and look Passive even though they are Active. And this includes their Imperatives. (This also means that Deponent Verbs can’t actually BE Passive, but they seem to deal with this okay). Here is a table showing the ACTIVE Imperatives of a Deponent Verb.
Conjugation Verb Singular Imperative Plural Imperative
1st conor, conari, conatus sum conare try! conamini
2nd polliceor, polliceri, polilicitus sum pollicerepromise! pollicemini
3rd sequor, sequi, secutus sum sequere follow! sequimini
4th mentior, mentiri, menitus sum mentire lie! mentimini
Mixed patior, pati, passus sum patere suffer! patimini
Luckily, Deponent Verbs have Passive looking Infinitives (conari, polliceri, sequi, mentiri, pati), so there is no risk of confusing the Infinitive and Imperative Forms. All that remains to be said is that Jessica uses a Plural Imperative of a Deponent Verb on today’s page, when she shouts to her crew me sequimini! follow me!
Then they all run down the stairs. ‘Follow me!’ Jessica shouts. She climbs the lamp to the high roof of the bank, the others following with some difficulty.