The Future Imperative

CL311: Age of Caesar Skidmore College / Spring, 2008

Grammar and Vocabulary Review Handout I: Issues From 2/27/08

The future imperative exists in both the active and passive for both second and third person singular.

Active Active Passive Passive (Sing.) (Pl.) (Sing.) (Pl.) 2nd -tō -tōte -tor Pers. amātō amātōte amātor (doesn’t habētō habētōte habētor occur) dūcitō dūcitōte dūcitor capitō capitōte capitor scītō scītō scītor

estō estōte ------

3rd -tō -ntō -tor -ntor Pers. amātō amantō amātor amantor habētō habentō habētor habentor dūcitō dūcuntō dūcitor dūcuntor capitō capiuntō capitor capiuntor scītō sciuntō scītor sciuntor

estō suntō ------

The future imperative has three major uses:

1. The verbs sciō, meminī, and habeō (when used in the sense of “consider, believe”) generally use the future imperative instead of the present. The future imperatives of meminī are mementō (2nd sing. act.) and mementōte (2nd pl. act.).

2. The future imperative is often used in formal declarations, laws, wills, and other documents.

3. The future imperative may be used when a command explicitly and emphatically refers to future time:

cum valētūdinī cōnsulueris, tum cōnsulitō nāvigātiōnī (Cic., Ad. Fam. 16.4.3)

“when have seen to health, then see to your sailing”

1 Syncopation of Perfect-Tense Verbs

In verb forms based on the third principal part, often the final –v- characteristic of many perfect stems will drop out and the surrounding vowels will contract, producing a syncopated form. In practice, contraction of the vowels almost always means that the vowel following the –v- is lost.

dēsīderāverim  dēsīderārim (Cic., Ad Fam. 5.7.3) audīvisse  audīsse (Cic., Ad Att. 1.13.3) īnstaurāvissent  īnstaurāssent (Cic., Ad Att. 1.13.3) prōmulgāvisse  prōmulgāsse (Cic., Ad Att. 1.13.3)

When you see one of these syncopated forms, you need to mentally supply a –vi- or –ve- in the appropriate place.

Useful Vocabulary tam…quam… as…as… tantus, -a, -um… as much… quantus, -a, -um… as… unā cum (+ abl.) together with frētus, -a, -um (+abl.) relying upon ergā (+ acc.) toward (especially of feelings or behavior toward a person) nimium too much parum too little satis enough, sufficiently all three of the foregoing words can be used as adverbs or with partitive genitives:

Didō Aenēam nimum amāvit. Dido loved Aeneas too much. Habēbant Rōmānī nimium bonae fortūnae. The Romans had too much good fortune.