The chapter where you give an order to a deponent verb. These verbs, passive in form and active in meaning, received their indicative in capitulum XVI, their infinitive, their participle; the imperative was missing. The book supplies it here, and it is the only rubric in its grammar section. The second point, quieter but everywhere, is a genitive — the one that completes a noun or an adjective.
What the book does NOT teach here, despite what is sometimes read: the gerund. The forms nāvigandum and fugiendum do appear in the chapter's text, but Neumann's Companion explicitly defers them to capitulum XXVI, Čepelák's Conspectus does the same, and Ørberg's own index carries no gerund entry under 25. No form in -ndum, -ndī, -ndō therefore appears in this chapter.
1. The imperative of deponents: -re, -minī
Two endings, and there are no others. They hold for all four conjugations.
| to one person | to several | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | laetā*re!* rejoice | laetā*minī!* rejoice |
| 2nd | pollicē*re!* promise | pollicē*minī!* promise |
| 3rd | oblīvīsc*ere!* forget | oblīvīsc*iminī!* forget |
| 4th | partī*re!* share | partī*minī!* share |
The difficulty is not making these forms — it is recognising them, because neither ending is new:
- pollicēre has exactly the shape of a 2nd-conjugation active infinitive, like vidēre, habēre, tacēre;
- pollicēminī is also the 2nd person plural of the indicative, “you promise”.
What settles the matter always lies around the verb: a vocative (Stiche, pollicēre!), an exclamation mark, another imperative beside it. And a deponent's infinitive never misleads: it ends in -ī — pollicērī, oblīvīscī, sequī.
One order and another, side by side, therefore look nothing alike:
Amīcī, mē audīte et auxilium pollicēminī. — ordinary verb, -īte; deponent, -minī.
2. A deponent's perfect participle is ACTIVE
victus (capitulum XXI) describes the one who underwent. But:
- pollicitus — the one who has promised
- oblīta — the one who has forgotten
- secūtus — the one who has followed
Same ending, opposite meaning. Nothing predicts it: it is the word that is deponent, and you must know that about it. The sentence always confirms it, besides, because a participle with active meaning drags its own object along: Vir, glōriam pollicitus, discessit.
3. The genitive that completes a noun
The genitive of capitulum II said whose a thing was — fīlius Cornēliī. This one does something else: it completes an action noun, the way an object completes a verb.
| action noun | its genitive | what it says |
|---|---|---|
| timor fear | timor mortis | one fears death |
| expugnātiō the storming | expugnātiō urbis | one storms the city |
| nex the slaying | nex taurī | one slays the bull |
| cupiditās desire | cupiditās glōriae | one desires glory |
| exitus the way out | exitus labyrinthī | one goes out of the labyrinth |
English says “of” in both uses, which is why the construction is invisible in translation. A practical mark: whenever a noun hides a verb (nārrāre → nārrātiō, expugnāre → expugnātiō, cupere → cupiditās), look for its genitive.
4. An adjective and a verb that govern a case
cupidus wants the genitive: cupidus glōriae, eager for glory. It is the first adjective in the course to govern a case — but you already knew one without noticing, plēnus (capitulum VII), and capitulum XXI wrote vestis sordium plēna.
oblīvīscī accepts two cases, and it is the first verb in the course to do so:
Fābul*ae oblīvīscitur.* = Fābul*am oblīvīscitur.* — he forgets the story.
What will not do, on the other hand, is the ablative: fābulā oblīvīscitur is wrong.
5. The table of place, completed
| where one is | where one goes | where one comes from | |
|---|---|---|---|
| here | hīc | hūc | hinc |
| over there | illīc | illūc | illinc |
| there | ibi |
This is exactly the contrast of in + ablative and in + accusative (capitulum VI), carried over onto adverbs. Illūc dēscendit et ibi mānsit: he goes there, then he is there.
6. The connecting relative: quī = et is
A sentence that begins with a relative subordinates nothing. It picks up the last word and goes on:
Taurum cōnspicit, quī herbam edere nōn poterat. — and it could no longer eat grass.
No new form: it is the relative of capitulum III, put to a new use. Render it “and he”, “now this one”, never “who”.
7. Two kinds of 3rd-declension adjective in -ilis and -bilis
humilis, humile · mīrābilis, mīrābile · terribilis, terribile
They decline like brevis (capitulum XII): neuter in -e, genitive plural in -ium. The suffix -bilis always says what can be done or undergone — terribilis is what can frighten, mīrābilis what can be admired.
Watch the superlative: humillimus, with two l's. Six Latin adjectives do this (facilis, difficilis, similis, dissimilis, gracilis, humilis); all the others, mīrābilis and terribilis included, form a regular -issimus.
8. Two words for death, three verbs for killing
- mors — the death that comes, that is undergone;
- nex — the death that is dealt, the slaying.
Mors taurī nihil mūtāvit does not say the same as Nex taurī nihil mūtāvit: in the first the beast died, in the second it was killed.
And the three verbs are not interchangeable: necāre does not say how, occīdere strikes down, interficere undoes.
9. Three masculines of the 4th declension
cōnspectus sight · currus chariot · exitus way out
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| subject | currus | currūs |
| whose | currūs | curruum |
| object | currum | currūs |
| to | curruī | curribus |
| by, on | currū | curribus |
They follow gradus and manus (capitulum XII), not the neuters cornū and genū (capitulum XXI).
10. Two incomplete words
- moenia has no singular. A single rampart encircles nothing: moenia, moenium, moenibus, and that is all. mūrus (capitulum VI) remains the wall you can count.
- coepisse has no present. coepit means “he began”, never “he begins” — incipere (capitulum XIII) does that work. Seven forms in all: coepī, coepistī, coepit, coepimus, coepistis, coepērunt, coepisse.
Pitfalls of spelling
- occīdere (long ī, ob + caedere) “to kill” is not occidere (short i, ob + cadere) “to fall, to set”, capitulum XVI — the one used of the setting sun. Written without macrons, occidit is both, and only the surrounding sentence decides. This is the most dangerous pair in the chapter.
- cōnspectus, cōnspectūs m. “sight” is a 4th-declension noun; cōnspectus, cōnspectī is the participle of cōnspicere (capitulum XXI). Same nominative, two tables — and it is the genitive that separates them, as always.
- fīlum (long ī, neuter) is the thread; fīlius is the son.
- lītus, lītoris n. hides its stem lītor-, like corpus, corporis (capitulum XI).
- brevī (long ī) is the adverb “soon”, a frozen ablative of brevī tempore; breve is the neuter of the adjective brevis.
- nex, necis and rēx, rēgis both hide a consonant under their x: nec + s, rēg + s.
- dēscendere, cōnstituere and occīdere have the same form in the present and the perfect in the 3rd person singular: dēscendit, cōnstituit, occīdit. Only the place of the stress separates them aloud.
- humilis contains humus, the ground (capitulum XXI): humble is what lies close to the earth.