Third-Person Commands

Latin normally commands a third person—“let him answer,” “let her come,” “let them wait”—with the present subjunctive: respondeat, veniat, exspectent. This independent use is called the jussive subjunctive. In laws, rituals, wills, and standing prescriptions, Latin can instead use a third-person future imperative: respondētō “he/she shall answer,” veniuntō “they shall come.”

English uses auxiliary expressions such as “let,” “should,” “is to,” and “shall.” Latin marks the directive in mood and endings, so a form-first analysis is safer than choosing whichever Latin word seems to mean English let.

This page concentrates on person and form. The wider pragmatic range of the independent subjunctive is treated in Jussive Subjunctive, while the marked prescriptive paradigm has its own Future Imperative page.

The ordinary Classical pattern: present subjunctive

For most third-person commands in prose, use a third-person present subjunctive. Singular ends in -t and plural in -nt, but the mood vowel or irregular stem distinguishes the subjunctive from the indicative.

Mārcus and cēterī are nominative subjects, not vocatives. The speaker is directing what those third persons are to do, rather than addressing them grammatically as “you.”

Form and force: not every subjunctive is a command

The same present subjunctive forms occur in purpose clauses, result clauses, indirect questions, and other subordinate constructions. A jussive is identified by being independent and by its directive force.

The visible verb veniat is identical. In the first, it is the main predicate and issues a command. In the second, ut subordinates it to mittit and states purpose. Punctuation can help a modern reader, but syntax does the decisive work.

The jussive may convey an order, permission, concession, challenge, or resigned instruction. Translation must reflect context:

The first is permissive or resigned (neutral conversational prose); the second is defiant (rhetorical). Both have the same morphology.

Negative third-person commands

Negate a jussive with nē, not ordinary statement negator nōn.

The present subjunctives aperiat and discedant remain third person. Quis after nē has indefinite force, “anyone.” English may prefer “no one must” or “the students must not,” but Latin keeps the jussive structure.

This differs from the especially common second-person prohibition nē + perfect subjunctive: nē fēcerīs “do not do it.” Third-person negative commands normally use present subjunctives such as nē faciat and nē faciant.

The minimal contrast is person as well as tense: faciat is third-person present subjunctive; fēcerīs is second-person perfect subjunctive.

Active, passive, and deponent jussives

The jussive can occur in either voice. A passive command tells what is to be done to the grammatical subject.

These are present passive subjunctives. Epistula and portae are nominative subjects; the agent can remain unexpressed because the desired result matters more than who performs it.

Deponent verbs have passive-looking morphology but retain their lexical active or intransitive meaning:

Proficīscātur and sequantur are morphologically passive subjunctives of deponents. Translating them “be set out” and “be followed” would ignore lexical voice.

Commands involving sum

The irregular present subjunctive of sum is particularly frequent: sit and sint. It can order a state, assign a role, or frame a maxim.

Do not invent essat from infinitive esse. The principal parts and irregular present subjunctive paradigm supply sit/sint.

Formal alternative: third-person future imperative

The future imperative has genuine third-person forms. Singular -tō is identical to the second-person singular; plural ends in -ntō. This alternative is characteristic of legal, ritual, testamentary, and procedural language (formal/legal/ritual).

The future imperative makes the clause sound like a standing prescription. In an ordinary discussion, cōnsul dīcat; iūdicēs audiant would be less institutionally marked.

English “let” and Latin ambiguity

English let can mean either “allow” or can merely introduce a command. Latin distinguishes these.

Sine is a second-person imperative of sinō “allow” and takes eum plus infinitive intrāre. Intret directly commands the third person. If actual permission by an addressee is part of the meaning, sine may be appropriate; if English “let” simply marks a jussive, use the subjunctive.

An authentic rhetorical command

Cicero’s verse gives a memorable pair of third-person jussives:

Cedant is third-person plural and concedat third-person singular. Their parallel placement makes the directive rhetoric clear (literary/oratorical).

A production routine

To say “Let the messengers return tomorrow”:

1. identify a third-person plural command;
2. choose ordinary jussive present subjunctive;
3. take redeō, redīre and form third-person plural present subjunctive redeant;
4. use nominative plural nūntiī: nūntiī crās redeant.

For “The messengers shall return whenever they are summoned” in a regulation, future imperative redeuntō is available. The English translation alone does not choose the form; the intended genre and directive force do.

Common Mistakes

1. Using a present imperative for third person

2. Translating English “let” with sinō automatically

3. Negating a jussive with nōn

4. Treating a deponent jussive as passive

5. Mixing a singular third-person subject with a plural future imperative

Key Takeaways

Use the independent third-person present subjunctive for ordinary “let him/her/it/them ...” commands; negate it with nē. Distinguish an independent jussive from an identical subjunctive inside a subordinate clause. The third-person future imperative in -tō/-ntō is a more formal prescriptive alternative. Active, passive, and deponent voice retain their normal morphological and lexical behavior, and English let must not be translated word for word.