Dominus servo imperat ut ianuam statim claudat.

to close

Breakdown of Dominus servo imperat ut ianuam statim claudat.

• ianua: the door
• dominus: the master
• servus: the servant

Questions & Answers about Dominus servo imperat ut ianuam statim claudat.

Why is servo not in the accusative case?

Because imperare takes the dative for the person being ordered.

So in Dominus servo imperat, servo means to the slave or at the slave in the sense of directing a command to him.

This is different from English, where we say the master orders the slave and use a direct object. Latin handles this verb differently:

• dominus = subject, nominative
• servo = indirect object, dative
• imperat = commands

A learner often expects an accusative here, but with imperare, the dative is normal.

Why is there an ut after imperat?

Here ut introduces a command clause (also called an indirect command).

Latin often expresses someone orders another person to do something as:

imperat + dative person + ut + subjunctive verb

So:

• servo imperat = he gives an order to the slave
• ut ianuam statim claudat = that he close the door at once

In natural English, we usually translate this more simply as orders the slave to close the door at once, but Latin builds it with ut + a subjunctive clause.

Why is claudat in the subjunctive?