Verba Defectīva · Impersōnālia

A defective verb (verbum dēfectīvum) lacks one or more parts of the normal verb-system. The defectiveness is not random: it reflects either (a) the verb's narrow semantic range (only certain forms are needed), (b) historical loss with no replacement, or (c) the verb's existence only in fixed phrases or constructions.

Latin's defective verbs split into two groups:

(1) "Perfect-only" verbs — exist only in the perfect system but with present-tense meaning. The four classic ones: coepī, meminī, ōdī, nōvī.

(2) Specialized defectives — lack particular forms or persons: inquam (only used to introduce direct quotation), āiō (only certain forms), for (only certain forms, mostly poetic), cedō (imperative only), faxō (an old future, mostly fixed).

This category overlaps with impersonal verbs (§§ 224-228), which exist only in the third-person singular: pluit "it rains", licet "it is permitted", oportet "it is fitting". Most impersonals are technically defective; the term emphasizes their syntactic restriction (no personal subject) rather than purely morphological gaps.

The defectives, especially the perfect-only group and the impersonals, are essential vocabulary for reading Latin. Meminī "I remember", nōvī "I know", licet "it is allowed", oportet "one ought" — these recur on nearly every page of classical prose.

Four important verbs have only perfect-system forms but use them with a present-tense meaning. The "perfect" sense in Latin originally meant "completed action with current state" — and these four verbs preserve only that resultative-perfect sense, with the present long lost.

(1) coepī, coepisse "I began / I have begun". The present is supplied by incipiō, incipere "begin" (regular 3-iō verb). With negative, especially nōn coepī = "I have not begun, am not beginning". Perfect of the lost verb coepiō.

(2) meminī, meminisse "I remember". Originally a perfect-of-state from *men- "think" (cf. Greek memnēmai) — "I have come to mind / I have remembered → I now remember". The pluperfect memineram = "I remembered (past time)"; future-perfect meminerō = "I shall remember". Imperative mementō, mementōte "remember!" (used in solemn contexts: Mementō morī "Remember (you must) die").

(3) ōdī, ōdisse "I hate". Perfect of state: "I have come to hate → I now hate". Common in Catullus: ōdī et amō "I hate and I love".

(4) nōvī, nōvisse "I know". Perfect of nōscō "get to know" → "I have come to know → I now know". Compare Greek oīda. Pluperfect nōveram "I knew (then)". Often shortened: nōstī = nōvistī; nōsse = nōvisse.

The pluperfect of these verbs translates as English imperfect ("remembered", "knew", "hated"); the future-perfect translates as future ("shall remember"). These four verbs are central to Latin literature — they appear constantly because they express foundational mental states.

inquam "I say" — used only to introduce direct quotation, always after the first word or two of the quoted speech. It is interpolated, never beginning a sentence. Forms: inquam, inquis, inquit, inquimus, inquitis, inquiunt. No infinitive or imperative; mostly present indicative, with rare imperfect inquiēbam.

Example: "Quōusque tandem," inquit, "abūtēre patientiā nostrā?" "How long," he said, "will you abuse our patience?" — Cicero opening the First Catilinarian, with inquit inserted as a parenthetical "he said".

āiō "I say (yes), I assert" — used parenthetically, often for affirmation in dialogue. Forms: āiō, ais, ait, āiunt (rare in 1·2 pl.). No imperative; pres. subj. āiat; impf. āiēbam, āiēbās, āiēbat, āiēbāmus, āiēbātis, āiēbant. The "ai" sequence is sometimes a single syllable ("ai" diphthong) in poetry.

for, fārī, fātus sum "speak" — chiefly poetic and elevated; deponent in form. Forms include fātur, fābor, fātus est. Compounds affor, profor, prōfātus (= "address, speak forth"). Occasionally in legal language: īnfāns "infant" = "not (yet) speaking" (in- + part. of for).

cedō (imperative only, 2 sg.) "give me, tell me" — addressed to one person. Plural cette "give!" Always introduces a request or interrogation: cedō dextram "give me your right hand".

faxō, faxim archaic future/subjunctive of faciō; mostly in fixed phrases like faxim "I would have made" or dī tē perduint (archaic). Found in early Latin (Plautus) and survival idioms.

Verbs of weather are inherently impersonal — there is no subject in the natural world to assign the action to. Latin uses 3rd-sg. forms only:

Weather impersonals:
• pluit, pluere, pluit "it rains".
• ningit, ningere, ninxit "it snows".
• tonat, tonāre, tonuit "it thunders".
• fulgurat, fulgurāre, fulgurāvit "it lightens".
• grandinat "it hails".
• vesperāscit "it grows evening / evening comes on".
• lūcēscit "it begins to dawn".
• imbrit / imber cadit "it rains" (poetic).

If a subject is supplied, it is usually a deity: Iuppiter pluit "Jupiter rains"; Iuppiter tonat "Jupiter thunders". This reflects ancient personification of weather phenomena as actions of the sky-god.

In poetry and elevated prose, ordinary verbs can be used impersonally with cosmic reference: caelum tonat "the sky thunders" (literal); Iove tonante "with Jupiter thundering" (ablative absolute, poetic).

The accusative of duration is used with weather verbs to indicate how long: tōtam noctem pluit "it rained the whole night".

Feeling impersonals (5): govern the accusative of the person feeling and the genitive of the cause. The five (mnemonic): miseret (pity), paenitet (regret), piget (vex, annoy), pudet (shame), taedet (weary, tire).

• mē miseret tuī "I pity you" (lit. "it moves-pity me of you").
• mē paenitet peccātī "I repent of (my) sin".
• mē piget hoc fēcisse "it annoys me to have done this".
• mē pudet huius factī "I am ashamed of this deed".
• mē taedet vītae "life wearies me".

Duty / Permission impersonals: licet "it is allowed" (+ dat. of person + inf.), oportet "it behooves" (+ acc. + inf.), decet "it is fitting" (+ acc. + inf.), dēdecet "it is unbecoming". Examples:

• licet mihi īre "it is permitted to me to go = I may go".
• oportet hominem fortem esse "a man should be brave / it behooves a man to be brave".
• decet senātōrem rēs pūblicās cūrāre "it befits a senator to care for public affairs".

Possibility / Pleasure / Necessity: libet "it pleases", placet "it pleases (resolves)", iuvat "it delights", convenit "it suits", necesse est "it is necessary", opus est "there is need of" (+ abl.), expedit "it is expedient", cōnstat "it is established / agreed".

The passive of intransitive verbs is regularly impersonal in Latin: itur "there is going / people are going"; pugnātur "fighting takes place"; currītur ad arma "running to arms occurs". This is a uniquely Latin feature; in English we must paraphrase.

Impersonals never take a person as nominative subject. They may take:

(a) An infinitive as logical subject: oportet venīre "to come is fitting → one ought to come". The infinitive is the unexpressed grammatical subject.

(b) An indirect statement (acc. + inf.): oportet tē venīre "you ought to come" (lit. "it is fitting [for] you to come"). Common with all duty-impersonals.

(c) A noun clause with ut + subjunctive: oportet ut veniās "it is fitting that you come". Less common in classical Latin than (b); more common in late Latin and the Vulgate.

(d) A neuter pronoun as nominal subject: id mē miseret "this moves my pity" (= "I am moved to pity by this"). The pronoun is in the nominative as quasi-subject.

(e) Quod / quia clause: placet mihi quod hoc facis "it pleases me that you do this". Mostly post-classical.

The historical reason for the third-singular form is that the verb originally treated some abstract "it" — the situation, the divine ordinance, fate — as the unspoken subject. The action of weather, of fate, of necessity, was felt to belong to no one in particular. Only later did the construction become a fixed grammatical category.

In passive intransitives, the impersonal use comes from the fact that an intransitive verb has no direct object to "promote" to subject position when passivized. Instead, the action itself stands without subject: pugnātur "fighting is happening"; itur "going is happening"; ventum est "a coming has happened / they/people came". This construction is one of the most distinctive Latin idioms.