Article
The Cohortative form looks very similar to the Imperfect but functions in a sentence more like an Imperative. Cohortative verbs appear only in first person forms. (Similarly, imperatives appear only in second person forms, and Jussive usually appear in third person forms.) A Cohortative verb does not carry the full force of a command ("We must do this!"), but it conveys a stronger meaning than a simple suggestion or statement of possibilty ("We could do this."). The meaning is somewhere in the middle. In English, a Cohortative is often translated with a helping verb such as "let" or "want" or "will," depending on the context ("Let us do this!" or "I want to do this!"). Thus, the Cohortative verb functions as an indirect command; the reader must examine the context to determine the strength of desirability being expressed in each specific instance.
