1026. The subject is a substantive, or any word or words having the
value of a substantive.
1027. The subject of a verb is in the nominative case.
1028. The subject may be expressed, or may be merely indicated by the
person ending.
1029. (1.) With the first or the second person, the subject is expressed
by a personal pronoun (#ego# #tū#, #nōs# #vōs#) only when somewhat
emphatic, or in an indignant question. Otherwise the verb of the first
or second person is not attended by a personal pronoun: as, #eram#, _I
was_, #erās#, _thou wert_.
1030. The subject is regularly omitted when it is general and
indefinite, in the first person plural; as, #intellegimus#, _we
understand_; and second person singular, as: #putārēs#, _you_, or
_anybody would have thought_.
1031. The subject of the first or second person is sometimes a
substantive, contrary to the English idiom: as, #Hannibal petō pācem#,
_I Hannibal am suing for peace_. #pars spectātōrum scīs#, _a part of you
spectators knows_. #exoriāre aliquis nostrīs ex ossibus ultor#, _from
out our bones mayst some avenger spring_. #trecentī coniūrāvimus#,
_three hundred of us have sworn an oath together_.
1032. (2.) With the third person the subject is regularly expressed,
unless the general ‘he she it,’ or ‘they’ implied in the person ending
is definite enough.
1033. The third person plural often refers to people in general,
particularly of verbs meaning _say_, _name_ or _call_, _think_, and,
with #volgō# added, of other verbs also: as, #ferunt#, _they say_,
_people say_, or _the world says_. The singular verb #inquit#, is rarely
used in the sense of _says somebody_, _it will be said_, or _quotha_.
1034. Some verbs have no subject at all in the third person singular;
these are called _Impersonal_. Such are: a few verbs expressing
‘operations of nature,’ five verbs of ‘mental distress,’ and any verb
used to denote merely the occurrence of action, without reference to any
doer: as,
(_a._) #lūcet#, _it is light_, #lūcēscit#, _it is getting light_;
#pluit#, _it rains_, #fulget#, _it lightens_, #tonat#, _it thunders_.
(_b._) #miseret#, _it moves to pity_, #paenitet#, _it repents_, #piget#,
_it grieves_, #pudet#, _it puts to shame_, #taedet#, _it bores_. (_c._)
#bene erat#, _it went well_; #pugnātur#, _there is fighting_, #pugnātum
est#, _there was fighting_. See also 816.