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I am wondering what mood and tense the verb to rule is conjugated in the following sentence:

Britannia rule the waves

I suspect it is the imperative with an explicit subject but I am not sure.

Can someone please advise?

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    The whole quote is Rule, Britannia! rule the waves. The exclamation mark points to the imperative. Can you explain why you doubt it is imperative?
    – fev
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 10:10
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    Britannia is in the vocative. Like in Run, Forest, run!.
    – fev
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 10:36
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    I’m voting to close this question because it is based on an incomplete title/line/quote and is wrongly punctuated.
    – Greybeard
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 10:47
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    Though only a fragment was quoted in the question, it illustrates OP's question, and nothing changes grammatically when Rule, Brittania! is included. Vote to keep it open.
    – TimR
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 11:08
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    Not being a UK subject, I have interpreted it as a magical may as in God Save the King!, both coming the same exclamatory construction: May God Save the King!, and May Brittania Rule the Waves! Magical may is also used in curses, like May you spend eternity rollerskating on cobblestones! or blessings, like May this house be safe from tigers!
    – John Lawler
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 15:37

2 Answers 2

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Wikipedia has a comprehensive article, including a comment on the non-constancy of the lyrics at this point:

... Richard Dawkins recounts in his 1976 book 'The Selfish Gene' that the repeated exclamation "Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!" is often rendered as "Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!", changing the meaning of the verse. This addition of a terminal 's' to the lyrics is used as an example of a successful meme.

So from a double exclamation to an exclamation plus declarative.

[Wikipedia also gives a comment about the dropping of the comma and exclamation mark from 'Rule, Britannia!', but I don't agree that this implies/forces the change in meaning they claim. I'd say it's merely an attempt to avoid an arguably over-sensational/archaic appearance. Punctuation 'rules' are often relaxed far more than this in lyrics nowadays.]

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    I think we agree. Punctuation doesn't give meaning to an utterance presented textually. It merely highlights aspects of the utterance, or highlights a potentially viable variant parsing that might or might not have been the intended original meaning of the speaker or author. It's like the PUSH or PULL engraved on a corridor door; it isn't integral to the functioning of the door, but tells you what to do as you approach the door.
    – TimR
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 11:15
  • The oil on the hinges is another apt metaphor: the door doesn't work too smoothly without it.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 11:42
  • "but I don't agree that this implies/forces the change in meaning they claim. ... Punctuation 'rules' are often relaxed far more than this in lyrics nowadays": it's not clear to me when the idea arose that punctuation should be applied to lyrics according to any strict rules, much less in a way that reflects the non-musical context, but the idea clearly arose long after Thomson and Arne. Furthermore, it is anachronistic to apply modern expectations of punctuation to 18th-century music (and other texts). Punctuation rules were different then.
    – phoog
    Commented Aug 6, 2023 at 8:23
  • Even lyrics (apart from the most outlandish) attempt to be understandable, and using punctuation in nonstandard ways is usually counterproductive. But admittedly 'nonstandard' is time-dependent.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 6, 2023 at 14:53
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Britannia is a Latin name for the nation of the Britons.

Britannia is plural hence rule is 3rd person plural present tense.

rules is a hypercorrection.

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    – Community Bot
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 16:35
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    According to Wikipedia, 'Pliny referred to the main island as Britannia, with Britanniae describing the island group': the latter looks like the plural form to my eyes. But there is evidence that the original 'rule' in the Arne lyrics was the imperative 'rule!'
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 18:13
  • Ok, that makes sense. Britannia is portrayed as a woman, so it's feminine not neuter plural.
    – David
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 19:33

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