[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].
[The Predicate.]
[1035.] The predicate is either a verb alone, or a verb of indeterminate meaning with a predicate nominative added to complete the sense.
Verbs of indeterminate meaning are such as mean am (something), become, remain, seem, am thought, am called or named, am chosen.
[1036.] The verb is sometimes omitted, when it is easily understood. So particularly such everyday verbs as mean am, do, say, come, and go, in proverbs and maxims, in short questions, and in emphatic or lively assertion or description: as,
quot hominēs, tot sententiae, sc. sunt, as many men, so many minds. omnia praeclāra rāra, sc. sunt, all that’s very fair is rare. mortuus Cūmīs, sc. est, he died at Cumae. bene mihī̆, sc. sit, be it well with me, i.e. a health to me. haec hāctenus, sc. dīcam, thus much only, or no more of this.