Finite Verb Review

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PARTY!!!

Just as nouns have ‘declensions’ in Latin, verbs belong to ‘conjugations.’ To conjugate a verb is to list all the possible grammatical forms of a verb. Latin verbs belong to four (and a half) conjugations.There are five pieces of grammatical information stored in a finite verb form (i.e., a ‘normal’ verb, not a verbal):

• Person -- 1st, 2nd, or 3rd

•Number -- Sing. or Plural•Tense -- Present, Imperfect, Future,

Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect•Voice -- Active or Passive•Mood -- Indicative or Subjunctive

< But we ain’t there yet!

< Or there!

The Present Active Tense -- Everyone’s Favourite

The present tense in Latin can be translated as ‘I verb,’ ‘I am verbing,’ or ‘I do verb.’ The six forms of the verb correspond with the six possible person/number combinations. All conjugations follow the same basic pattern with different intermediate vowels.

I we

you you (pl.)

he/she/it they

amō amāmus

amās amātis

amat amant

1st: moneō monēmus

monēs monētis

monet monent

ducō ducimus

ducis ducitis

ducit ducunt

audiō audimus

audis auditis

audit audiunt

2nd:

3rd: 4th:

“To be:” sum sumus

es estis

est sunt

Imperfect and Future Actives

The imperfect tense is a progressive past tense in Latin: ‘I was verbing, kept on verbing…’ It is formed by inserting -ba- after the present stem, as in amabam, monebam, ducebam, and audiebam (note the -ie-).

amābam amābāmus

amābās amābātis

amābat amābant

eram erāmus

erās erātis

erat erant

The future, ‘I will/shall verb,’ is tricky. In the first and second conjugations, a-bi- is inserted after the present stem, but in the third and fourth the ‘old maid vowels’ are used instead. Watch for these!

amābō amābimus

amābis amābitis

amābit amābunt

ducam ducēmus

ducēs ducētis

ducet ducent

erō erimus

eris eritis

erit erunt

Perfective Actives

The perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect tenses are all formed off of the PERFECT stem (from the 3rd principal part), not the present stem. All verbs, even irregulars, use the same sets of endings for these tenses, although in some cases the present and perfect stems are quite dissimilar.

Perfect: Pluperfect:

Future Perfect:

amāvī amāvīmus

amāvistī amāvistis

amāvit amāvērunt

amāveram amāverāmus

amāverās amāverātis

amāverat amāvērant

amāverō amāverimus

amāveris amāveritis

amāverit amāvērint