Finite Verb Review
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!
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.
1st:
3rd:
I
we
you
he/she/it
“To be:”
sum
sumus
you (pl.)
es
estis
they
est
sunt
2nd:
moneō
monēmus
amātis
monēs
monētis
amant
monet
monent
amō
amāmus
amās
amat
4th: audiō
ducō
ducimus
audimus
ducis
ducitis
audis
auditis
ducit
ducunt
audit
audiunt
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
eram
erāmus
amābās
amābātis
erās
erātis
amābat
amābant
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
ducam
ducēmus
amābis
amābitis
ducēs
ducētis
amābit
amābunt
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:
amāvī
amāvīmus
amāveram
amāverāmus
amāvistī
amāvistis
amāverās
amāverātis
amāvit
amāvērunt
amāverat
amāvērant
Future Perfect:
amāverō
amāverimus
amāveris
amāveritis
amāverit
amāvērint