PRINCIPAL PARTS
What are principal parts, and why must we learn them?
In Latin, verbs carry a lot of baggage (impedimenta, in Latin): one word tells you what
happened (its meaning), when it happened (the time or tense), and who did it (the subject or
person). In addition, each verb belongs to one of four groups, called conjugations. These
conjugations tell us which vowel joins the verb root or stem (the meaning part) to its ending
(the tense and person part).
When a verb belongs to the first conjugation, like AMO, it will use the letter “a” to
conjugate:
AM + A + MUS = AMAMUS: we like
For almost every verb, there are four principal parts. The principal parts for the first
conjugation almost always follow the same pattern as AMO:
AMÕ, AMÃRE, AMÃVI, AMÃTUS
What do they mean?????????????????????????
1. AMÕ, the first principal part, translates as, “I like.” It is the first person singular,
present tense, active form of the verb.
2. AMÃRE, the second principal part, translates as “to like.” It is called the infinitive. It
really is a verbal noun: it can be the subject, direct object, or complement of the main
verb. Latin uses it the same way English does: “I hate TO DO my homework!” More
about infinitives later ….
3. AMÃVI, the third principal part, translates as, “I loved,” or “I have loved.” It is the
first person singular, perfect tense, active form of the verb. “Perfect,” in Latin means
“finished, completed.” The action is over and done with.
4. AMÃTUS, the fourth and final (yay!) principal part, translates as “beloved,” or
“having been loved. It is the perfect passive participle, which is really a verbal
adjective, and Latin also uses it to change “I have loved” into I have BEEN loved.”
Sometimes the fourth principal part will end in – URUS, and not –US. In that case, it means
“about to __________,” and is called the future active participle. Another verbal adjective.
We use these for verbs that don’t take direct objects.
The second and third conjugations have patterns that are less consistent, but you will be
able to see them as you collect examples.
The fourth conjugation is a lot like the first – just replace the “a” with an “i”: AUDIÕ,
AUDÎRE, AUDÎVI, AUDÎTUS.
PRINCIPAL PARTS
WHY do you need to know them?????????????????????
The first two principal parts you will be using a lot, right from the start. They
tell you the verb’s root, or stem, and the infinitive also tells you a verb’s
conjugation (just as a noun’s genitive tells you its declension):




-āre = first conjugation
-ēre = second conjugation
-ere = third conjugation
-īre = fourth conjugation
The third principal part provides the stem for forming all of the completed
tenses (active). As the year goes on, you may get frustrated by not being able
to change verbs into the simple past tense. When we get to those endings,
you will put them on this part!
The fourth principal part we won’t use much this year, BUT … it is the source
of most of a verb’s derivatives. Also, you really do not want to have to add
them later on; better to memorize them together as they are meant to be,
right from the start.
As we grow our Latin vocabulary, it will be easier to pick out, recognize, and
memorize all of the patterns. This way, you won’t be memorizing hundreds of
random pieces of words, but recognizing groups and their members.
Look for the similarities, not the differences.