Latin Verb Conjugation Paradigms
In the first part of these notes, rough translations are given for various forms of the first
conjugation transitive verb amare (to love). The reader is assumed to know the
grammatical notions of person and number, so in most cases, we only work with first
person singular. Subtleties of usage will be ignored, at least for the time being. Caveat
emptor!
In the second part of these notes, general rules are given for verb conjugation. These are
rough in that there are some changes of vowels and vowel lengths that are completely
ignored in this section.
Principal parts for amare, to love, to like
amo, amare, amavi, amatus. I love, to love, I (have) loved, loved.
Some verbs are impersonal, i.e., they only exist in the third person singular. (Example:
miseret, miserere, miseruit, miseritum. It is a pity, to be a pity, it was a pity, having been
a pity.)
Some verbs are intransitive, i.e., they do not take direct objects. The fourth principal part
of these verbs is either the neuter form of the perfect passive participle for verbs
intransitive verbs which take an indirect object in the dative case, or the future active
participle for other intransitive verbs. (Examples: asto, astare, asteti, astatum I assist, to
assist, I assisted, assisted. sum, esse, fui, futurus. I am, to be, I was, about to be.)
Intransitive verbs which take indirect objects may have impersonal passive voice forms
which are occasionally tricky to translate.
Some verbs are deponent which means that they are passive in form but active in
meaning. (Example: misereor, misereri, miseritus sum. I pity, to pity, I pitied.)
Infinitives
The Modern English tense system does not quite correspond with the Latin tense system,
particularly in certain uses of the perfect tenses. But the following translations usually
make a good first attempt.
Present Active: amare to love, to be loving
Perfect Active: amavisse to have loved
Future Active: amaturus esse to be about to love, to be going to be loving
Present Passive: amari to be loved
Perfect Passive: amatus esse to have been loved
Future Passive: amatum iri to be about to be loved, to be going to be loved, to be loved
Participles
Present Active: amans loving
Future Active: amaturus about to love
Perfect Passive: amatus loved, having been loved
Future Passive: amandus to be loved
Indicative Mood
Present Active: amo I love, I do love, I am loving
Imperfect Active: amabam I loved, I did love, I was loving, I used to love
Future Active: amabo I shall love, I am going to love, I am about to love
Perfect Active: amavi I loved, I have loved
Pluperfect Active: amaveram I had loved
Future Perfect Active: amavero I shall have loved
The key distinction between the imperfect and the perfect in Latin is not the same as that
between the past tense and present perfect in English. (English usage here is idiomatic
among the Indo-European languages.) In Latin as in many Indo-European languages, the
perfect tense conveys a completed action (e.g. “I sang Tom Dooley yesterday.”) The
imperfect tense conveys continuation or repetition or habitual action (e.g. “We practiced
Tom Dooley for three weeks”.)
Note: perfect < perfectus (adj) complete, finished. past participle of perficio, -ficere - to
complete.
Present Passive: amor I am loved, I am being loved
Imperfect Passive: amabar I was loved, I was being loved, I used to be loved
Future Passive: amabor I shall be loved, I am going to be loved, I am about to be loved
Perfect Passive: amatus sum I was loved, I have been loved
Pluperfect Passive: amatus eram I had been loved
Future Perfect Passive: amatus ero I shall have been loved
Subjunctive Mood
In a number of circumstances, the Latin subjunctive corresponds to special usages of the
Modern English indicative. However, for other uses, the following suggestions may
better fit the meaning.
Present Active: amem I may love, let me love, I should love, I would love
Imperfect Active: amarem I might love, I would love
Perfect Active: amaverim I may have loved, I should have loved, I would have loved
Pluperfect Tense amavissem I might have loved, I would have loved
Present Passive: amer I may be loved, let me be loved, I should be loved, I would be
loved
Imperfect Passive: amarer I might be loved, I would be loved
Perfect passive subjunctive: amatus sim I may have been loved, I should have been
loved, I would have been loved
Pluperfect passive subjunctive: amatus essem I might have been loved, I would have
been loved
Imperative Mood
Active Voice
Present Active: ama, amate (second person) Love!
Future Active: amato, amatote (second person) amato, amanto (third person)
Present Passive: amare, amamini (second person) Be loved!
Future Passive: amator (second person singular) amator, amantor (third person)
Gerund and Supine
Gerund: amandum loving (used as a noun)
Supine amatum to love
Approximate conjugation patterns for regular verbs
This section is intend mainly as a guide to the similarities among the different
conjugations. Where things tend to get more complicated is in vowel lengthenings
(ignored completely in written Latin anyway) and changes before certain endings,
especially the first person singular and the third person plural.
Stems
The base, the present stem, perfect stem, and the participial stem may be determined from
the principal parts, as given by the following examples.
Conjugation I celo, celare, celavi, celatus hide
Conjugation II habeo, habere, habui, habitus have
Conjugation III rego, regere, rexi, rectus rule
Conjugation III-io capio, capere, cepi, captus take
Conjugation III-Ø fero, ferre, tuli, latus carry, bear
Conjugation IV audio, audire, audivi, auditus hear
ferre is usually classed as an irregular verb. While it is unusual in form, it seems perfectly
regular to me. (It was so regular, in fact, that I was able to produce the conjugation
paradigm page for ferre from the conjugation paradigm page for capere using very
simple global replace strings.)
The base and the stems are formed from these examples are as follows:
I
II
III
III-io III-Ø IV
base
cel-
hab-
reg-
cap-
fer-
aud-
infinitive - ending
present stem
cela-
habe- rege- cape- fer-
audi-
infinitive - -re
perfect stem
celav- habu- rex-
cep-
tul-
participial stem celat- habit- rect- capt- lat-
audiv- perfect - -i
audit- participle - -us
Endings
Present Active
Sing. Plur.
Imperfect
Perfect
Sing. Plur.
Passive
Sing. Plur.
Sing. Plur.
1 -o
-mus
1 -m
-mus
1 -i
-imus
1 -r
-mur
2 -s
-tis
2 -s
-tis
2 -isti
-istis
2 -ris
-mini
3 -t
-nt
3 -t
-nt
3 -it
-erunt
3 -tur
-ntur
When attaching endings to the stem, the stem vowel will sometimes undergo a
strengthening or a weakening. This results in some irregularities — especially in the
third conjugation.
Indicative


Active voice:
o Present: Present stem + personal endings (o/s/t/mus/tis/nt)
o Imperfect: Present stem + -ba- + personal endings (m/s/t/mus/tis/nt)
o Future:
I,II: Present stem + bo/bis/bit/bimus/bitis/bunt
III,IV: Present stem + am/es/et/emus/etis/ent
o Perfect: Perfect stem + perfect personal endings (i/isti/it/imus/istis/erunt)
o Pluperfect: Perfect stem + -era- + personal endings
o Future perfect: Perfect stem + -eri- + personal endings
Passive voice:
o Present: Present stem + passive endings (r/ris/tur/mur/mini/ntur)
o Imperfect: Present stem + -ba- + passive endings
o
o
o
o
Future:
I,II: Present stem + bor/beris/bitur/bimur/bimini/buntur
III,IV: Present stem + ar/eris/etur/emur/emini/entur
Perfect: Perfect passive participle (separate) + sum/es/est/sumus/estis/sunt
Pluperfect: Perfect passive participle separate) +
eram/eras/erat/eramus/eratis/erant
Future perfect: Perfect passive participle (separate) +
ero/eris/erit/erimus/eritis/erunt
Subjunctive
The subjunctive stem is obtained from the base as follows:
Remember the mnemonic: “we beat a liar” or “she wears a diamond”
I
II
III
III-io
III-Ø
IV
Base + e Base + ea Base + a Base + ia Base + a Base + ia


Active voice:
o Present: Subjunctive stem + personal endings
o Imperfect: Present infinitive + personal endings
o Perfect: Perfect stem + -eri- + personal endings
o Pluperfect: Perfect stem + -isse- + personal endings
Passive voice:
o Present: Subjunctive stem + passive endings
o Imperfect: Present infinitive + passive endings
o Perfect: Perfect passive participle (separate) + sim/sis/sit/simus/sitis/sint
o Pluperfect: Perfect passive participle (separate) +
essem/esses/esset/essemus/essetis/essent
Because we don't mark vowels, the future indicative and the present subjunctive for the
third conjugation look pretty much the same. They differ in the length of vowels, but you
don't see that distinction in written texts. According to Latino pro populo the similarity is
not accidental.
The future perfect indicative and the past subjunctive also often look the same when
vowels are not marked.
Imperative


Present Active: Present stem + {Ø, -te}
Present Passive: Present stem + {-re, -mini}
Original Document Created By: Eric Conrad (econrad@math.ohio-state.edu).