INTRODUCTION TO VERB CONJUGATION / First Conjugation
First Conjugation
 Latin groups its verbs into four families called “conjugations.” Verbs
within the same conjugation will follow a similar pattern of principal
parts and the same paradigms (pattern of endings) in each tense. Now
take note of some general features of Latin verbs:
o Most regular Latin verbs have 4 principal parts:
 1st principal part: the 1st person singular, present active
indicative form, e.g. amō
 2nd principal part: the present active infinitive, e.g. amāre
 3rd principal part: the 1st person singular, perfect active
indicative form, e.g. amāvī
 4th principal part (can be one of the following, depending
on the book):
 the perfect passive participle, e.g. amātus, -a, -um
 the accusative supine, e.g. amātum
 the future active participle, e.g. amātūrus, -a, -um
o Latin verbs can be conjugated in 6 tenses:
 Present System: tenses formed from the “present stem”
 Present tense, e.g. “I love,” “I do love,” and “I am
loving”
 Imperfect tense, e.g. “I was loving,” “I loved,” “I
used to love”
 Future tense, e.g. “I will love”
 Perfect System
 Perfect tense, e.g. “I have loved,” “I did love,” and “I
loved”
 Pluperfect tense, e.g. “I had loved”
 Future Perfect tense, e.g. “I will have loved”
o Latin verbs can be conjugated in 2 voices:
 Active Voice: e.g. “We love,” “She loved,” “They will
love”
 Passive Voice: e.g. “We are loved,” “She was (being)
loved,” “They will be loved”
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INTRODUCTION TO VERB CONJUGATION / First Conjugation
o Latin verbs also have 3 moods:
 Indicative: e.g. You love me. You do love me. You are
loving me.
 Imperative: e.g. Love me!
 Subjunctive: e.g. Should you love me? You may love me.
Would that you would love me! Let you love me!
 The active voice personal endings of Latin verbs (also printed on p. 9
of your textbook) are as follows:
singular
plural
1st person
-ō or m
-mus
2nd person
-s
-tis
3rd person
-t
-nt
 Now look at this present (tense), active (voice), indicative (mood)
paradigm of the first conjugation verb amāre, to love. The endings
will appear in boldfaced blue.
singular
plural
1st person
amō
amāmus
2nd person
amās
amātis
3rd person
amat
amant
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INTRODUCTION TO VERB CONJUGATION / First Conjugation
Conjugating Verbs
 To conjugate ANY Latin verb in the present system (present,
imperfect, and future tenses), you need to follow a few simple steps.
o STEP #1: Start with the verb in its 2nd principal part.
 N.B. All Latin dictionaries list the first principal part of
the verb followed by the other principal parts
 If a dictionary includes a dot ( · ), it does that to
show you where you can remove the first principal
part ending and add the additional information listed
to form the second, third, and fourth principal parts
 SAMPLE ENTRY: quae·rō, -rere, -sīvī or -siī, sītus,
tr to look for, search for; to try to get
o quaerō is the 1st principal part
o quae- + -rere = quarere, the 2nd principal part
o quae- + -sīvī (or -siī) = quaesīvī (or quaesiī),
the 3rd principal part
o quae- + -sītus = quaesītus, the 4th principal part
 TIP: In almost every case, 1st conjugation verbs are very
consistent in the pattern of their principal parts: am·ō, āre, -āvī, -ātus. This makes their principal parts easy to
form, and you will be able to predict the principal parts
for virtually any 1st conjugation verb based on this pattern.
 Try to predict the principal part pattern of
o cēnō
o gustō
o laudō
o appropinquō
 Can you predict the missing principal parts if given a
first conjugation verb in either the 2nd (natāre) 3rd
(pugnāvī), or 4th principal part (tractātum) only?
o STEP #2: Remove the –re from the verb’s second principal part
(remove the -ere if the verb is 3rd conjugation)
 TIP: you may want to think of conjugating like a simple
math problem.
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INTRODUCTION TO VERB CONJUGATION / First Conjugation

 Memorize this “formula” for conjugating:
 (2nd principal part) –– (-re) = present stem of the
verb
 EXAMPLE:
o 1st conjugation: (amāre) –– (-re) = amāo 3rd conjugation: (quaerere) –– (-ere) = quaero STEP #3: Add an ending to the verb’s present stem
 Now that you have the present stem of the verb, you can
change the verb to whatever person, number, and tense
you want (of present, imperfect, and future).
So how do I conjugate the verbs in these various tenses?
o Present tense: just add the personal endings to the stem
o All other tenses: you will learn the full endings later, but you
can see that the basic pattern of personal endings is consistent:
1st
Conjugation
2nd
Conjugation
3rd
Conjugation
3rd-io
Conjugation
4th
Conjugation
Pres. stem +
ending
par-ō
parā-s
para-t
parā-mus
parā-tis
para-nt
Pres. stem +
ending
doce-ō
docē-s
doce-t
docē-mus
docē-tis
doce-nt
Pres. stem (+ vowel)
+ endings
Pres. stem (+ i) +
endings
reg-ō
reg-i-s
reg-i-t
reg-i-mus
reg-i-tis
reg-u-nt
capi-ō
capi-s
capi-t
capi-mus
capi-tis
capi-u-nt
Pres. stem +
ending
audi-ō
audī-s
audi-t
audī-mus
audī-tis
audi-u-nt
Pres. stem + tense
sign + ending
Pres. stem + tense
sign + ending
Pres. stem (+ ē) +
tense sign + endings
Pres. stem (+ iē) +
tense sign + endings
Pres. stem (+ ē) +
tense sign + endings
1 singular
2
3
1 plural
2
3
FUTURE
parā-ba-m
parā-bā-s
parā-ba-t
parā-bā-mus
parā-bā-tis
parā-ba-nt
docē-ba-m
docē-bā-s
docē-ba-t
docē-bā-mus
docē-bā-tis
docē-ba-nt
reg-ē-ba-m
reg-ē-bā-s
reg-ē-ba-t
reg-ē-bā-mus
reg-ē-bā-tis
reg-ē-ba-nt
capi-ē-ba-m
capi-ē-bā-s
capi-ē-ba-t
capi-ē-bā-mus
capi-ē-bā-tis
capi-ē-ba-nt
audi-ē-ba-m
audi-ē-bā-s
audi-ē-ba-t
audi-ē-bā-mus
audi-ē-bā-tis
audi-ē-ba-nt
Pres. stem + tense
sign + ending
Pres. stem + tense
sign + ending
Pres. stem + tense
sign + ending
Pres. stem +tense
sign + ending
Pres. stem +tense
sign + ending
1 singular
2
3
1 plural
2
3
parā-b-ō
parā-bi-s
parā-bi-t
parā-bi-mus
parā-bi-tis
parā-bu-nt
docē-b-ō
docē-bi-s
docē-bi-t
docē-bi-mus
docē-bi-tis
docē-bu-nt
reg-a-m
reg-ē-s
reg-e-t
reg-ē-mus
reg-ē-tis
reg-e-nt
capi-a-m
capi-ē-s
capi-e-t
capi-ē-mus
capi-ē-tis
capi-e-nt
audi-a-m
audi-ē-s
audi-e-t
audi-ē-mus
audi-ē-tis
audi-e-nt
ACTIVE
VOICE
Indicative
Mood
PRESENT
1 singular
2
3
1 plural
2
3
IMPERFECT
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