Chapter 5 Grammar
Part One:
Present Tense Verbs
What makes up a verb?
There are three things that make up a verb:
– Tense: the tense of the verb tells us when
something happens
– Person: the person of the verb tells us who is
doing the action
– Number: the number of the verb tells us how
many are doing the action
What is the Present Tense?
• The Present Tense happens now.
Horatia in casam festinat.
Horatia is hurrying into the house.
• It is at this moment in time that Horatia is
hurrying. It has not already happened, nor is
it about to happen . . . that is the present
tense.
Person and Number
• There are six persons for each Latin verb
(three singular and three plural)
Singular
Plural
I
We
You
You All
He, She
They
Endings of the Present Tense
• In order to tell which person is the subject
of your verb, Latin will change the ending
of the verb
• There are six personal endings that
correspond with the six possible subjects:
Singular
I
-o
You
-s
He, She
-t
Plural
We
- mus
You All
- tis
They
- nt
First Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems ending in ‘–a’
and follow this example:
Singular
par – o
para - s
para - t
Plural
para - mus
para - tis
para - nt
Second Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems ending in ‘-e’
and follows this example:
Singular
Plural
mone - o
mone - mus
mone - s
mone - tis
mone - t
mone - nt
Third Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems ending in a
consonant and follow this example:
Singular
Plural
reg - o
reg - imus
reg - is
reg - it
reg - it
reg - unt
Fourth Conjugation
• This conjugation has stems that end in ‘-i’
and follow this example:
Singular
Plural
audi - o
audi - mus
audi - s
audi - tis
audi - t
audi - unt
Irregular Verb ‘sum’
• There are eight irregular verbs in Latin they must be memorized!
Singular
Plural
sum
su - mus
e-s
es - tis
es - t
su - nt
Summary
• Learn the six personal endings - you will
continue to see them throughout your Latin
career
• Remember how to translate a present tense
verb
• Learn your example verbs!
• Learn the irregular verb sum!