Wheelock Chapter One
DiBiasie Latin 506
What is a Verb?
• An activity or state of being
What do verbs look like in English?
• I run
• You run
• He runs
• I ran
• You ran
• He ran
• I will run
• You will run
• He will run
• Run!
Parts of a LATIN Verb
• Person- who is the subject?
– 1st – I or We
– 2nd- You or You All
– 3rd- He/She/It or They
• Number- Singular or Plural?
– Singular= I, you, he/she it
– Plural= we, ya’ll, they
• Tense- time of the action (Latin has six)
– Present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect
• Mood- the manner of the action
– Indicative (indicates facts), imperative (orders action), and
subjunctive (hypothetical actions, we’re not dealing with this in
this class!)
• Voice- indication of whether subject performs action or it is
preformed on them
– Active or passive
Latin Verbs Are Conjugated!
• To conjugate a verb means to list all its forms
– In English: I praise
We praise
You praise
You all praise
He/she/it praises They praise
• Instead of pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘you’, Latin has
ENDINGS
1st Sg.- -ō/m “I”
1st pl.- -mus “we”
2nd Sg.- -s “you”
2nd pl.- -tis “you all”
3rd Sg.- -t “he/she/it”
3rd pl.- -nt “they”
Conjugations
• All verbs belong to a ‘conjugation’
– The conjugation tells you which group of verbs it is like
• You can tell the conjugation by the principal parts
– Principal part= forms of the verb you need to know to
conjugate all the verb’s forms
• In English- “go, went, gone”
– In Latin:
• 1st principal part= 1st person singular present “Laudō”
– Thematic vowel= ā
• 2nd principal part= present active infinitive
– Thematic vowel= ē
• 1st conjugation ends in āre- ‘laudāre, servāre’
• 2nd conjugation ends in ēre ‘monēre, terrēre’
How to Conjugate A Verb in the present tense
• Step one: find the present infinitive= 2nd principle
part
– The ending ‘āre’ or ‘ēre’ tells you what conjugation the
verb is
• Step two: Drop the ‘re’, the remainder is your
stem
• Step three: add the personal endings to the stem
• Step four: translate “I/you/he ____s, I am
____ing, I do _____”
Example: Laudō, laudāre
Step One: present infinitive= laudāre “to praise”
Step two: drop the –re, the stem= lauda
Step three: add personal endings
st
1 sg.- Laudō “I praise”
nd
2 sg.- Laudās “You praise
rd
3 sg.- Laudat “he/she/it
praises
1st pl.- Laudāmus “we praise”
2nd pl.- Laudātis “you all
3rd pl. - Laudant “they praise”
*Note the absence of the ‘a’ in the 1st sg.
*Note the long marks! The long a becomes short when it’s followed by a
single ‘t’ or ‘nt’
Your turn! Salveō, salvēre “to be well”
st
• 1 sg.- Salveō “I am
well”
nd
• 2 sg.- Salvēs “You
are well”
rd
• 3 sg.- Salvet
“he/she/it is well”
st
• 1 pl.- Salvēmus “we
are well”
nd
• 2 pl.- Salvētis “you
all are well”
• 3rd pl. - Salvent “they
are well”
Imperatives and Infinitives
• The imperative mood is used for giving
commands
– Singular imperative= present stem
• Laudā “praise!”
– Plural imperative= present stem+ ‘te’
• Laudāte “you all praise!”
• The infinitive is a common verbal form
– Preceded with ‘to’ in English
– Formed from 2nd principle part
– Laudāre “to praise”
Fun Grammatical Terms
• Morphology- the FORM of the word
– Morph in Greek means ‘form’
• Syntax- how the word is USED
• Paradigm- An example of a conjugated verb or
noun showing all of its forms
– Paradigm in Greek means ‘pattern’
Practice
• Form the infinitive, singular imperative and
plural imperative of vocō, vocāre “to call”
• Infinitive- vocāre “to call”
• Singular imperative- vocā “call!”
• Plural imperative- vocāte “you all call!”