Download Present Tense of Latin Verbs

Present Tense
of Latin Verbs
Magister Henderson
Latin I
The Properties of Verbs
• Verbs have several important properties to
consider; of these we will be looking at tense,
number and person.
• Tense denotes present, past, or future time.
• Number denotes a difference between
singular, and plural.
• Person denotes a distinction between the
speaker, the listener, or a “third” party.
About Grammatical Person
• In grammar, conjugated verbs are said to be
either first, second, or third person.
• First person verbs denote actions performed
by the speaker.
• Second person verbs denote actions
performed by the listener.
• Third person verbs denote action performed
by parties other than the speaker or listener.
Subject Pronouns
• In English we denote person through our
subject pronouns.
• The following chart shows the English subject
pronouns and how they relate to grammatical
person.
Singular
Plural
First Person
I
we
Second Person
you
you (y’all)
Third Person
he , she, it
they
Verbs Forms in Latin
• In Latin verb endings are used to show person
and number.
• For this reason personal pronouns are
frequently omitted in Latin.
• When personal pronouns are included, they
are often used for emphasis.
• You have already seen the third person verb
endings in singular –t and plural –nt.
The Latin Verb Endings
• The following verb endings in Latin correspond to
the English personal pronouns:
Singular
Plural
First Person
-ō
=I
-mus
= we
Second Person
-s
= you
-tis
= you (y’all)
Third Person
-t
= he / she /it
-nt
= they
Note that these verb ends are not actually pronouns. They are
verb endings. But the do correspond to the personal pronouns.
A Conjugated Latin Verb
• Here is the full present tense conjugation of the
verb portō, portāre (to carry) in Latin:
Singular
First Person
portō
= I carry
Second Person
portās
Third Person
portat
Plural
portāmus
= we carry
= you carry
portātis
= you carry
= he / she /it carries
portant
= they carry
The word “conjugate” means to run a verb through all
its forms in a given tense.
About the Infinitive
• You might notice that the infinitive (the form
ending in –re) is not found on that chart.
• That is because the infinitive is a verbal noun
the is not “limited” to any one person or
number.
• The infinitive therefore cannot be a main verb
of a sentence, though it can be used to
complete the meaning of a main verb.
More About the Infinitive
• The infinitive is listed second in the verb’s
vocabulary entry, behind the first person
singular present tense form.
• The infinitive, being a verbal noun, carries the
basic meaning of the verb.
• So in the verb portō, portāre, it is the second
part that means “to carry”, which is how the
verb is given when defined.