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 / IVbase / 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- / audiv- / perfect - -i
participial stem / celat- / habit- / rect- / capt- / lat- / audit- / participle - -us
Endings
Present Active / Imperfect / Perfect / PassiveSing. / Plur.
1 / -o / -mus
2 / -s / -tis
3 / -t / -nt
/ Sing. / Plur.
1 / -m / -mus
2 / -s / -tis
3 / -t / -nt
/ Sing. / Plur.
1 / -i / -imus
2 / -isti / -istis
3 / -it / -erunt
/ Sing. / Plur.
1 / -r / -mur
2 / -ris / -mini
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 Future:
I,II: Present stem + bor/beris/bitur/bimur/bimini/buntur
III,IV: Present stem + ar/eris/etur/emur/emini/entur
o Perfect: Perfect passive participle (separate) + sum/es/est/sumus/estis/sunt
o Pluperfect: Perfect passive participle separate) + eram/eras/erat/eramus/eratis/erant
o 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 / IVBase + 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 ().