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In this video, we are going to look at verbs in Latin
mainly the present tense. Before we being to see how the verbs are conjugated
or created, we need to look at a couple of terms that are related to verbs.
First we have - number, person, tense
mood, and voice. The number of a verb
just represents singular or plural - so it tells us how many.
the verb is representing. The Person tells us more about the subject
whether it is first, second or third person, so I, You
He/She/It or the plurals - we, you all, they
Tense tells us when the verb is happening. So its
Past, present or future. There are actually 6 tenses in Latin
so it will be a little bit more than just past, present or future. Mood
tells us how the verb is being expressed. For right now
we just need to know that when we conjugate a verb, it is going to be in the indicative
which means it is either expressing a statement or a question
We will get to more moods later. And voice represents
active or passive. For right now, everything is active
because the subject is doing the action.
Let’s take a look at our endings. Let’s look at something we already know. We know that
there are singular and plural forms for verbs. We are also going
to have to have an ending to represent a first person, second person, or
third person. We already learned that the “he/she/it”
ending for verbs is the letter “-t” and
we’ve learned that the “they” form is “nt”
now we need to fill in the remaining four. The “I” ending
for a verb is going to be represented by the letter “O” with a macron
the “YOU” form is going to be represented by the letter “S”
Then “He/she/it” will be “T”
The “WE” ending will be “-mus” M-U-S
“YOU ALL” will be represented by “-tis” “t-i-s”
and again “They” will be represented by “-nt”
If we take a look at a verb “amas”
We have the stem here, “AM” which means loved
and the “S” we know now means “YOU.” If we put those together
the verb means “YOU LOVE”
Let’s take a look at “AMAT” AM-
still means love. The “T” ending represents “he/she/it”
Amamaus has the “MUS” ending
“MUS” represents “WE” and “AM” is still the stem for “LOVE”
So this verb now means “WE LOVE”
We don’t necessarily need a subject
in a Latin sentence because a verb has all of the meaning with it
right there. “AMAMUS” the “MUS” tells us our subject
is already “WE” so we don’t need an extra subject.
In a verb link “AMANT” the “NT” already tells us
that it is “THEY” “THEY LOVE”
However, we can add a subject to make more specific meaning
IF I were to add “PUELLAE amant” Its going to be more
specific than “THEY LOVE.” Instead now we are going to
change “THEY” out for “THE GIRLS” So “THE GIRLS LOVE”
Let’s take a look at two sentences that do and
do not use an expressed subject.
“PUELLAE SUB ARBORE SEDENT ET LEGUNT”
In this sentence, both of our verbs have the ending “NT” so it is representing “THEY”
“SAEPE IN AGRIS SEDERE AMANT”
This also uses an “NT” SO all
of our verbs are actually third person plural. However in the first
sentence, we do have a noun in the nominative plural
to represent our subject. So, “THE GIRLS sit and read.”
In the second sentence, we don’t have a subject. There is no
word in there that is used in the nominative. So we find our subject based on the
the ending “NT” “THEY LOVE”
To make a verb in the present tense
in Latin, we need to look at the principle parts. “AMO, AMARE
“AMAVI, AMATUS” These are the forms that we see
on our vocabulary sheets. To make the verb we are going to use the
second principle part, which is called the infinitive.
and these infinitives always end with an “RE”
We are going to take that infinitive form and drop off the
infinitive ending to get our stem, which is AM
Before we do that, let’s take a look at all the different infinitives that we have so far.
We have the -ARE infinitive, the
-ERE with the macron, the -ERE without
and the -IRE. These four infinitives represent four
different categories of verbs, which we cal “CONJUGATIONS”
and a verb can only belong to one of these categories. This infinitive
ending is going to dictate how we create the verb
To create the verb, we are going to follow a normal pattern.
But there will be slight changes based upon its conjugation.
To make the present tense, we are always going to take the stem,
which is what becomes before the infinitive ending, the connecting vowel,
which we are going to look at now. And then put on one of those 6 personal endings
The connecting vowels for each conjugation are
pretty consistent. The connecting vowel for a first conjugation verb
will be an “A.” Second conjugation verbs
will use the letter “E” Third conjugation verbs will use an “I”
or an “U”. Fourth conjugation verbs will use
an “I” or an “IU.” The “U” and the “IU”
are used for -NT ending verbs, so that third person
plural. Everything else will use the other connecting vowel.
So let’s look at some examples of how to use this.
First conjugation verb “AMARE” I have my stem
because I took off the -ARE and I’m left with AM. This gives me the meaning of the verb, so LOVE.
Next I need to put the connecting vowel in, and that would be “A” for the first conjugation.
Notice how the first person does not have an extra connecting vowel.
From here I am going to add the endings on
to give me my subjects. AMO - I love,
AMAS - you love, AMAT- He loves
AMAMUS- we love, AMATIS- You all love,
AMANT- They love. The second conjugation
verbs - same formula. We’ve got our stem-
connecting vowel - endings. Now in the second conjugation
we do actually add a connecting vowel to the first person
So I SIT, YOU SIT, HE/SHE/IT SITS,
WE SIT, YOU ALL SIT
THEY SIT. Now let’s go to our third conjugation
“LEG” Which means “READ.”
Add my connecting vowels, add my endings
I READ, YOU READ, HE/SHE/IT READS
WE READ, YOU ALL READ, THEY READ
Notice how the I switches to the U. Also in the third conjugation
we don’t add an extra connecting vowel.
Finally, the fourth conjugation
AUDIRE- which means “TO HEAR”
STEM - CONNECTING VOWEL - ENDING
Notice again we do add an extra connecting vowel here.
I HEAR, YOU HEAR, HE/SHE/IT HEARS
WE HEAR, YOU ALL HEAR, THEY HEAR
The second and the fourth conjugations are the ones that add the extra connecting vowel
in the first person. Other than that we leave the connecting vowel out.