REVIEW TOPIC: WEEK 2 Sum, Possum, Perfect Indicative System

Sum and Possum  The Latin verb “sum, esse” (to be) is as common in Latin as its equivalent is in English.  To the untrained eye, its forms are very irregular, but if you know a little linguistics, it can help make sense of this otherwise difficult word.  You should put a lot of effort into memorizing the correct forms of sum, not just because it is so common, but also because it is regularly used as the auxiliary helping verb in the perfect system, which we will review next.  Possum is extremely easy to form once you have memorized all the correct forms of sum, as you shall see below.

Sum – Linguistically Speaking  The actual root of the verb sum is “*es-”, which helps explains many of its forms.  The present infinitive, for example, esse, is a combination of the root “*es-”, plus the infinitive ending “-se” > esse.  Note: the infinitive ending that you know as “-re”, is really the rhotacized form of the word. Infinitives all used to end “-se”, but at some point in their history Latin speakers began to change the “s” sound, when it occurred between two vowels, to an “r” sound. The “s” of the infinitive marker here never rhotacized because sum, esse has no theme vowel (i.e., it is “Athematic”), so the “s” was never intervocalic.  Note: Because sum is an intransitive verb, its voice is neither active nor passive, so it only has one set of forms for each tense.

Sum – Present Indicative  To form the present indicative of the verb sum, combine the root: *es- with the present active personal endings: Sum, esse, fuī sum es est sumus estis sunt Note: The 2 nd sing. form should be “*ess” (es- + -s), but double “ss” is often reduced to a singl “s” in Latin. Note that the 1 st pers. (sing. + pl.) and 3 rd pers. pl. forms drop the initial “e-” of the stem in a process called monosyllabization, this is merely because the pronunciation of the word changed over time. If you look at very old graffiti and inscriptions, you will find forms like: esom, esum, esumus, esunt. 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Sum – Future Indicative  To form the future indicative of the verb sum, combine the root: *es- + future tense marker “i/o” (PIE theme vowel) + personal endings:  Note: Because of the addition of the “i/o”, the “s” of the root will rhotacize to an “r”, as noted in the earlier slide. Sum, esse, fuī erō eris erit erimus eritis erunt Note: Just as occurs in other verbal forms where Latin incorporates the PIE thematic vowels, the 1 st sing. and 3 rd pl. use the “o” (with regular weakening to “u,” while all other persons and numbers use the “i”. 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Sum – Imperfect Indicative  To form the imperfect indicative of the verb sum, combine the root: *es- + imperfect tense marker “a” + personal endings:  Note: Because of the addition of the “a”, the “s” of the root will rhotacize to an “r”, as noted in the earlier slide. Sum, esse, fuī eram erās erat erāmus erātis erant 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Possum – All Tenses  To form possum in any tense of the indicative, simply attatch the prefix: “pot-” to the appropriate form of sum.  Note: When the prefix “pot-” comes into contact with an initial “s-” in the form of sum, the “t” will assimilate to an “s” possum, posse, potuī Present possum potes potest possumus potestis possunt Future poterō poteris poterit poterimus poteritis poterunt Imperfect poteram poterās poterat poterāmus poterātis poterant Note: The prefix “pot-” means “powerful, capable”, so the combination of sum with pot-, literally means “be capable…” 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Sum and Possum  Sum and possum are both intransitive verbs, meaning that they do NOT take direct objects. Instead, they each take a different type of syntactical construction.  Sum takes a predicate, which is equivalent to the subject: e.g.- “the dog is awesome” is essentially: dog = awesome  Thus, in Latin, a predicate will agree with its subject as much as it possibly can. A predicate adjective will agree with its subject in gender, number, and case. A predicate noun will agree in case and number (but will retain its own gender).  Possum instead requires a complementary infinitive, which completes the sense of the verb. e.g.- The dog is able to run quickly. The infinitive “to run” completes the sense of the verb “is able”.

Perfect Active System  The Perfect Active System is built on the perfect active stem, which is found in the 3 rd principal part of any verb. 1 st : laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum 2 nd : moneō, monēre, monuī, monitum 3 rd : sucō, ducere, duxī, ductum 3 rd “io”: capiō, capere, cepī, captum 4 th : audiō, audīre, audivī, auditum  The perfect active stem is simply the 3 rd principal part minus the “-ī” ending (which is the 1 st pers. sing. pf. ind. act. ending): e.g.- laudāv-, monu-, dūx-, cēp-, audīv-  Though there is no exact way to guess how the 3 rd principal part will form if you don’t have it memorized, here are a few of the trends: add “v”/“u” (which are actually the same letter), lengthen internal vowel, add “s”, reduplication, loss of nasal infix, or some combination of the above.

Perfect Active Indicative  The Perfect Active Indicative uses a new set of endings, the perfect active endings, which are as follows: 1 st sing: -ī 2 nd sing: -istī 3 rd sing: -it 1 st pl: -imus 2 nd pl: -istis 3 rd pl: -ērunt/-ēre  One great thing about the Perfect Active System as a whole is that there is no distinction between the various conjugations of verbs. Once you know the perfect active stem for any given verb, you can conjugate it in all forms of the perfect system.

Perfect Indicative Active To form the Perfect Active Indicative, combine the Perf. Stem + PERFECT active endings laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum laudāvī laudāvistī laudāvit laudāvimus laudāvistis laudāvērunt ducō, ducere, duxī, ductum dūxī dūxistī dūxit dūximus dūxistis dūxērunt NB: Though you only have two examples (1 st and 3 rd conjug.) here, you should know how to conjugate the perfect active indicative for any verb, provided that you know the 3 rd principal part. 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Pluperfect Indicative Active To form the Plupf. Act. Indic., combine the perf. act. stem + the imperfect of sum (era- + present endings) laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum laudāveram laudāverās laudāverat laudāverāmus laudāverātis Laudāverant ducō, ducere, dūxī, ductum dūxeram dūxerās dūxerat dūxerāmus dūxerātis dūxerant NB: Though you only have two examples (1 st and 3 rd conjug.) here, you should know how to conjugate the pluperfect active indicative for any verb, provided that you know the 3 rd principal part. 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Future Perfect Indicative Active To form the Fut.Pf. Indic. Act., combine the perf. act. stem + the future of sum (erō, eris, etc.; exception: use “-erint” for 3 rd pers. pl.) laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum laudāverō laudāveris laudāverit laudāverimus laudāveritis laudāverint ducō, ducere, dūxī, ductum dūxerō dūxeris dūxerit dūxerimus dūxeritis dūxerint NB: Though you only have two examples (1 st and 3 rd conjug.) here, you should know how to conjugate the future perfect active indicative for any verb, provided that you know the 3 rd principal part. 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Perfect Passive System  The Perfect Passive System is built on the participial stem, which is found in the 4 th principal part of any verb. 1 st : laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum 2 nd : moneō, monēre, monuī, monitum 3 rd : sucō, ducere, duxī, ductum 3 rd “io”: capiō, capere, cepī, captum 4 th : audiō, audīre, audivī, auditum  The 4 th principal part, which is simply the perfect passive participle, functions as one part of the verbs of the perfect passive system.  The Rule: EVERY verb in the perf. pass. system has two parts: A perf. pass. ppl. + a form of sum  Because the participial part of this formation is technically an adjective (as are all participles), it will decline to match the subject in case, number, and gender.  NB: When writing out forms in the perf. pass. system, be sure to include all possible forms of the participle: (-us/-a/-um for sing.; -i/-ae/-a for pl.)

Perfect Indicative Passive To form the perf. act. indic., combine the 4 th principal part + present of sum (but make sure the participial part agrees with the subject!) laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum laudātus, -a, -um sum laudātus, -a, -um es laudātus, -a, -um est laudātī, -ae, -a sumus laudātī, -ae, -a estis laudātī, -ae, -a sunt ducō, ducere, dūxī, ductum ductus, -a, -um sum ductus, -a, -um es ductus, -a, -um est ductī, -ae, -a sumus ductī, -ae, -a estis ductī, -ae, -a sunt NB: Though you only have two examples (1 st and 3 rd conjug.) here, you should know how to conjugate the perfect passive indicative for any verb, provided that you know the 4 th principal part. 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Pluperfect Indicative Passive laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum laudātus, -a, -um eram laudātus, -a, -um erās laudātus, -a, -um erat laudātī, -ae, -a erāmus laudātī, -ae, -a erātis laudātī, -ae, -a erant ducō, ducere, dūxī, ductum ductus, -a, -um eram ductus, -a, -um erās ductus, -a, -um erat ductī, -ae, -a erāmus ductī, -ae, -a erātis ductī, -ae, -a erant NB: Though you only have two examples (1 st and 3 rd conjug.) here, you should know how to conjugate the pluperfect passive indicative for any verb, provided that you know the 4 th principal part. To form the pluperf. act. indic., combine the 4 th principal part + imperfect of sum (but make sure the participial part agrees with the subject!) 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P

Future Perfect Indicative Passive laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum laudātus, -a, -um erō laudātus, -a, -um eris laudātus, -a, -um erit laudātī, -ae, -a erimus laudātī, -ae, -a eritis laudātī, -ae, -a erunt ducō, ducere, duxī, ductum ductus, -a, -um erō ductus, -a, -um eris ductus, -a, -um erit ductī, -ae, -a erimus ductī, -ae, -a eritis ductī, -ae, -a erunt NB: Though you only have two examples (1 st and 3 rd conjug.) here, you should know how to conjugate the future perfect passive indicative for any verb, provided that you know the 4 th principal part. To form the fut.perf. act. indic., combine the 4 th principal part + future of sum (make sure the participial part agrees with the subject!) 1 st S 2 nd S 3 rd S 1 st P 2 nd P 3 rd P