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.

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: 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: 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.