Present Active Verbs First and Second Conjugation

Implicit and Explicit Subjects For Latin verbs, there is always a built-in (implicit) subject, e.g., sum, “I am”; amant, “they love” There is often an explicit subject as well. An explicit subject will be a noun separate from the verb, e.g., feminae amant, “the women love”

Principal Parts of the Verb Examples of principal parts of verbs in English: think-thought-thought; sing- sang-sung The first principal part of the verb in Latin is also the first-person singular present active form of the verb, e.g., amō, “I love,” habitō, “I live,” cogitō, “I think”

The Verb Stem For (finite) verbs there are two parts: the stem and the personal ending. The stem is derived from the second principal part of the verb (= infinitive)

Determining the Verb Stem To determine the stem of a verb, drop the final – re from the second principal part: amō, amāre  amāre  amāre  stem = ama moneo, monēre  monēre  monēre  stem = mone

Conjugations As nouns are grouped into declensions, verbs are grouped into conjugations. The first and second conjugation are very similar, and their stems are derived by the same process described above.

Second Principal Part The 2d principal part of a 1 st -conjugation verb ends in – āre The 2d principal part of a 2d-conjugation verb ends in – ēre Note: the macron over the penultimate e in the infinitive of a second-conjugation verb is important to include. Without the macron, the verb appears to be third conjugation.

Personal Endings The personal endings are the same for both conjugations: -ōfirst person singular, “I” -ssecond person singular, “you” -t3d person sg., “she,” “he,” “it” -mus1 st pl., “we” -tis2d pl., “you” -nt3d pl., “they”

Forming present-tense verbs the first principal part is also the first person singular; just copy it get the stem: from the second principal part, drop the final – re to the stem, add the personal endings: - s, -t, -mus, -tis, -nt

Example I amō, amāre 1st person singular: amō, “I love” Stem: ama

Example – Part II Stem: amā 2d sg. = ama + s = amas, “you love” 3d sg. = ama + t = amat, “she loves” 1st pl. = ama + mus = amamus, “we love” 2d pl. = ama + tis = amatis, “you love” 3d pl. = ama + tis = amant, “they love”

Example II moneō, monēre 1st person singular: moneō, “I warn” Stem: mone

Example II – Part II Stem: mone 2d sg. = mone + s = mones, “you warn” 3d sg. = mone + t = monet, “he warns” 1st pl. = mone+mus = monemus, “we warn” 2d pl. = mone + tis = monetis, “you warn” 3d pl. = mone + nt = monent, “they warn”

Translating the Present Tense moneō “I warn” “I am warning” (present progressive) “I do warn” (present emphatic)

Present Tense of the Verb “To Be” The verb “to be” is irregular in all languages. (Cf. I am, you are, she is, we were, they have been.) It must simply be memorized. The first two principal parts are sum, esse

Present Forms of Sum, Esse Sum, “I am” Es, “you [sg.] are” Est, “s/he is” Sumus, “we are” Estis, “y’all are” Sunt, “they are”

Similarity to Regular Verbs Sum, “I am” Es, “you [sg.] are” Est, “s/he is” Sumus, “we are” Estis, “y’all are” Sunt, “they are”