1. Latin I Magister Henderson
The Perfect Tense
Latin I
Magister Henderson

2. What is the Perfect Tense?
The perfect tense is one of Latin’s three past tenses.
It differs from the imperfect tense (which you have already seen) in that the perfect tense shows a completed past action, while the imperfect tense shows ongoing or incomplete past actions.
The Latin word perfectus means “complete” it does not carry the meaning of “flawless” that it sometimes has is English.

3. The Perfect Tense Endings
The perfect tense uses the following endings:
Singular
Plural
First Person -ī
-imus
Second Person
-istī
-istis
Third Person
-it
-ērunt
These endings are unique to the perfect tense. No other tense uses perfect tense endings. All other tenses use some variation of the present tense endings instead.

4. About the Perfect Tense
The perfect tense is formed from a different base than the present or imperfect tenses.
Latin verbs have four principal parts, the third part is used to form the perfect tense.
Up till now we’ve only seen the first two parts, but now that we’ve seen perfect tense verbs we will begin to see the other parts.

5. What are Principal Parts?
The principal parts of a typical Latin verb look like this:
1st Principal Part
2nd Principal Part
3rd Principal Part
4th Principal Part
videō
vidēre
vīdī
visus
= I see
= to see
= I saw
= seen
Present tense 1st person singular
Infinitive
Perfect tense 1st person singular
Participle
To compare, English verbs only have three principal parts:
1st Principal Part
2nd Principal Part
3rd Principal Part
see
saw
seen
Present tense
Past Tense
Participle

6. How to Form the Perfect Tense
To form the perfect tense, first go to the verb’s third principal part: videō, vidēre, vīdī, visus
 (this one)
The third principal part is the first person singular form. To form the remaining forms, drop the –ī from the third principal part and add the endings –istī, -it, -imus, -istis, & -ērunt. This yields the following forms:
Perfect Tense
Singular
Plural
First Person
vīdī
vīdimus
Second Person
vīdistī
vīdistis
Third Person
vīdit
vīdērunt

7. Translating the Perfect Tense
The perfect tense shows a completed past action. So usually the best way to translate it is with a simple past tense form (often ending isn –ed).
The perfect tense may also sometimes be translated with the helping verb “have” or “has”, like the English present perfect tense.
Furthermore, it can occasionally be translated as a past tense emphatic with the helping verb “did”.
Latin Perfect
Simple Past
Present Perfect
Emphatic Past
vīdī
= I saw
= I have seen
= I did see
portāvimus
= we carried
= we have carried
= we did carry
fuērunt
= they were
= they have been
= they did exist

8. The Perfect Tense in Real Latin
Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī = “I came, I saw, I conquered”
-Julius Caesar, 47 B.C.
Sed ubi cum ceterō orbe Vespasiānus et Britanniam recūperāvit…
= “But when, with the rest of the world, Vespasian recovered Britain as well…”
-Tacitus, Dē Vītā Agicolae, 17