Latin/Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Latin

Lesson Plan

 * Verbs
 * Present active, imperfect active, and future active Conjugations
 * 1st Conjugation Passive
 * Vocabulary 3
 * Assignment

Verbs
As with nouns and adjectives, verbs also undergo a series of changes to give further information, including how many people are acting, when they are acting, or whether they are the ones acting or something is happening to them. Changing a verb to express this information is called "conjugating" the verb.

Verbs in Latin, as in English, can be modified by person, number, tense, and voice. The Person shows who is the subject of the verb, there are three different persons. The first person(s) is the person(s) that is talking (I/we do, I/we run), the second is the person(s) is the person(s) being talked to (you do, you run), and third person(s) is someone other then the two persons mentioned above(he/she/it/they do(es), he/she/it/they run(s). Number tells whether the verb is singular (I, you, he, she, it), or plural (we, you, they). The tense denotes the occurrence in time (is it some thing that has happened is happening or will happen?). There are six different tenses in Latin: Present, Imperfect, Perfect, Future and Future Perfect. And finally the voice says whether the action is going from the subject (Active, it was biting) or to the subject (Passive, it was bitten).

The four principle parts
Verbs, in Latin, have four principle parts that must be memorized for proper grammar. The four principle parts of the verb to love in Latin is: amō, amāre, amāvī, amātus
 * The first principle part is the first person singular, present indicative active; that is I love.
 * The second principle part is the infinitive; that is to love.
 * the third principle part is the first person singular, perfect indicative active; that is I loved
 * the fourth principle part is the past passive participle; that is having been loved

The four conjugations
Latin contains four different conjugations, which are distinguished by the vowel in the penult (the second last syllable) in the second principal part. The first principle part has a long a, the second a long e the third a short e the forth a long i.

The Present Active Conjugation
In Latin a finite verb is composed of the stem of a verb, a temporal indicator and a personal ending which indicates the subject of the verb. For example the word amābimus; we will love, is composed thus: the stem amā, which means love, the temporal indicator -bi which means the action happens in the future, and the personal ending -mus, which means the action is done by the first person plural; we. Therefore amā + bi + mus = amābimus, we will love.

The personal ending and the temporal ending of the verbs are as thus;

The present active form of a verb is derived by taking the second principle part removing the -re at the end, then adding the personal ending. Therefore, if you want to say we love you would take amare, the second principle part of the verb amo, amare, amavi, amatus, remove the -re ending to produce the stem amā, then adding the fist person plural ending (we) -mus. The imperfect active formed in a similar way with the addition of adding the temporal ending -bā before the personal ending. With the future active -bi is added.

Present: amāre - re + mus = amāmus, we love.

Imperfect: amāre - re + bā + mus = amābāmus, we are loving.

Future: amāre - re + bi + mus = amābimus, we will love.

First present conjugation
The present active indicative conjugation of the first conjugation verb amo, amare, amavi, amatus.

Note that when adding the first person ending (-ō) the a at the end of the base is absorbed into the ō (amo, not amao); also the long ā gets shorten before -t and -nt.

Second conjugation
The present active indicative conjugation of the second conjugation verb moneō, moēre, monuī, monitum, to warn.

Note that the long ē gets shorten before -o, -t and -nt.

Third conjugation
Third conjugation verbs has a short e in the penult of the second principle part. The present active indicative conjugation of the third conjugation verb bibo, bibere, bibi, bibitus, is thus.

Note how the short e becomes a short i and a short u before -nt.

Perfect
The perfect passive tense in latin is a compound tense meaning that it consists of both the present tenses of the Verb "To Be" sum and the Perfect Passive Participle.

Assignment
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