Latin/Perfect Tense Lesson 1

Salvēte omnēs! Welcome back to Latin for Wikiversity. Here you can peruse a new lesson in Latin, in a simple format. If you would like to catch up, you can find a directory of lessons, a classified vocabulary list, and Memrise courses at the links on the right.

New Grammar
In this lesson we begin our study of the perfect tense in Latin. You’ll remember we’ve studied three tenses so far, present, imperfect, and future, which together make up the “present system” and are formed with the “present stem.” The perfect tense describes completed past action, while the imperfect tense describes continuous, ongoing, or habitual past action. “Perfectus” in Latin means “finished/completed.” The perfect tense is the most common past tense in Latin.

It is formed very regularly for all four conjugations and even irregular verbs, but because it requires the third principal part of the verb (the “perfect stem”) it demands more advanced vocabulary study and memorization than most beginning students realize. Now is an excellent time to get busy with vocabulary cards: it’s not enough to know that dō = give; try memorizing:
 * dō, dare, dedī, datus (1) = give.

You’ll need that 3rd form, dedī, to form the perfect tense.

Now taking the stem of that 3rd principal part (everything but the ī), add the endings ī, istī, it, imus, istis, ērunt: You’ll notice that the 1st person singular of the perfect tense is the 3rd principal part, so remember the –ī is not part of the stem. You’ll use that same stem to form the pluperfect and future perfect, further on down the line.

Teachers may often feel like they are nagging their students to study vocabulary when we reach the perfect tense, but it really does help. For this lesson we’ll add in a list of the verbs we’re using, but you may want to go to the above link to the vocabulary list and scroll down to study a whole bunch of verbs at once.

Also, the 3rd person singular and 1st person plural of some verbs are identical in present and perfect tenses when written without macrons, as most texts are. For example, venit can mean he comes, or he came; edimus = we eat, we ate. The imperative singular and the 1st person singular perfect of some verbs are identical when written without macrons; Veni can mean either “Come!” or “I came.” Fortunately this doesn’t happen too often and context will solve most issues.

In case this wasn’t enough of a grammar explanation for you, there is more here.

Practice
Those are probably enough sentences to start with. Until next lesson on the perfect tense, valēte!