Latin/Verbs Present Tense Lesson 1

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Conjugation of Latin verbs
(Skip to the sentences if you hate grammar or just want to try some real Latin!) This lesson we will begin more systematic study of the Latin system for verb conjugations. So far we have learned just enough verbs to make some interesting sentences. You have probably picked up the fact that verbs change their endings to reflect the person or persons doing the action. These endings are called the “personal endings” because they communicate person (and number too). In this way a subject pronoun can be included in the verb itself, without having to use the extra word:

Both mean “I love,” whether the 1st person pronoun ego is used or not. In practice Latin tends not to use a separate subject pronoun unless there is a need for emphasis or possible confusion. So if the sentence contains no separately expressed subject noun or pronoun, look at the verb and use the included subject pronoun indicated by the verb ending. For the present tense, the personal endings and their pronouns are:

First conjugation
There are 4 conjugations of verbs in Latin. A conjugation is a classification or family grouping of verbs with similar forms, much as Latin nouns are grouped into declensions. Memorize the basic rules that apply to all verbs, then the ones that are specific to that conjugation. Make sure to memorize the conjugation that a verb belongs to when you learn that vocabulary word, and apply the rules consistently. It sounds simple, but verbs can be very complex. It should be easier for you to learn similar words together, so this lesson will focus only on the 1st conjugation verbs, and we’ll get used to them before adding the other conjugations with their slightly different patterns. We already have used a few 1st conjugation verbs in previous lessons:

The 1st conjugation is characterized by the letter A used as a combining vowel in most forms. There are four “principal parts” for a verb, and the a is present in the 2nd principal part, known as the infinitive. The majority of 1st conjugation verbs form their 4 principal parts like amō: amō, amāre, amāvī, amātus.

The dictionary convention is to list such a typical 1st conjugation verb as "amō, 1” but if the principal parts do NOT follow the pattern ō, āre, āvī, ātus the dictionary will write them out like dō, dare, dedī, datus 1. (For now, we only need to be concerned with the 1st and 2nd principal parts. Any verb with a 2nd p.p. ending in –āre is a 1st conjugation verb). Here’s how the verb amō would look when combined with the personal endings we reviewed above:

You’ll notice that the 1st person singular does not have the characteristic A; the O ending is dominant and takes over. But otherwise the 1st conjugation is quite straightforward. If you know any of the Romance languages descended from Latin you will most likely have no problem mastering the endings, and the vocabulary. In addition to the verbs that we’ve already used at least a few times in previous lessons, let’s add the following new 1st conjugation verbs:

Practice
Next week, we’ll look at 2nd conjugation verbs and add them to the mix. Vōbīs grātiās agō et habeātis bonam fortūnam!