secunda schola: verbi
The word verb comes from the Latin verbum-word. The verb can be considered the most important part of a Latin sentence. For this reason we will be studying a part of it first.
Conjugation (coniugare-join together) Latin conjugation is pretty regular especially with the first two conjugations. There are four in all plus irregulars. To conjugate a verb in English you would add a pronoun to it and possibly change the verb itself in one or two persons.
So it ends up looking like this: (I'll use the verb praise.)
Singular Plural
1st I praise We praise2nd You praise Y'all praise3rd S/he/it praises They praise Because of this, using just the verb makes it impossible to know who did the action because the verb itself remains the same most of the time. In Latin, the pronoun is added to the end of the verb and is called a personal ending.
They are:
Singular Plural
1st -o/-m -mus 2nd -s -tis 3rd -t -nt Present Each verb has four principle parts. Take these model verbs for example:
laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatum-to praise and
moneo, monere, monui, monitum-to warn. The infinitive of the first and second conjugations are
laudare and
monere. The first ending,
-are defines a verb as being in the first conjugation and the second ending,
-ere, defines a verb as being in the second. The infinitive form, unlike many languages, is not always in the dictionary. The first person singular is always there, which for these two verbs are
laudo and
moneo then will have a number to tell you which conjugation the verb is in. Some dictionaries with give you all four parts. I currently do not know what the other two parts are, but when I find out I will add them to the lesson I learn them in.
To change the infinitive to the imperative or indicative forms, you drop the
-re and you have the imperative, then add the personal ending for an indicative form. When talking to more than one person with the imperative form you add
-te.
lauda-praise (one person)
laudate-praise (more than one person)
mone-advise (one person)
monete-advise (more than one person)
The Latin present indicative form can be translated into all forms of an English verbs, meaning simple, progressive, and emphatic forms. So translating these two verbs into English could look like:
laudare-to praise
Singular laudo-I praise, I am praising, I do praise
laudas-You praise, you are praising, you do praise
laudat-he praise, she is praising, it does praise
Plural laudamus-We praise, we are praising, we do praise
laudatis-Y'all praise, y'all are praising, y'all do praise
laudant-They praise, they are praising, they do praise
monere-to advise
Singular moneo-I advise, I am advising, I do advise
mones-You advise, you are advising, you do advise
monet-he advises, she is advising, it does advise
Plural monemus-We advise, we are advising, we do advise
monetis-Y'all advise, y'all are advising, y'all do advise
monent-They advise, they are advising, they do advise
One last example:
amare-to love
Singularama-love (commanding one person to love)
amo-I love
amas-You love
amat-S/he/it loves
Pluralamate-love (commanding more than one person to love)
amamus-We love
amatis-Y'all love
amant-They love
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