Verbs – English Grammar / Latin Verbs

DIES III – SEPTEMBER XIV (Cont’d)

This is taking me a little longer to backdate all my notes, and for that I apologize. My hope is to catch up to the point where I am posting the same evening after the class.

So to continue with the third day of class we started with some English grammar before moving on to Latin verbs.

5 Parts of a Verb
1) Person
· 1st (I, we)
· 2nd (you)
· 3rd (he, she, it, they)

2) Number
· Singular
· Plural

3) Tense
· Present Tense (I call)
    ·simple present (I call)
    ·progressive present (I am calling)
    ·emphatic present (I do call)
· Past Tense (I called)
· Future Tense (I shall call)

4) Mood
· Indicative (I call)
· Imperative (call)
· Infinitive (to call)

5) Voice
· Active (he calls)
· Passive (he is called)

English and Latin Differences
1) English uses pronouns (I, we, you, he, she, it, they), Latin does not.
2) Endings of a word are different in Latin
3) In Latin there is a clear difference between ‘you’ singular and ‘you’ plural

In Latin there are 4 conjunctions, and to date we have only learned the first two. In order to demonstrate the first to conjunctions we were taught the words laudare (to praise) and monere (to advise).

When you want to say something like I praise the word looks like this – laudo.
For we praise – laudamus
They praise – laudant

As you can see, there are no pronouns (I, we, they) in the above examples and the endings of each word are different. You (singular) praise and you (plural) praise would look like this – laudas and laudatis.

Now the whole you singular and you plural thing was never really explained to me. In English the word is just you and very rarely do you have to explain which number you are referring to. In French, you also have two forms, tu for you singular and vous for you plural, which when I first learned them, I never really understood why there were two forms. It wasn’t until the third day of Latin class, some 11 years after taking French that the different forms of you finally made sense. You singular would be me address just one person – you can learn from my Latin blog. You plural would refer to me addressing a whole audience – you all can learn from my Latin blog. I’m a little embarrassed that it took me that long to figure it out. But I digress, back to Latin verbs.

The full breakdown of laudare to praise, which is in the 1st conjunction, would look like this:

PERSON	SINGULAR		PLURAL
1st person	laudo	I praise	laudamus	we praise
2nd person	laudas	you praise	laudatis	you praise
3rd person	laudat	he/she/it praises	laudant	they praise

Monere to advise is in the 2nd conjunction and looks like this:

PERSON	SINGULAR		PLURAL
1st person	moneo	I advise	monemus	we advise
2nd person	mones	you advise	monetis	you advise
3rd person	monet	he/she/it advises	monent	they advise

In Latin vocabulary Latin words are always listed with the I form and the to form of the word. For example the word praise would be listed as laudo, laudare. Whereas advise would look like moneo, monere.

I’m led to believe that most Latin verbs follow the first 2 conjunctions, so in order properly create the endings all you need to do is follow these three simple steps:

1) Find the Conjunction
1st conjunction verbs typically end in are in their to form and o in their I form. For example:
laudo, laudare
servo, servare (I save, to save)

Where 2nd conjunction verbs end in ere and eo respectively:
moneo, monere
video, videre (I see, to see)

2) Find the Stem
In 1st conjunction the stem is –a
Example: lauda-, serva-

2nd conjunstion is -e
Example: mone-, vide-

3) Add the personal ending

PERSON	SINGULAR	PLURAL
1st person	-o*	-mus
2nd person	-s	-tis
3rd person	-t	-nt

*Note: In the 1st conjunction the vowel (-a) is dropped for the personal ending. Hence lauda- becomes laudo.

Next post will be the fourth day of class where we discussed imperatives further and dived into the world of small talk, yup, the weather. Until next time VALE!